ZZ Adams's Blog, page 3

Not a podcast rides again! Episode 6

We had a great time recording our recent discussion with what we think is probably the greatest group of humans ever assembled. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion! We had a few minor technical difficulties at the beginning, and as usual there is no editing on this, so you get it warts and all, but after getting those sorted, we moved on quickly to a range of book-related topics. For those of you who love reading and science fiction and enjoy listening to casual long-form discussions, I think you’ll enjoy this one. If you do, please let us know by sending us an email!

https://anchor.fm/zz-adams/embed/episodes/Author-Questions-e1eaifd

ZZ Adams: Not a Podcast 6: Author Questions

https://anchor.fm/s/3e22a52c/podcast/play/47581101/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2022-1-12%2Fc546090c-3600-a071-8a8a-1c8a1d86e3cc.mp3

ZZ Adams get to interrogate Andrew and Damian on this 2 hour special, fun filled episode.

Book 7 Incursion is complete!

A big week for us as we’ve released the penultimate book of the Zero-Point Awakening series. But more about that below!

Well, Damian can hear again, so that’s all done with. He’s now grafting alongside the long-suffering Andrew to get the first draft of book eight ready. It seems like an enormous job from this end of the plank, and to be fair, it really is. But we’re going to do it and get it out in time for you.

Other than that, Damian has been daydreaming about finally moving to Ireland. And both Andrew and Damian have been looking at guitars. Andrew might even build one! (with the emphasis on might)

We think when we actually can get out and go to conventions and stuff like that, we’ll have to take some travel guitars with us. 

We’ve been talking about the future quite a lot over the last week, and there’s certainly no shortage of books we want to write. So we’ll be moving on to some new projects soon, and we’ll be publishing them more quickly than you might imagine.

For anyone who would like to talk to us or get the inside scoop on what we are doing or any of the books, you can catch us pretty much any time on our discord server (). We are putting up more information there and having some great discussions, so join in! If you are not on discord but would like to catch up we also have a . Come along and say hi!

Hope you have an amazing week!

– Damian and Andrew (ZZ Adams)

Beachhead is Officially Done!

It’s official. Huge thanks to our wonderful First Readers team for your help at super short notice! The book is now ready to go out. It goes live on December 2nd, so make sure you have pre-ordered your copy. If you haven’t, go and do that now. You can pre-order it here through our affiliate link.

This is the turning point for the series. Get ready for things to turn deep and dark! You’ll be so on the edge of your seat, there will be a line across your arse. Now if that doesn’t make you want to read this, we just don’t know what to say.

Project Updates

We have a lot going on so we thought we should track it. Here are the main projects that are in flight right now:

Beachhead Progress

Currently out with the Street Team/First Readers

Beachhead: Zero Point Awakening Book 6

99%Incursion Progress

Writing first draft

Incursion: Zero Point Awakening Book 7

17%Peanuts & Promises

Writing first draft

Peanuts & Promises – Prequel story

70%

Super Time Tokyo Zombie Party

Writing first draft

10%Mindstorm Project (Book 2)

Writing first draft

Book 2 of His Storm Blows Out the Light

90%Want to find out more about our books?Check out the ZPA reading order

ZZ Adams: Not a Podcast 5: Writer Chat

https://anchor.fm/s/3e22a52c/podcast/play/43164724/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-10-11%2F315e4a32-ad6b-8737-121c-34bc86073cdc.mp3

Four writers chatting about random things. What else did you expect?

You won’t believe which ZPA character fans like the best

In our weekly newsletter we run a lot of surveys. Last week we asked you which ZPA characters you liked the best. We thought we would share the results with you but also some of our thoughts on these characters from our perspective. Enjoy!

What our readers said about the ZPA characters… poor Sami

Elliot

Damian: Elliot is where ZPA started for me. I really had no idea what I’d write until I saw the blank first page. And Elliot ending on top of the tower at Magdalen college was the first thing that came to my mind. I like Elliot because his prime moral motivation is justice, he just doesn’t start out with the wisdom to be able to be fair.

