Interview with Craig Durrant
What is your current project?
Warrior Zero. It’s a high-action novel about a smart, self-conscious teenager selected by the CIA to fight against the rising tide of terrorism and mass shootings in America.
Tell me about your protagonist.
Tommy Valley is a highly intelligent, but socially awkward, sixteen-year-old who can understand just about everything . . . except girls. Regular teen life becomes even more difficult for him when he must juggle math and English with CIA courses like advanced ballistic missiles. Soon, however, normal teenage concerns like getting a date to the homecoming dance fall away when he discovers that his hometown has a secret past . . . one that has put it in the crosshairs of a dangerous terrorist cell with a powerful chemical weapon called “Agent Black.”
In the face of this crisis, we discover who Tommy really is.
How does your antagonist create conflict?
Inflicting terror. It is a tactic frighteningly familiar in our society, but that's what brings reality and gravitas to a story. My antagonist is a terrorist whose goal is blood and death, and it is Tommy Valley's job to stop him. Tommy is the hero readers wish they had in our tumultuous times.
Why did you become a writer?
Imagination is the most brilliant aspect of the miracle that is the human mind. It expands our reality—makes us dream—and yet simultaneously brings us closer to the fabric of everyday society by letting us realize that the dreams we dream are the same dreams dreamt by strangers and friends.
To write is to encapsulate one’s imagination into words; to be a writer is to share that encapsulation with others. I write because I hope that my imagination will inspire you, challenge you, and—most importantly—entertain you.
How do you develop your plot and characters?
The story plays in my head like a movie, and I describe what I see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Your book will be great only if you love every part of it.
How can readers follow you?
Instagram: craig_w._durrant
Twitter: @CraigDurrant5
Website: craigwdurrant.com
The part about Tommy juggling advanced ballistic missiles with homecoming dance anxiety is what sold me on Warrior Zero, since that contrast feels like the honest version of being sixteen rather than the usual brooding hero trope. Durrant describing the plot as a movie playing in his head makes me wonder how much of his own teenage frustration ended up in Tommy, and honestly the advice to love every part of your book is harder to follow than it sounds. When I think about gaming the odds the way Tommy has to outthink a terrorist cell, https://ethereumcasinoplay.com comes to mind as the kind of risk calculus most people never have to make at that age.