Author Q&A For The Grid: Fall of Justice
Spoiler Alert!
This article contains some spoilers for The Grid Trilogy 1: Fall of Justice – you have been warned!
Q: First things first, where did you get the idea for this book?
A: I needed an idea to pitch to a competition called ‘The Big Idea‘.
I was writing The Secret Bunker Trilogy at the time, and I'd been using The Simulation Area for the military tests in that book.
The Simulation Area was a bit like Star Trek's Hollow Deck, in that you could use it to render artificial environments which appeared real to the people inside.
They're both huge, virtual reality hangars.
In The Secret Bunker Trilogy they're used for military simulations, in The Grid it's used to enforce a justice system.
Q: What made you start writing the trilogy?
A: After writing The Secret Bunker series, I discovered that I like writing in trilogies.
It feels like a really natural pattern to tell a story, with each book escalating the action and increasing the peril.
For The Secret Bunker, the trilogy journey was:
1: There's one bunker
2: There are more bunkers
3: Something is going on in space
For The Grid, the trilogy journey was:
1: The threat of The Grid
2: Being inside The Grid
3: There's more than The Grid and it's a bigger threat
Q: How do you go about your writing?
A: I write 5000 words per writing session and that takes me 5-6 hours.
That's stream of consciousness writing, I love the creativity, it's the checking process that I dislike!
For some reason, I appear to have fallen into a pattern
I write the books April-November, then spend December-March re-writing the books and preparing them for self publication.
I write to a timetable and schedule my writing days.
I sit there until the work's done, for me, this is the best way to get the books written.
Q: Who designed the cover?
A: The cover was designed by Christian Bentulan.
I'd been looking at his covers on Facebook for some time and wanted to take his work out for a spin on this trilogy.
I'm really pleased with the results:
You can see more of Christian's work via these links:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/coversbychristian/
Website https://www.coversbychristian.com/
Q: Why did you choose to self-publish again?
A: I do send the books to agents, publishers and competitions, but I just can't get over those 70% commissions for indie authors.
I certainly want to get a book traditionally published in the future, but at the moment, self publishing has allowed me to get a body of work ‘out there' within a reasonably short timeframe.
I also see writing as a journey.
I'm improving all the time, learning tips and tricks and getting better at the craft.
Q: What are the highlights for you in book 1?
A: The body count is really high in this trilogy!
There were very few deaths in The Secret Bunker Trilogy, but in this series of books, main characters drop like flies.
Harry's death is supposed to be very sad and Zach's death was used as an end-of-book shocker.
Poor old Jay gets it too in the first pages of the book, though we do find out more about his story later on.
I wanted to ramp up the action in this trilogy and make the stakes immediately higher.
Q: Can you give us a sneak preview of what happens in book 2, Quest for Vengeance?
A: Book 2 is almost entirely set inside The Grid.
It's a pretty scary place.
Joe and Lucy now have to fight for their lives while everybody else is running around outside, in The Climbs and in The City.
You'll find out a lot more about Damien Hunter and Josh Delman in this story too – and meet a brand new character who adds to the intrigue.