5 interesting facts about psychological dystopian thriller The Phoenix Project by D.M. Cain
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- Most of The Phoenix Project was written by hand, whilst listening to music. I have shelves full of handwritten notebooks containing the first draft of The Phoenix Project. I always listen to epic, instrumental music when writing such as Two Steps from Hell and Immediate Music.
- Most of The Phoenix Project was written by hand, whilst listening to music. I have shelves full of handwritten notebooks containing the first draft of The Phoenix Project. I always listen to epic, instrumental music when writing such as Two Steps from Hell and Immediate Music.
- The protagonist of The Phoenix Project, Raven Kennedy, is on a glorified death row within Salverford prison for the terrible crime he committed. In the original idea he was innocent and had been framed and that’s why he was in prison. (As soon as I began writing it, I realised it worked better if he was actually guilty!)
- The horrifying ‘dark room’ in The Phoenix Project (a pitch-black sensory deprivation cell) was inspired by a visit to the Terror Haza in Budapest—a museum dedicated to the fascistic and communistic regimes that operated from the building. In the cellar of the Terror Haza are the old cells used to imprison and torture inmates. For research purposes, I crawled inside a very low cell and shut the door, casting myself into total darkness. It was terrifying and claustrophobic, and I only lasted five minutes in there, but it gave me an idea of what it would be like to be in one of those cells.
- Raven Kennedy from The Phoenix Project actually started life as the same character as Vincent Wilder from A Chronicle of Chaos (even though Raven is a good guy and Vincent is the mega-villain of my Light and Shadow Chronicles series!). The first book I started to write had a character called Vincent (he wasn’t quite the same character as his later incarnation) and I developed his character in two ways – drawing upon his negative traits to create the later Vincent, and his redeeming characteristics to create Raven.
- There is a scene in the book where Raven and a few other characters take part in a high-pressure televised interview. In order to prepare for this and make it seem natural, my husband and I acted it out and recorded the interview! I played Raven and my husband played the other characters, and I then played the tape (yes, tape!) back and used it to write the scene. I still have that tape in my collection of books etc!
The book is available to buy from Amazon:
http://mybook.to/thephoenixproject
D.M. Cain Biography
D.M. Cain is a dystopian and fantasy author working for Creativia Publishing. The Light and Shadow Chronicles series features a range of books which can be read in any order. The series instalments to date include A Chronicle of Chaos and The Shield of Soren. D.M. Cain is working on the next novel in the Light and Shadow Chronicles series, The Sins of Silas, as well as two complementary novellas entitled Genesis of Light and Origin of Shadow.
Cain has released one stand-alone novel: The Phoenix Project, a psychological thriller set in a dystopian future. The Phoenix Project was the winner of the 2016 Kindle Book Review Best Sci-Fi novel Award.
D.M. Cain is also a member of the International Thriller Writers and one of the creators and administrators of the online author group #Awethors. Her short story The End was published in Awethology Dark: an anthology by the #Awethors.
Cain lives in Leicestershire, UK with her husband and two young children, and spends her time reading, writing, reviewing and indulging in geek culture (Marvel, GoT, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy).
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DMCainauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DMCain84
Amazon: Author.to/DMCain84
Mailing List: http://eepurl.com/XevZH
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-m-cain-809538a0/
Website: www.dmcain84.com
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+DMCain/posts
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/DMCain
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/c/DMCain
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/dmcain84/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/d.m.cain/
Creativia: http://www.creativia.org/a-talented-new-arrival-among-british-fantasy-authors-dm-cain.html
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/d-m-cain
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~DM Cain~
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