Interview with Ted Grosch, author of scifi ‘Quantum Level Zero’

Ted Grosch is an American science fiction the author of the novel Quantum Level Zero and other published short stories. Ted has a Ph.D. and teaches electrical engineering. He has published over 25 works of fiction and non-fiction. He lives in Georgia where he works with wood and trains dogs.

For More Information

• Visit Ted Grosch’s website.
• Connect with Ted on Facebook and Twitter.
• Find out more about Ted at Goodreads.
• Visit Ted’s blog.

About the Book:

Winston Churchill stated that history is written by the victors. Germany terrorized Britain’s civilian population with V1 and V2 rockets. The Nazi historians would have a legitimate rational for that had they won the war. Quantum Level Zero takes place in a dystopian society of the near future Earth, where fanatics are about to win the war on terror for the good for the people and the good of society.

Their leader, Matteen Al-Rama has outgrown his fanatical roots. Once an ambassador and secretary General of the United Nations, he now leads a fundamentalist revolution that uses cloud computing, holographic CGI recruitment rallies, computer worms, rootkits and Trojans, advanced communications, and cybernetic enhancements to spread apocalyptic chaos across the globe. If that weren’t enough, rumor of an alien race wanting to begin diplomatic relations with Earth threatens to solidify Al-Rama’s global stranglehold.

Quantum Level Zero follows three people at the pivot point in the war on terror, one who has knowledge, one who has great need, and one who has the courage to make a difference. Elijah Baraki is a scientist and former official of Al-Rama’s revolution. Eight years ago he lost his wife and three children in a suicide bombing meant to show the world that nobody leaves Al-Rama’s organization. Since that bombing, Eli has concentrated on research and radial technology with the intention to wage war on the revolutionaries. In a world where reasonable people become dissidents, Eli is joined by two-hundred other scientists, engineers and soldiers, all of whom have their own reasons to leave their former lives and battle the growing chaos.

Trevor Hadley sabotaged his own laboratory to prevent the authorities from confiscating his zero-point energy research. Now wanted as a terrorist, Trevor has been working on Eli’s secret project for the past few years as a lab assistant. Eli sends him to reconnoiter an Al-Rama outpost and is almost killed. He teams up with his brother, Eli’s former boss, and Sharon Murphy, a former army helicopter pilot also on the run, in a race to report back to Eli and join the fight to free Earth.

Forces of reason have the edge in the war, but will that remain the case if First Contact goes to the revolutionaries? Quantum Level Zero opens as the world awaits the arrival of Al-Rama’s latest ally, an advanced alien race offering anti-gravity, zero-point energy, and faster-than-light travel. Al-Rama won’t be satisfied with anything less than world domination. Eli won’t be satisfied with anything less than total destruction of Al-Rama’s empire.

For More Information

• Quantum Level Zero is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
• Read prologue here.

Would you call yourself a born writer?

Even though I’m compelled to write, I would not call myself a born writer. Writing is hard work. The English language is complicated. I would call myself a born storyteller and also love to read. I taught myself to read before I knew the alphabet by memorizing what words looked like. I asked my first grade teacher how to spell the letters the English letters a, b, c, and so on. She thought that was a silly notion. I felt so bad I didn’t tell her I knew how to spell the first few Greek letters, alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc. There had to be a way to spell the English letters. I didn’t

What was your inspiration for Quantum Level Zero?

This novel started when my college roommate sent me a scene called Quantum Level Zero he had written in longhand. We had never talked about writing in college or in the 15 years since. In fact, we were both engineers and tended to discuss geeky stuff like Maxwell’s Equations and tensor metrics in Minkowski Space-Time. That’s how it all started. We wrote alternating chapters using his characters and my characters. I was pretty haphazard until he abandoned the work, gave me rights to the title, and I took on the job of finishing it.

I wanted to explore a new paradigm of world at war. Rather than battling with forces concentrated in armies and fleets, this new war paradigm is fought by swarms of fighters working alone under a loose central control as we are seeing with global terrorism. The terrorists use bombings, hijackings and recruiting strategies to wage war on individuals, not the opposing army and navy. My characters experience the breakdown of countries and economies. They have to come up with a new way of winning this war.

What themes do you like to explore in your writing?

I like to explore secrets. Whether it is a secret society or secrets between characters, secrets leads to lies and more secrets. The theme of my next novel is about how secrets beget more secrets and darker truths. When there is no transparency, we create an environment for deceitful people to hide other insidious and dangerous truths. The story is about an off-world operation the founders want to keep to themselves, but we find that there is much more hiding under the surface. Unscrupulous people get away with murder and more to keep the project from becoming public.

How long did it take you to complete the novel?

QLZ took about eight years to finish. When the collaboration with my friend broke down and I shelved the novel for a while. I kept coming back to the characters and the theme. I replaced everything my friend had written, got the rights to the novel, and finished the novel.

Are you disciplined? Describe a typical writing day.

I have to be disciplined. I get up early, make coffee, and start writing before anyone in the house gets up. I try to write at least 500 words every day. On weekends, I have a 1000-word goal and will turn to writing in the evening to get more done. I only work on one novel at a time. Right now, I have two in the works, but I’ll revise and rewrite each one from start to finish, then set it aside and work on the other one. I can’t wait to get one of them done because I have ideas and outlines for two more, but I won’t start on them until there others are finished.

What did you find most challenging about writing this book?

QLZ has three points of view that span the solar system. My characters interact at various places in the story, so I had a hard time making sure they could get from place to place in a reasonable amount of time. I had to get them from the Earth, to the Moon, to Jupiter, and back by using technology that would be realistic 50 years from now. In the first draft, I had events going on all over the place and no time for the characters to get from here to there. In the middle of the second draft, I had to rearrange the scenes and make a detailed schedule for the events and characters.

What do you love most about being an author?

I love writing. I would love it even more if I didn’t need to sell anything, but the only way to quit my day job is the start selling and create commercial fiction. I am looking forward to being my own boss, although that might be a myth from what I’ve heard about deadlines and speaking engagements from authors.

Did you go with a traditional publisher, small press, or did you self publish? What was the process like and are you happy with your decision?

I want to a small publisher. I don’t have an agent and very few large publishers accept unagented manuscripts. I sent queries to those SFFA approved publishers and waited. Three asked for the complete manuscript. My publisher, Double Dragon only opens for submission once a year. I sent the manuscript to them and they accepted right away.

Where can we find you on the web?

You can find my website and blog at www.tedgrosch.com. My twitter handle is @tedgrosch and I save photos of remodelling ideas and Australian shepherds on pinterest.