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Distant Ties had it's origins back in the late 1970's. I was in high school, and had recently discovered the original Star Trek television show on reruns. I would come home from school and watch Star Trek every day. It didn't take long before I'd seen every episode, and wanted more. My mother took notice of my interest and one day picked up a used Star Trek book and a book called A World Out Of Time by Larry Niven. The Star Trek book stunk, but the Niven novel really hooked me. As I read more Niven, with wonderfully original aliens, I started thinking of writing my own Star Trek stories with non-humanoid aliens. At the same time, my interest in reptiles was also taking off. Thus, Poc Tec and Samot were born.
I never sat down and wrote a Star Trek story with Poc and Samot, but the characters stayed in my mind for years. Finally, a seed of an idea crept into my mind about a totally original novel which included them. A college paper I wrote about space colonization and manufacturing lead me to utilizing an O'Neil space colony for the perfect setting to the story. In the 1980's, I started Distant Ties. Poc Tec changed little over the years, but Samot did. Thanks to a book by paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, I reinvisioned Samot as an endothermic dinosaur, instead of an upright walking iguana. Not too long after, as I put serious effort into writing Distant Ties, a book, followed by a movie came out, called Jurassic Park. I was both thrilled and disappointed. I loved seeing the dinosaurs realistically brought to life, but felt cheated out of being the first novelist (as far as I knew, anyway) to deal with dinosaurs as warm-blooded. Despite this, I continued writing.
I finished Distant Ties in the mid 1990's, but wasn't sure if the writing quality was up to snuff. I looked around to find some unbiased person to review it and tell me if I was doing anything wrong. It took a while, but I found a writer's critique group and joined. Best move I ever made. I learned more from them than any high school or college class. It took years for the novel to get through the group, but in the end it was well worth the wait. The book finally completed, I then took on the task of submitting Distant Ties to publishers and agents. After many rejection letters and failed agents, Distant Ties was finally published in 2000.
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