If newly elected West Surrey councillor Sally Dickson needs an escape from the pressures of local politics, she heads to a distant planetary empire of cyborgs, swishing blades and space battles.

Sally Dickson, who writes under the pen name Sally Ann Melia, has published the first five books in Dodecahedral, a six-book young adult sci-fi series with Earth as the capital of a 12-planet empire.

The series begins on the 16th birthday of Guy Erme, an orphan and extraordinary fighter. This is swiftly followed by the kidnap of Prince Teodor, the last surviving male heir to Earth’s throne, just before his own 16th birthday.

From there, it becomes a fast-paced action adventure filled with developing friendships, political intrigue and interplanetary conflict.

“More like Star Wars than The Martian,” said Ms Dickson, a digital marketing manager who was elected last week to represent North Farnham on the new West Surrey unitary authority and also serves as a town councillor.

The books grew from Sally’s interest in “bravery, trust, loyalty and friendship”.

“You put your characters into extraordinary situations and explore what they do,” she said.

Will Teodor escape? When Guy witnesses something he was not supposed to see, what will he do? Sally has clearly enjoyed putting her characters through their paces to see how they react under pressure.

As well as Guy and Teodor, there is huge pressure on Teodor’s mother Sayginn, regent since her husband’s death. When Teodor is kidnapped, Sayginn must continue to rule while also visiting children injured in the attack on her son.

It is a different type of pressure, but how does Sally manage to write while also being a councillor and marketing manager?

“It’s my relaxation,” she said. “It gives me something else to focus on. I write whenever I have free time.”

Sally writes longhand, which means she can scribble away in short gaps between meetings or in a spare five minutes.

“I’m a terrible typist,” she confessed. “I dictate it into my phone, and I have an app which can send it off to be typed up. I send five minutes of speech at a time, and the transcribers are very talented. It comes back with much better grammar!”

One of the times Sally writes is when she and the rest of her group, the Hogs Back Writers, meet for writing days, also known as ‘jellies’ after the jelly one member always makes for the shared lunches.

The group also holds critique meetings, where members comment on each other’s writing, and topic meetings where they discuss subjects related to their craft.

Sally has become an expert on independent publishing and creating audiobooks, and has eight titles available on Audible.

Four are novels about alien invasion – her first published series – and four are from the Dodecahedral series, narrated by actor and musician Lazarus Tate.

“He has a mesmerising voice,” Sally said.

There are plans for him to narrate the fifth and sixth books, with the final instalment due to be published later this year.

She also writes about writing under her real name and has published two books, Write Yourself Happy and Write Yourself Happy – Prompts for Memoirs.

Sally’s books are available on Amazon and through her website, Sally Ann Melia