Robert DeLaurentis has been a professional television writer and producer for over twenty years on series— including The OC, Umbrella Academy, Alien, and Fargo— where he won a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for an Emmy. He lives in Santa Monica California with his wife Susan, and is joined on weekends by their daughter’s dog Elroy.
Q&A with the Author
What was the inspiration behind The Boy from Mars?
For many years, I’ve been interested in the problem of climate change. But it never occurred to me to write about it, as it’s so serious, complicated, and in many ways, depressing to consider. One of the few authors to pull it off was the Pulitzer Prize winning naturalist E.O. Wilson, who wrote an incredible book called The Future of Life. Brilliant and informed, it was an eloquent plea to protect the environment, and became the foundation of everything I know about the subject. Around the same time, I became a fan of the long-running British tv series, Dr. Who. Its protagonist was an extraterrestrial adventurer who time travels through the universe trying to save civilization. As a tv writer myself, I particularly appreciated the way in which it tackled serious problems in a way that was humorous, romantic, and even poignant. After many years working in tv, where the time limitations were strict, the idea of writing an epic story appealed to me. In the immediate aftermath of The OC, I took some time off to consider my next project, and for some reason Wilson’s book and the Dr. Who series came together in the strange way that ideas often coalesce in a writer’s imagination. The idea of doing a sci-fi epic with a young protagonist, set against the backdrop of the global warming, completely consumed me. Over the next several years, between my work on various tv series, I wrote The Boy from Mars trilogy. Living in the world of my characters for so long has truly been my own sci-fi adventure.
Who is your favorite author?
Such a difficult question. There are so many writers I’ve loved over so many years that it’s impossible to narrow it down to one. In fact, I couldn’t do it. But there are two authors who come to mind immediately at this time in my life: Jennifer Egan and David Mitchell. Gifted and visionary story-tellers, they’re able to lead the reader on a journey into other dimensions. While not technically sci-fi writers, they often give us an incredible glimpse of the future.
If your style of writing were a music genre, what would it be?
My father was a professional musician, so music has always been an important part of my life growing up. While I’ve come to love various kinds of music over the years, I’m never drawn to a single genre. Invariably, it’s a mash up of different styles, genre bonding instead of genre bending. With that criteria in mind, Indie and Alternative rock fill the bill perfectly.
This originally appeared in Rare Bird’s January 2024 newsletter, The Bird Is The Word