Good morning campers! My oh my, you are in for a treat today! I am very happy to introduce to you fellow author and founder of the website Diabolic Shrimp ~ Joshua Grant. Welcome Josh.
NF ~ So without further ado…. We all want to know how on earth you came up with the name Diabolic Shrimp? It is a very unusual name for a website.. or in fact, for anything?
JG ~ Well, my original name for the site wasn’t actually Diabolic Shrimp. It was something totally different, but my friends thought it sounded dirty so I quickly changed it (haha!). Diabolic Shrimp is my motivational joke for myself. I had this idea of creating a community that empowers and encourages authors to help one another. The Diabolic is for my diabolic plan to take over the world and get every author to one day join the site. The Shrimp is because authors are the little guys who are weak all by themselves, but together in a group they’re pretty incredible. That, and I just like shrimp and I wanted it to sound fun (and not dirty, haha
NF ~ Never thought of myself as a shrimp before, but you are right, we are the little guys.What would you say is the ethos behind Diabolic Shrimp?
JG ~ Ultimately, it’s all about helping people while also helping yourself. I design everything on Diabolic Shrimp to invite people to support others while also gaining a benefit. I’ve always had a personal need to serve people, and this is one of the places I think I can do it.
NF ~ I agree the more we can do to help each other the better. So what sorts of things motivate you?
JG ~ Making a difference has always motivated me. I love to make people laugh so humor is always a motivator. My mind is always spinning stories too, so making compelling tales to entertain people has always been a big push in my life. Although, the chief driver in my life has been love. Falling in love has always been my dream (and then falling in love again). Food also motivates me too (honestly, I’ll do just about anything for a decent brownie).
NF ~ Ahh yes, I think you would be hard pushed to find anything finer than a jolly good brownie… other than perhaps a good wine… but that’s just me! What inspires you to write?
JG ~ Books, movies and video games are what really inspire me to write. When I run out of a type of story that interests me, I decide to write something similar with a different twist. Essentially, boredom drives my creativity. I’m also a deep thinker and feeler, so I typically combine some genre (horror, sci-fi, fantasy) with a deep moral concept like hope in a hopeless situation and just go from there. Occasionally I have weird dreams too that actually work their way into my work (my horror novel Pandora is actually partially based on a nightmare I had once
NF ~ Horror and hope sounds like a good combination, your novel Pandora sounds intriguing. I see it has received some great reviews, can you tell us a bit about the book?
Pandora is my first published book. It’s the first of four horror novels in The Organization series (the others are coming soon).
In it, a cruise ship goes missing, re-emerging a week later transmitting a single word—Pandora—prompting a Special Forces team to investigate. I’m kinda a big scaredy cat, so horror isn’t usually my thing, but I grew up loving creature features like Aliens, Resident Evil, and The Thing. I wanted to create something that had a bunch of action, interesting creatures, hapless heroes, and a sense of claustrophobic dread like those movies and games. Pandora fulfilled that and allowed me to address some deep moral struggles in the process. I also love movies, books, and games that have twists, and Pandora was the perfect platform to add plenty of those.
NF ~ I’m shortly going on a cruise, I’ll read Pandora when I come back I think! I love classic horror and this sounds right up my street. Can you tell us a bit about yourself Josh?
I live next to the beautiful Rocky Mountains in the United States. I’m constantly getting out and being active, but I’m also a huge movie and video game buff. My least favorite food is peanut butter (which I hate with a passion). I spend a lot of time working with elementary and middle school youth in a variety of environments. I have a huge heart for serving kiddos, especially those that struggle with different issues in their life. You’ll often find me getting friends and family together for laughs and zany fun, but I’m actually kind of an introvert deep down. I like to go for walks by myself a lot and write a novel now and then. I’ve also had a pretty out there life, having survived a flash flood, faced down several bears, and sailed a chunk of the ocean as first officer on a small ship. Sadly, all the aforementioned bears ran from me when I stood up to them and didn’t battle me so I didn’t get a cool man scar like I hoped (but I survived the encounter so that’s much cooler)
NF ~ The Rocky Mountains are on my bucket list, what a wonderful place to live and work. I admire you for working with kids, it can be so rewarding but so challenging too I would imagine. You must be very patient. Ok.. A flash flood, faced down several bears and been first officer on a small ship ????? I think there is a whole other blog post right there! What / who would you say are your biggest influences?
JG ~ As far as my writing, Resident Evil, Aliens, The Thing, Final Fantasy, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Giver, and authors like S.D. Perry and Dean Koontz really inspired me to write. In my personal life, people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Elon Musk have inspired me to work hard with a deeper moral purpose. God is always a central part of my life in everything I do. And one of the most surprising sources of influence in my life is actually the kids I work with. They’re actually very uplifting and make me be the best person I can be. They’ll also be blatantly honest which is sometimes useful.
NF ~ Yes, kids will always tell you it as it is, no sugar coating required. What are you currently working on?
JG ~ I’m currently hard at work polishing up the rough draft of Jericho (the second book in The Organization series). I’m really enjoying it, but it still needs a lot of work since it’s very complicated on the emotional side of things. I hope to get started soon on Silly Tales from Albanon, my funny collection of unrelated fantasy stories that all build toward a crazy twist.
Thanks so much for joining me today Josh, and good luck with Pandora and polishing up Jericho. Just be careful if you encounter any more bears OK? Before you leave us can you give us some quick fire answers to the following questions? It must be the first thing that pops into your head… Ready…Get Set… Go..
Favourite type of food?
Chicken in all its various forms
Favourite movie?
Star Wars
Favourite book?
Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief
Favourite book character?
Percy Jackson
Red or yellow?
Red (ew yellow)
Sweet or savoury?
Sweet
Beginning or End?
Beginning
Favourite city?
Colorado Springs
Land or sea?
Oh, toughy! Sea (when I’m not seasick)
Fact or fiction?
Fiction
Thanks Josh, it’s been a pleasure having you here today. To find out more about Josh and Diabolic Shrimp click here