February 2, 2021
Lost World Post Two
Week 5, Day 2 – Lost World
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Cover Design: Jimmy Gibbs
Formats: ebook, audiobook, and paperback – grab the ebook for just $0.99 for a limited time!
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With their shelter destroyed and their sense of security shattered, Vivian, Axl and the group set off in search of a safe place. But the group’s morale is at an all-time low, and they now know it’s not just the dead they have to fear. Weeks of wandering brings sickness, death and loss to the survivors, and Vivian soon finds herself losing hope of ever discovering a safe place to live.
What can you tell us about the characters in Lost World?
We meet some new characters in this book. Yay!
Hadley/Ginny
Not new, but definitely a big change! As I pointed in my last post, this is the first time I wrote from her perspective, but I felt it was important both because she and Jon get separated from the group, but also because she’s going through a lot in this book. Hadley has a lot of baggage after what happened in Vegas, she’s confused about both her relationship with Jon and her motivations for being with him, then she has a bomb dropped on her: she’s pregnant. Not only does Hadley not know how to deal with it all, but she’s decided she doesn’t want to be Hadley Lucas any more. She’d mentioned to Vivian in the previous book that her real name was Virginia – Ginny for short – and she decides it’s time to resurrect the person she used to be, so she cuts her hair and changes her name, and starts to try to come to terms with the person she is now.
I remember when this idea came to me – it wasn’t planned – and I wasn’t sure how it would be for readers if I suddenly changed a character’s name in the middle of a series. After asking a writer friend who was also a reader, I decided to give it a shot and see how it worked out. It worked wonderfully, of course, and it allowed me to be able to keep the two groups apart for just a tad longer since Vivian was going around asking if anyone had seen Hadley Lucas, who no longer existed in Ginny’s eyes.
Brady
I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise to most people to learn that I was watching Game of Thrones when I wrote this book. I was late to the game, so I binged the first couple seasons while we lived in California – during a deployment – and would have quit after season one had it not been for Tyrion Lannister – played by Peter Dinklage – because there were few characters in the show who had any real redeeming qualities. Tyrion, however, gave me hope that there might be someone to root for, so I stuck with it. Because of this amazing character, I decided to add a dwarf to my next book, which was how we got Brady.
If you’ve read my other zombie books, you know we get to see more of this character because he pops up down the road in the third Oklahoma Wastelands book – The Sweetest Torment – and you also get some insight into who he was before he met up with Vivian, Axl, and Angus in Broken Stories. He’s a fun character, and while I don’t want to give too much away, I’ll just say this: I have plans for him.
Gretchen
After getting separated from the rest of the group, Jon and Hadley run into a teenager who’s alone and they start traveling together. While I didn’t develop her a lot, I added her for two very specific reasons. The first was so she could give Jon and Hadley hope about there being a safe settlement, and the second was to point out to Hadley how recognizable she is, which helps push her to make a change. Being noticeable during regular times was one thing, but during the apocalypse it’s a huge disadvantage, something Hadley knows from her time at the Monte Carlo. Running into a star struck teenager when she was already struggling with who she was definitely gave Hadley the push she needed to make a drastic change.
Richard
He’s the minor character who picks Jon, Ginny, and Gretchen up on the side of the road, and while we don’t get to know him really well, I wanted to point him out because he mentions that Gretchen reminds him of his granddaughter who away on her honeymoon when travel was cut off. It’s a small detail, but it comes up again in Broken Stories.
Corinne
Again, a small character, Corinne is the unofficial leader of the town and she’s British. I figured there had to be people from other countries who got trapped far from home when the virus hit, which was why I added her, and I named her Corinne because that’s my daughter’s name.
Dax
