While other children dreamt of digging a hole to the other side of the world, James Morgan wanted to climb to the moon.

The network programmer’s world with two suns, seven moons and two central characters lived inside his head for 40 years.

He’s now sharing it with the world.

A short story from The Lizard Hunters, a series of books Mr Morgan hopes to begin publishing this year, is part of The Stories We Tell, an anthology of speculative fiction featuring Bermuda writers.

“I’ve got a set of characters and a world that they live in that I’ve been playing with since I was about 12,” the 55-year-old told Lifestyle.

“I have about two-and-a-half books written in the series right now and am just going through re-editing.”

Two years ago, the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs invited Bermudians and Bermuda residents to submit unpublished works of fantasy, science fiction, horror and related genres to be considered for the anthology. Mr Morgan jumped at the chance.

The Lizard Hunters’s main characters are brothers, aged 13 and 11, who live on an “earthlike” planet.

“They’re climbing a tower and the tower apparently reaches up to one of the moons on their world,” the author said.

“Obviously a tower can’t be that tall, especially one this thin that’s apparently made of stone, so there’s a lot of imagination in it.

“On my way to school and back everyday, I’d imagine what these people were doing. I started putting it into writing about 20 years ago, but it’s been on and off and in the last few years, I thought I’d try better.”

Mr Morgan was raised in the US where his American father had a job designing weapons.

But he said he always felt called back to Bermuda, where his mother Dolores Taylor was from. They’d spend summers at Evans Bay in Southampton, chasing lizards with her family.

Mr Morgan drew on that experience for his book.

“In the beginning of book one, the two main characters are fairly small children,” the author said.

“They live in a stone-age society and their job is to hunt down rainbow lizards because they not only eat the meat, but their family makes clothing out of the skins of the lizards which are really beautiful.

“That was my way of staying connected to Bermuda when I was away.”

Mr Morgan has been back on the island for ten years, working for the Bermuda Government.

Although his books were written for young adults he hopes they will appeal to all ages.

The Stories We Tell will launch at the Bermuda National Gallery on May 18.

• Readings begin at 6pm. For more information call 292-1681 or visit www.communityandculture.bm