An eruption on the Sun leaves the Earth powerless, but is it a temporary inconvenience or the start of a spiral into anarchy?
Belfast Professor Martin Monroe knows the answers, but once branded a conspiracy nut, he struggles to get anyone to listen to his warnings of the impending disaster. His only friend, Simon Wilson, still coming to terms with the loss of his wife, is the only person who will listen.
Government Communications officer, Lisa Keenan, fights against bureaucracy, and her own lack of confidence, to get the word out. She enlists the help of Martin, despite the protests of her colleagues.
With a wife and new-born child to think of, prison supervisor, Derek Henderson, must weigh duty against family and live with the consequences of his decisions.
Will the world’s total reliance on technology, and the electricity that powers it, lead to the irreversible disintegration of society on a global scale?
Q&A
1. Do you always take a book/e-reader wherever you go?
Yes always, although when I am travelling I tend to listen to audiobooks (makes a long drive pass in a flash).
2. Say someone asks if they can use your name in a book. Would you rather be the ‘good one’ or the ‘bad one’?
I think I’d prefer to be the bad guy. I’d be embarrassed to be the hero in a book plus the bad guys can get away with so much more. It’s for that same reason that I don’t base any of my characters on myself, don’t get me wrong every one of my characters will have a little aspect of me in them to some degree but not recognisably so.
3. Where can I find you when you are reading?
If it is a nice day (I live in Ireland so they are few and far between), the back garden, otherwise most of my reading is done in bed.
4. Where can I find you when you are not writing/reading?
In my home office or if I am traveling with work, on a flight to another bland hotel room in another city with a room identical to the one from the week before. Travelling with work gets old very quickly.
5. Can you walk past a bookstore without going inside?
No, I love bookshops, especially those with coffee shops, I could spend hours just browsing or taking a couple of books for a test drive before taking at least one home. Online shopping is so convenient, but it can’t beat the experience of a bricks and mortar bookshop.
6. What are you most proud of?
As a child I suffered from dyslexia (still do but have learned to cope with it) so the idea of me ever writing a book would have been ridiculous. Finishing my first book after working on it (in stops and starts) for about a year, was a very proud moment for me.
7. What goes through your mind when you hold your new book in your hands for the first time?
From the moment I placed my order for my first physical copy of Reliance there was a mix of dread and excitement coursing through me, and until it arrived the two emotions fought each other for the top spot in my mind. Opening the package and holding MY book in my hands was an amazing experience which I would recommend to anyone.
8. What piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Just do it! From my own experience and from listening to other authors, self-doubt and procrastination are an author’s biggest enemies. The only way to defeat them is by putting pen to paper and writing something. For me, as a planner, I found that developing a timeline of events, with just bullet points to start with, was a great way to get me started and to keep me going. Any time I felt stuck on a difficult scene I could just jump to a scene that I knew would be easier to write.
9. Who would you like/have liked to interview?
I discovered an independent author a few years ago called D.J Molles. I was doing a lot of travelling with work at the time and so listened to his post-apocalyptic series The Remaining, on my journeys. I would love to hear his story of how he started out and what his first few years of writing were like.
10. When and where do you prefer to write?
I have two ways of writing, either with pen and paper in my notebook, which I would take everywhere, or at the computer. When I write by hand I find that the process of transcribing it onto the computer allows me to do a little bit of refinement and editing – they say you shouldn’t edit as you go, so this is a little bit of a cheat but it works for me. As for when, I like to write by the pool when on holiday and when at home I would spend a couple of hours in the evening wrestling with the keyboard (although a couple of hours can easily turn into 4 or 5 hours if I’m not careful).
Thank you, Paul McMurrough and Love Books Group
About the author
Paul was born and raised in Belfast. Until the age of 15 he couldn’t read. Then, when introduced to Computing at school, he forced himself to make sense of the letter spaghetti on the pages of the text books.
He went on to get a First Class honours degree in Computer Science followed by a career in Software and later IT and Business Consulting.
You may know him from Game of Thrones, where he played “Back of Head from 100 yards” or in The Fall with Jamie Dornan and Gillian Anderson where he played “Elbow at the bar” – His acting career ended soon after.
Book Links
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088C14P5S/?ref=exp_kellysloveofbooks_dp_vv_d
Goodreads = reliance.fyi/Goodreads
Amazon = reliance.fyi/AmazonUS or reliance.fyi/AmazonUK
Book’s site = reliance.fyi/Home
B for Bookreview 