On the planet Acheron, the descendants of banished criminals from Earth are prepared to wage a pointless war on their former planet in a bid to return - with disasterous consequences.
Meanwhile author, scientist, artist and single mother Claire Fletcher finally manages to prove having a book published is not actually science fiction - in fact quite the reverse.
Her first novel Acheron, a dark fantasy where cruel women rule an outcast community on another planet has been accepted by Publish America, a publishing house that still has high standards for all new manuscripts, but that cuts the cost of publishing by only printing to demand.
"They give you a website, an automatic ability to sell through Amazon and Tesco.com, and rely on authors to do all the marketing and publicity," explains Claire.
"It's just lovely to see my book in print," she admits. "But it's a lot of hard work to get to this stage."
The 26-year-old former Denbigh pupil actually put down the bare bones of the novel when she was a student at Warwick University - where she still managed to get a first in physics.
"It was like a daydream that went on a for a long time. I would write it while I was working in my summer holiday, odd moments when I was travelling and I thought of something. I would just scribble it down and write it out when I had an opportunity.
"I was working on it for such a long time that Acheron is actually quite a long book!"
Claire now works at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry as radiotherapy physicist and lives with her two-year-old daughter Lexxie in Keresley.
"When I was at school, I loved the creative subjects, but decided to study the more mathematic-based science subjects and to then go on and study them at university.
"That meant if I wanted to keep up the artistic side of things I would have to make an effort and do it my own time. I'm always painting and I'm working on illustrations for a book at the moment."
In fact Claire painted the design that has been used for the front cover of Acheron.
Coincidentally, her father Richard Fletcher, an MK-based management and training development consultant, is about to have his book published with the same publishing house.
Called Where you go I will Follow, it is on a subject Richard has had flying round his head for years.
"We really encouraged each other," Claire tells Style.
"We used to send each other chapters and read them, sending on constructive criticism. It was really helpful."
Claire sent her finished manuscript to a number of publishers to no avail - then she heard about Publish America and sent it off to them.
"They still don't accept just anything - the manuscripts still have to go through a rigourous selection process, but because there isn't so much outlay and they only print to demand, they can take on more books, I guess," Claire told me.
And the rest of the family? Any book deals, we wonder?
"No, my mum Susan is a maths teacher at Denbigh and my younger sister Michelle is studying to be a doctor and is just about to sit her finals."
Quite an accomplished family - we think you will agree.
To read Claire's unusual novel, go to www.publishedauthors.net/clairefletcher and click the link to visit dad Richard's website.

How do you do it.

To self-publish, it's advised you do some research to find a company that suits you. Claire tried www.publishamerica.com