We're friends who kept sane during lockdown by collabing long-distance on a post-apocalyptic, funny scifi novel, BATTERY LIFE, and now it's getting published! AMA

Do you feel that Screech's character was overused in Saved By The Bell?

We'll circle back to you on that one

Fav breakfast food?

Finally, a real question!

Brennan lives for eggs benedict

Greg's all about that bacon egg and cheese sesame bagel

Congrats! How did you go around to get published? Did you find an agent first?

Thank you! Yes, we got an agent first, and they were instrumental in helping us find our publisher.

That’s amazing. What was the process of that? I’m in the beginning stages of writing my own book (35k words into the first draft) and are of course very interested in how and when I should reach out to someone

We met our agent through a personal introduction, but of course, she wasn’t able to pitch us to publishers until the manuscript was complete. So definitely finish that first draft before you query, and maybe get a round of feedback from a trusted reader. You want to go in with your best foot forward.

Congratulations on BATTERY LIFE! If you were going to recommend one movie to watch, one video game to play, and one album to listen to in order to get into the mood of the world, what would those be?

Oooo so hard to pick!
Film: Terminator 1 (the vibey-est of the Terminators)
Video Game: Contra 3 (this grungy SNES aesthetic was deeply inspiring to us)
Album: 198XAD by Mega Drive (basically the book’s soundtrack)

Could you message me when its out on Amazon kindle please?

Up for preorder here!
https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Life-Brennan-Gilpatrick-ebook/dp/B0BMTBGB9F/ref=tmm\_kin\_swatch\_0?\_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Could you define “getting published”?

In what way is that different to my NextDoor neighbor soccer mom slapping together a children’s book and putting it print to order on Amazon?

Our book is getting released through a professional publisher! https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/

Thank you

Are you willing to share any sort of distribution numbers? Will it be released in physical book stores? If so, I’m what format and in what quantities?

I can understand if you are not willing to share but it would be very helpful to have a frame of reference for what “professional publisher” means.

Can't speak to specific numbers, but going through a publisher has given us access to a lot of great resources. Professional editing services, a marketing campaign, etc. And the book will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. Digital and physical copies available. Definitely felt worth it to us!

First Congratulations!

Do you have any tips for someone looking to get a book published and what surprises or challenges arose during that time?

Thanks so much!

Before we wrote the full novel, we actually created some short stories set in the world of Battery Life, and this ended up being really good pitch material with literary agents. A bite sized writing sample to generate interest in the project. Worked great for us!
As far as surprises, there were elements of the book we considered minor that were actually huge highlights for the publisher, and a lot of our rewriting centered on expanding those. We trusted their judgment, and it made the book a lot better.

Specifically for Brennan - if Gregory and your fiancée, Erin, were both dangling from the edge of a cliff over a rocky abyss and you could only save one, who would you pick and why?

I would throw myself into the abyss to avoid answering this question.

Gregory would like to add that he prefers rocky abysses and would probably just let go.

And Erin's a strong independent woman. She'd figure it out.

Congrats on getting published!! What were some of your sci-fi inspirations for the book? Do you have any advice for someone writing a book for the first time?

Excellent questions! We took inspiration from a lot of different media. Films like Terminator and Alien, anime like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, novels like Neuromancer and Z for Zachariah.
For us, the biggest hurtle with writing our first book was building the courage to actually do it. We spent a lot of time outlining and world building, but the act of putting words on the page felt so intimidating. But once we got started, our confidence grew and we learned so much as we went TLDR: don’t be afraid to get started.

What's the biggest challenge with co-writing and how did you overcome it?

Honestly, collaborating from different time zones may have been the biggest pain. You’re always going to deal with creative differences and compromises, that’s part of the process. But scheduling around a time difference never gets easier haha

Hey thanks for your answer. That does sound tricky.

Did you also find that you were able to develop a similar prose style to each other? Or did you each rewrite what the other had drafted until it smoothed out to a 'house style'?

Brennan had more experience with creative writing going into this project, so all the prose ultimately went through the filter of his style. That said, the plot and characters are very much a 50/50 effort

Fav urban legend?

Brennan is a big fan of The Hook.

Gregory's a Mothman fan

Which batteries were your inspiration for the battery character?

The Energizer Ultimate Lithium 1.5V AA was a big source of inspiration lol

Go-to playing piece in Monopoly?

Gregory likes the car. Brennan prefer's a good thimble.

Congrats again guys and a few questions for you.

1. Beginning, middle, end what do you think was the most challenging part to polish off for the complete product?

2. When is Crybaby getting a novelization?

3. How long do you guys predict it will take for artists to lewd your characters?

Thank you so much!
1. A big challenge for us was needing to remove large amounts of story content during the editing process. It ultimately made the book way better, but some pretty fun characters and locations were dropped on the cutting room floor. Maybe they'll show up in the sequel!
2. That would be so cool! Crybaby's one of our favorite entities in the book, for sure. A horror spin-off would be crazy fun to write.
3. Knowing the Internet, it'll happen sooner than later

What are some of your guys' favorite science fiction novels of all time?

Neuromancer, Red Mars, Veniss Underground, and Dune, just to name a few!

Dope! Yous wanna link the playlist?

This playlist has a lot of tracks that fueled our creative process!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4R1FaxF0nmoKbuXIDBNE0k?si=9dca6d907a844afb

How come this idea came into your mind?(I mean you prefer writing a novel rather than podcast or creating a video game (because These two are more relevant to current generation)

Ultimately, a book has much fewer technical demands. A podcast requires audio gear and great voice actors. A Battery Life video game would require an entire studio. We're just two people, so writing words on a page was much more accessible to us. We could just focus on the storytelling.

Also, much easier to adapt a book into other formats!