The Countdown - 10 Facts
Writing The Countdown series was a weird journey. So, I figured the first blog with actual substance would just be a few facts and tidbits about the series.
The Countdown was inspired by a trip to the DMV. I was in a large waiting area with a huge screen in front of me that was calling off numbers and the window they should report to. Nobody is happy at the DMV. So, of course, everyone was doing everything possible to distract themselves from dealing with the unrelenting bureaucracy. Most people were looking at phones, some were looking at magazines or books. I was looking around the room while I let my mind wander. A loud chime rang out through the waiting area which caught my attention. The large screen in front of me had changed. 26 seconds was on the screen, and it was counting down. My mind wasn’t wandering anymore, I was staring at this screen and hoping this wasn’t a bomb or something. Another chime rang out and now I’m glancing around at the other people waiting at the DMV and I notice that most of them are looking up at this ticking clock in front of us. Nobody said a word. With 10 seconds left, I found myself leaning forward in my chair. Five seconds and everyone is watching and waiting. Four, three, two, one, and another chime dings through the waiting area. The screen returns to calling numbers like nothing happened. Everyone awkwardly glances at each other. Most people return to their phones, but I sat there and got the idea for the first book in the series.
What was that screen counting down to? No clue. Maybe I was unwittingly part of a strange social experiment run by the DMV. Whatever it was, it had my full attention and I thought that was pretty cool.I rewrote The Countdown twice. It was my first novel, and my editing process was so god awful. I deleted things and then replaced things. I moved chapters around. I copy-pasted from previous versions into my working version. I don’t know what I was thinking. I sort of went into it without a plan of attack, so I sort of just went crazy on everything. I would spend hours revamping certain parts and then deleting them later. It was a total disaster. I eventually got to a point where I just lost track of everything and was literally so lost, it was easier to just restart rather than to try and fix the absolute mess I had created. My second run-through had 48 different versions. Yeah, I had a lot of problems. However, 3rd time was a charm. I was much more organized at that point, and I edited carefully.
I had planned for the story to be a trilogy the entire time. It wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment type of decision. I had actually had a rough outline for a three-book series.
There are 80 instances of profanity in The Countdown.
There are 141 instances of profanity in …Connecting. Given what happens in this book, I feel like it’s justified.
There are only 46 instances of profanity in Parity Files. Given what happens in this book, that’s kind of shocking.Connecting… was written specifically with the thought that I would not avoid emotional interactions. I honestly felt that it was a weakness in my writing in the first book, and I tried to avoid it. There was no avoiding it in Connecting… I purposely wrote it to have very hard conversations. It fit my three-book outline. Connecting… was supposed to be the most emotionally heavy book in the series.
The character Asil in Connecting… was originally named Vasil and she was a man. If you’ve read Connecting… then you know how much of a change this was. I actually decided to make this change during my 3rd edit. My editing was much more structured for Connecting…, but that was a difficult change. I would do it again because I think it was important for the story.
I always knew Parity Files was going to be longer than the other two books in the series, but I underestimated how much longer. I hadn’t really been watching my word count, and when I got to the end, I did a double-take at the number.
Tyler is sort of a mixture of several different hockey people I’ve met throughout my years playing. The inspiration for the bulk of his personality comes from a very good friend I met through hockey and he’s actually a goalie. Which shouldn’t surprise you. Goalies are wonderful, but crazy, and strange people.
I did a lot of research on artificial intelligence and the way the human brain works before I started writing this series. I got a lot of great information from Sam Harris. He’s a neuroscientist and philosopher and he is much smarter than me. I would highly recommend checking out some of his lectures. He discusses some really interesting things.
The ending to the entire series was a constant while I was writing. A lot changed in the middle, but the ending was always going to be what it is, and it never changed.
