Quantum Level Zero by Ted Grosch

Title: Quantum Level Zero
Author: Ted Grosch
Publisher: Double Dragon eBooks
Pages: 287
Genre: SciFi
Format: Kindle/Nook

Winston Churchill stated that history is written by the victors. Germany terrorized Britain’s civilian population with V1 and V2 rockets. The Nazi historians would have a legitimate rational for that had they won the war. Quantum Level Zero takes place in a dystopian society of the near future Earth, where fanatics are about to win the war on terror for the good for the people and the good of society.

Their leader, Matteen Al-Rama has outgrown his fanatical roots. Once an ambassador and secretary General of the United Nations, he now leads a fundamentalist revolution that uses cloud computing, holographic CGI recruitment rallies, computer worms, rootkits and Trojans, advanced communications, and cybernetic enhancements to spread apocalyptic chaos across the globe. If that weren’t enough, rumor of an alien race wanting to begin diplomatic relations with Earth threatens to solidify Al-Rama’s global stranglehold.

Quantum Level Zero follows three people at the pivot point in the war on terror, one who has knowledge, one who has great need, and one who has the courage to make a difference. Elijah Baraki is a scientist and former official of Al-Rama’s revolution. Eight years ago he lost his wife and three children in a suicide bombing meant to show the world that nobody leaves Al-Rama’s organization. Since that bombing, Eli has concentrated on research and radial technology with the intention to wage war on the revolutionaries. In a world where reasonable people become dissidents, Eli is joined by two-hundred other scientists, engineers and soldiers, all of whom have their own reasons to leave their former lives and battle the growing chaos.

Trevor Hadley sabotaged his own laboratory to prevent the authorities from confiscating his zero-point energy research. Now wanted as a terrorist, Trevor has been working on Eli’s secret project for the past few years as a lab assistant. Eli sends him to reconnoiter an Al-Rama outpost and is almost killed. He teams up with his brother, Eli’s former boss, and Sharon Murphy, a former army helicopter pilot also on the run, in a race to report back to Eli and join the fight to free Earth.

Forces of reason have the edge in the war, but will that remain the case if First Contact goes to the revolutionaries? Quantum Level Zero opens as the world awaits the arrival of Al-Rama’s latest ally, an advanced alien race offering anti-gravity, zero-point energy, and faster-than-light travel. Al-Rama won’t be satisfied with anything less than world domination. Eli won’t be satisfied with anything less than total destruction of Al-Rama’s empire.

Ted Grosch is an American science fiction the author of the novel Quantum Level Zero and other published short stories. Ted has a Ph.D. and teaches electrical engineering. He has published over 25 works of fiction and non-fiction. He lives in Georgia where he works with wood and trains dogs.

Read prologue here

For More Information

• Quantum Level Zero is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

Interview with Ted Grosch

Ted, thanks for being here today. Tell our followers about you.
I grew up in a coal-mining town in western Pennsylvania, only a few blocks from Jimmy Stewart’ childhood home. I always wanted to write, but I must have been a dopey kid because I didn’t know people made a living writing fiction. All of my friends’ dads had jobs, except for a couple whose fathers were insurance agents. My focus growing up was to go to college, get a good job, and earn a pension. That was how one got out of town.

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
I like to write in the morning before I go to work. I’m an electronics engineer by trade, and my brain is pretty much empty by the time I get home. Unless I am in the middle of a great scene, I can’t scrape together enough brain cells to write until about 10 p.m.

If you could hang out with one famous person for one day, who would it be and why?
Richard Feinman. He was smart and fun to be with. I want to spend the day drinking beer and discussing quantum mechanic and where he thinks the field is headed.

What’s the story behind your latest book?
My last book, Quantum Level Zero, in a story about three people in the near future who all have nothing left to lose. The west has lost the war on terror and the winners are rewriting history. It’s a scenario where, after surviving the threat of nuclear holocaust caused by the collective superpowers, the world as we know it is being destroyed by an army of individuals, each with a bomb or poison. A leader of this radial fringe, Al-Rama, a former Secretary of the United Nations, calls for peace and love while inciting his loyal followers to win the war on terror. The story opens not long after Al-Rama announces he’s been in contact with extraterrestrial visitors who sides with him. A wonderful alien presence is about to ally with Al-Rama against the greed and depravity of western culture and he will be Earth’s first ruler.

Tell us your writing process.
When I get an idea I’ll write it down and explore it for a while to determine if it has good characters, what length is would be and if it’s too much like something else out there. I’ll often write the first couple pages in longhand. If I’m still excited about it, I’ll type it up and continue for a while. If it’s a novel, I’ll stop after a chapter or two and put it away until my schedule opens up. If it’s a short story, I’ll try to finish it and let it sit for a few months in a process I call letting it fester.

When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?
I was 10 or 11 when I got hooked on reading. I read all the adventure fiction in my elementary school library by sixth grade. The public library was only two blocks from my house and I started going there one or twice a week. I was 14 before I tried writing something on my own. I am such a bad speller, there was no spell checker back then, that I never showed it to anyone.

Tell us about your main character:
QLZ has three main characters. A suicide bomber killed Eli’s family, the United Nations confiscated Trevor’s greatest invention, and Sharon’s came back from the war to no family and a ruined economy. These three people come together in their own way to try and save their world and their future.

What are you working on next?
I am working on two more novels. One is a present day sci-fi story about a scientist who discovers he may have invented time travel in another timeline, but somebody or something caused history to change and steal that distinction from him. The second is a near future story at a time when a medical breakthrough extends lives of only one gender. This is a society becoming dystopian where the battle of the sexes takes center stage.

Do you have any special/extraordinary talents?
I train my dogs to run obstacle courses. The sport is called ‘agility’ by the canine community. I run them on timed courses of jumps, tunnels, A-frames, teeter-totters, weave poles and a pause table. Two of my dogs hold titles from the AKC. Both are retired now and I’m training a new pup, who has just turned two years old. You can watch tow of my runs by searching for my name, Theodore Grosch, on YouTube. I have a run there with my pug and with my Australian shepherd.

Who are your favorite authors?
Arthur C Clarke, Philip Roth, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Alistair McLean, George R.R. Martian, and others, to many to give a shout-out here.

What do you like to do with your free time?
I play EVE Online. EVE is an MMORPG with on average 30,000 players online at any one time. We use Team Speak for corporate operations like training and running missions. I fly frigates, destroyers, cruisers, and battleships through star systems and star gates. I have an alt that mines and generates cash, another who does research and manufacturing, and my main character that blows things up.

Tell us about your plans for upcoming books.
I am working on two more novels. One is a present day sci-fi story about a scientist who discovers he may have invented time travel in another timeline but somebody or something changed history and stole that distinction from him. The second is a near future story at a time when a medical breakthrough extends lives of only one gender. This is a society becoming dystopian where the battle of the sexes takes center stage.

Where can people find you on the web?
You can find me at www.tedgrosch.com. My twitter handle is @tedgrosch and you can write about the novel with #QLZ and #QuantumLevelZero.

Any final thoughts?
Thank you for the opportunity to get the word out. Read the preview inside at amazon.com. You can read the prologue and see if you would like it.