Andrew: Elliot is like a ton of TNT with a lit fuse, except that the TNT is a teenager with a sword. Elliot is searching for his place in the world and trying to come to terms with his past. He’s looking for a family, for something to hold on to. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) he runs into Arthur. Damian writes all the first drafts of Elliot, but I enjoy adding to him during the writing process.

Arthur

Damian: I liked Arthur from the start. He is such a real person, living it a screwed up situation. The first scene that really drew me into him was where he drunkenly phoned his ex-wife to try and sort things out.

Andrew: Arthur is the first character I wrote for ZPA. He is what immediately came into my mind. He’s a hero. A true hero. He served in the armed forces and nearly died and he’s been through a lot. More than anyone should have to go through. For me the key to him is that he does not give up, even if he wants to. He just keeps on going because it is the right thing to do.

Gunther

Damian: Gunther is an odd one. When Andrew told me about how he’d enter the story it sounded like a great idea. He also said he’d be dead by the end of the first book, but we both liked him so much that didn’t happen. Will he survive the series? You’ll have to wait and see.

Andrew: I dreamed up Gunther initially as a foil for Arthur in Splice. My plan was for him to betray Arthur (yet another time Arthur was handed a bad lot). Gunther would die by the end of book 1. That’s what I said. Yeah, I was wrong. He’s still around and more awesome than ever. Learning about his past has been an excavation worthy of an entire archaeological expedition, but it has been a fun ride so far. I foresee more in Gunther’s future. Let’s see what happens!

Millicent

Damian: Haha, now we’re talking. Millicent took shape in the novelette, Siege. She found herself in a seriously messed up situation and after getting a serious head injury, somehow the alien force of the sphere healed her brain but put it in a hyper-defensive mode as a self defense mechanism. To pretty much everyone she’s a psychopath, and a smart and effective spy/assassin. I love how aggressive she is and her willingness to transgress the normal bounds of decency to get the job done.

Andrew: I first encountered Millicent the way I expect most of our readers did, in the novella Siege. Millicent is a teenager who has a lot thrown at her very quickly and due to some particularly nasty circumstances she ends up… well, cracking. What I love about her is her loyalty to Gunther and the juxtaposition of that against her willingness to do whatever it takes to get a mission done. She will kill without compunction, but she has a soft spot in her heart for the man who brought her up.

Stanley

Damian: I love it when I get the chance to write Stanley. From the start I’ve seen him more as a psychologically caged in human than anything else, although one with extreme intelligence and a questioning mind. One that has no obligation to flatter or pamper anyone with even a half-truth. To me, Stanley represents the Emersonian ideals.

Andrew: Stanley is my favorite character to write. He comes from a short story I originally wrote years ago, an uplifted orangutan dealing with questions of his humanity and his intelligence and with themes of the expectations of society and humanity. When it came to ZPA, he was perfect and he’s quickly found a place in the team, bashing down doors (ripping up light posts) and generally having a great time munching on mangoes. But it is the deeper question of what makes a person human and what that means that haunts him and it has been great fun writing that.

Nel

Damian: Who doesn’t like Nel? She’s a great comedic foil for almost every other character, so it’s great to have her jumping around from time to time so she can threaten everyone with a kick in the face. 

Andrew: Nel is a bit of a one-trick pony but it’s a hell of a trick and it cracks me up every time (and no, we’re not going to stop with the Nel gag. We enjoy it too much.) Nel is interesting to me because she has a background very much like Elliot. She’s a total psycho in many ways, brought up to be an assassin and trained by a curmudgeonly old woman she calls Nana. But unlike Elliot, there’s more humanity to Nel. She’s more comfortable in her skin than he is and that contrast against Elliot is infinitely fascinating to me. All of that is a long-winded way of saying that Nel is going to be kicking a lot more people in the face before this is over.

Kat

Damian: Kat has really been Elliot’s defender through most of the novels and has sat somewhat in the background as another smart resource for the team, and a romantic foil for Arthur and Millicent. But she will come into her own in the later books and second season.

Andrew: Kat is a mother (in a way) or a sister to Elliot. But can she be more? We think the answer is a resounding, Yes! So watch this space to see how Kat grows into her own in the team.

