AMHERST, N.S. – Some people spend years piecing together the perfect novel, while others have a novel appear fully formed in their head.
Amherst’s Matt Cove belongs to the latter camp.
“Funny enough, the story played out in my mind when I was 18-years-old,” Cove, who is now 34-years-old, said. “One day the whole thing played out almost like a movie inside my head.”
The story played out while he was with friends in Tidnish and he wrote an outline to the story in a Hilroy scribbler.
He never revisited the story until 12 years later at the age of 30.
“What got me to start doing the work is that I was haunted by this story. I kept waking up in the middle of the night thinking about this idea,” Cove said. “I figured this is something I shouldn’t ignore anymore, so I buckled down and started doing it.”
Cove searched for his old Hilroy scribbler but couldn’t find it.
“It didn’t bother me when I couldn’t find it because I still had most of the idea in my head.”
Arcterra, a science fiction novel, takes place on the planet Arcterra around the year 2170.
It follows the adventures of Makiao who was raised in an orphanage that supplies soldiers to the military.
His mother died while giving birth to Makiao and his father is presumed dead, but Makiao believes his father is still alive.
On his 18th birthday, Makiao is set to be deployed on his first assignment but two days before his birthday he escapes the orphanage and meets a group of friends who are willing to help him find his father.
“It’s an action-adventure novel. You could have this same story in a non-space, non-future setting and it would be similar,” Cove said.
Cove grew up drawing and sketching and never considered himself a writer.
“Oddly enough, I never enjoyed writing in school but this process of writing down what’s created in my head, I enjoyed that.”
Drawing, sketching and painting runs in his family.
“My mom is a very skilled artist and her father, my grandfather, was an amazing artist.”
Cove originally conceived Arcterra as an animated series.
“Books have never really been my thing, but I’ve been interested in animation for most of my life. Even as an adult I enjoy animated films and TV shows,” Cove said.
He worked on the animated series for about two years, writing out the plot points for each episode and writing a pilot script for the first episode.
Unable to find a producer for Arcterra, Cove decided to turn his series into a novel.
“It took me eight months to go from the description I had for the first season, which is 13 descriptive episodes, and turn it into a novel,” Cove said. “I did find that when it came to the book I had to be more creative because when you create a novel you’re creating the whole world and the people in the world.”
His fiancé and his mom helped edit the novel, and then Cove sent the story to Tellwell, a publishing company in B.C., and they printed 500 copies.
Arcterra is the first of a seven books Cove has mapped out. He is currently working on the second novel and hopes to have it published by December of 2020.
“The novels aren’t very long, so I might combine two together,” he said.
Arcterra offers insight into how humans interact with each other and with society, but Cove says the main purpose of the novel is to entertain.
“It is an adventure, so I want people to read it and be entertained and escape reality for a little bit.”
Arcterra is available on Facebook at Matt Cove or Matt Cove Art, and also at the Amherst Coles bookstore, Crystal Bliss Café in Dayle’s Market, and on Amazon. It is also available as an e-book.