WRITER Tim Major is hoping for a successful future after completing his first full-length science fiction novel.

The father-of-two is celebrating the publication of time travel thriller You Don't Belong Here, which is set in Oxford and Cumbria.

Mr Major, 36, lives in East Oxford with wife Rose Parkin and sons Joe, three, and Arthur, six weeks.

He said the novel, published by Haddenham-based Snowbooks, is out now and would be officially launched at a fantasy convention in Scarborough later this month.

The story features a man who hides out in a time machine in a Cumbrian manor house hoping to change the mistakes of his past.

Mr Major, a former director of online resources for publishers Scholastic, said: "It took me about six months to write my first full-length novel.

"Rose, who is an editor for an educational publisher, read an early draft and gave me some very useful feedback.

"The story is mostly set in Cumbria, where I come from, but there are also scenes at a science park in Oxford – you write about what you know."

Mr Major, who also edits a Sci-Fi magazine, said he was appearing on a panel at Fantasycon in Scarborough discussing how to build a time machine.

He added: "If I could time travel I wouldn't go back in time. I would go forward to make new discoveries.

"If I could change anything from my past I would have gone freelance sooner to balance my writing with time with the family. That seems to be working well."

Mr Major's next novel will be about people who spontaneously produce clones.

You Don't Belong Here is on sale on amazon and in bookshops price £8.99.

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