Arlo

Damian: Elliot’s target for boyfriend. I think he’s been a wonderful person for Elliot to bounce of off as he’s wise and trustworthy. And also a voice outside of the team, something Elliot needs more and more as the story develops.

Andrew: I originally thought Arlo was creepy. Yes, I said it. He seemed too old to be hanging around someone as mentally undeveloped as Elliot, but he’s really grown into a friend for Elliot when he had no one else and I think that kind of mentorship is important in the world (something we as a society are lacking these days). Arlo is kind-hearted and he wants what is best for Elliot and I think it shows in how he comes across (at least I hope it does). 

Final thoughts

Damian: The thing about these characters is that they all grew in the telling. As the world developed and came into focus for us, the characters really took shape. Each of them has a unique take on the world and an inner struggle which plays throughout the series. That’s something we didn’t want to shy away from as we wrote these novels. We wanted people to relate in some way to every character, even the orangutan. 

Andrew: ^^

(Okay, that’s a cop out. Here are some final thoughts: We are still writing these books so these characters will continue to develop. We are also writing other pieces about their backstories and history. If there are characters you would like to learn more about, drop us a line and let us know. You never know, we might just write a story about them just for you.)

Newsletter: Direct from outer space

Check out the full newsletter here: https://preview.mailerlite.com/p5a2m4

Book 6 Draft is… Complete!Welcome to another week!
As you read this we will have completed the first draft of book (Beachhead). Yes! You heard it here first. Book 5 (Counterpunch) is currently winging its way out to our First Readers team (the intrepid group of awesome people who have volunteered to beta read for us). You know who you are and we cannot thank you enough!

In addition, we are most of the way through a rewrite of the story that originally introduced us to Stanley (for those of you who have not read the ZPA series yet, Stanley is a hairy character who appears in book 3). There is also another story which will shed some light on a period of Arthur’s life coming (not fully baked yet, but it won’t be long). We are thinking about putting these stories into a compilation. More on that when we get there. 

We were really pleased with the response we received to the idea of us trying our hand at a space opera. We do have a draft of something that we are working on, but there is a lot more to go on that yet before it will be ready for the light of day. So let’s just say that this is a work in progress and leave it at that (yeah, we have a lot of those…).

In non-writing news, when we are not writing (or working a day job) we are spending more time on our discord server for writers (The INKubator). If you are a writer or a poet, or would like to be, feel free to drop by and say hi. It’s a group of great people and you will be most welcome.

Other than that, we are full steam ahead on the writing and now the editing of book 6. There is a lot to do yet to get it ready, so watch this space for updates.

That’s it for the opening. We have a lot going on in this week’s newsletter, including what we found on the internet this week (seriously weird stuff), a contest, a review of the winners from last week’s contest and our survey for the week. We love all your responses so please keep them coming!

We had more than either of us had time to respond to last week (sorry!) but we read every single one (with a lot of giggles).We also have some great stories to introduce to you from other authors as well as a promo you won’t want to miss.Please keep reading everyone and we will keep writing!

– Damian and Andrew,
 ZZ Adams

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ZZ Adams: Not a Podcast 4: Wunderkind: book club

https://anchor.fm/s/3e22a52c/podcast/play/40478673/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2021-8-18%2Fcafc5a36-9328-19e2-c90d-835080e5b7f4.mp3

Damian and Andrew answer questions about Wunderkind and their writing process for the INKubatoor book club.

It’s here! Mayday has arrived…in August

Someone recently tweeted that you better write a book you love because you’ll need to read it a lot. This is very true. But even though we have read Mayday over and over again (and again, and again and… well, you get the picture), there is something magical about holding the dead tree version in your hand. We received a copy of Mayday today from Amazon and could not be happier. To everyone who helped us with it, thank you! We could not have done it without you. Novels are very much a collaborative effort regardless of what some people might tell you. It takes a village to get them done. To our kind beta readers, thanks for doing your best for us. We did not give you a lot of time, but we really appreciate your support. Any mistakes are ours (if you find any, please let us know!)

This is the series page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08PCYRTMG

Check it out if you have not already.