For orphaned teen Jonah Lincoln, the move to Thetis is a chance to reinvent himself, to be strong and independent and brave, the way he could never be on Earth. But his dreams go up in smoke when their ship crash-lands, killing half the passengers and leaving the rest stranded—not on Thetis, but on its cruel and unpopulated moon, Achilles.

Between its bloodthirsty alien life forms and its distance from their intended location, Achilles is a harrowing landing place. When all of the adult survivors suddenly disappear, leaving the teenage passengers to fend for themselves, Jonah doubts they’ll survive at all, much less reach Thetis—especially when it appears Achilles isn’t as uninhabited as they were led to believe.

If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why?

If could have been the original author of any book, it would have to be The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. My first love is satire and my second would be science fiction, so to be able to put them together so deftly and creatively would be a badge of honor. Douglas Adams got to not only got to put humanity under a microscope through Ford Prefect’s alien eyes and then answer the ultimate question of life, but he also reminded us of the importance of carrying a towel.

What makes this particular genre you are involved in so special?

I write dystopian young adult novels because they’re honestly fun to work on. I not only get to try to predict the future—like in my last book, Achilles: The Deep Sky Saga—but I also get to reflect on the past. What did 15-year-old me want to read? I wanted to be a quiet hero, if only given the chance. So, with the main character, Jonah, in Achilles, I throw this introverted kid into an extremely chaotic situation where he has to react, or else people die. A lot of us have dreams of great heroics in a world gone wrong, and that’s why we keep reading the stuff. But what makes the dystopian young adult genre so special--or young adult fiction, in general--are the readers. They’re passionate, curious and hungry for more. If you’ve ever seen a popular young adult reader speak, you’ve also seen chairs packed with excited readers who probably know more about the book’s characters than the author does her or himself.

How important is research to you when writing a book?

When I started writing Achilles, I was absolutely terrified a reader would call out obvious mistakes in the science or in the details of the world I built. So, in an attempt to thwart that, I met with the head of the astrophysics department at USC and peppered him with questions about black holes and space travel and other things I didn’t know enough about. I also interviewed a NASA employee about the effects of different gravities, and then I met with a systems director in the Civil and Commercial Launch Projects group at Aerospace to discuss space crafts. One of my favorite moments when conducting all this research was being invited to watch a Mars rover launch from the Aerospace control room. I think research is terribly important. It not only helps you follow the rules of science and law, but it also helps you figure out the best way to bend these rules and make them your own. The best fiction is rooted in fact, I think.

What works best for you: Typewriters, fountain pen, dictate, computer or longhand?

When I started writing creatively, I became one of those guys always carrying a moleskine notebook and a pen, even after getting a smartphone. Note-taking apps are fine, but it takes too long to open them and get a new note ready. My ideas are fleeting and fast, so I need to get them scrawled out as soon as I can. My process from the past five years: Brainstorm in notebooks in the evening, write on a computer in the morning. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

When did it dawn upon you that you wanted to be a writer?/What inspires you to write?

I’ve never taken myself too seriously, and so in high school I would write snappy answers to boring questions from our teachers, making other kids laugh and the teacher shaking his or her head. Having something I came up with that made people laugh made me feel pretty good about myself, and so I started writing goofy short stories and funny lists, always chasing that high.

It wasn’t until my Freshman year in college when my neighbor’s face showed up in the school newspaper with his own column, did I think that maybe more people would enjoy my stupid ideas. So, I submitted a few essays, and soon enough I had my own editorial column every two weeks, and that’s when I really caught the bug. From that time on, I have constantly been writing and brainstorming and trying out new ideas and finding my voice. I’m an extremely competitive person, so I get inspired by other writers, from the past and present, constantly trying to get on their level. I have a quiet need to be recognized as someone who works hard and gives it everything he’s got, so that keeps me pecking away on the keyboard.