Nadine Brandes has been known to do wild things (like ride a sleeper train across Russia) in the name of book research. She’s the four-time Carol Award–winning author of seven young adult books and has been a professional fiction editor for over a decade. She is passionate about Jesus, motherhood, and creating with the Creator. When she’s not busy inventing worlds and magic systems, she’s adventuring through Middle Earth with her Auror husband and their four Halfling children.
In this interview, Nadine talks with us about her latest book, The Nightmare Virus.
FF: What inspired the story in your book?
This story is ultimately about this world not being our final home. Sometimes that’s a hard concept to grasp—at least for me it is. I get comfortable and it’s easy to lose sight of the brevity of life. But God has created us for something so much more, and that starts with our mindset and willingness to see that this world is not home.
And when we realize that home and rest are still to come…that changes how we live. Or at least it should!
The Nightmare Virus is about a new, even more temporary dreamworld that people enter when they go to sleep. Life feels shorter and there’s a drive to find purpose and share truth before it’s too late. I often wondered if I should feel that same drive and purpose in my regular life as I know the truth of salvation.
Food for thought, eh?
FF: What can you tell us about the main characters in your book?
Cain Cross wants to find a cure. He is so determined to cure the world that he loses sight of what it actually means to live. And in that process he learns what it means to set his sights on things eternal. It’s quite the internal journey for him, but one that I think will resonate with readers.
FF: Which character surprised you the most?
Cain. My characters have a tendency of finding their own voice as I write and taking the reins of the story. I really enjoyed discovering his strong snarky personality, but also his passion for doing what is right (even when it turns out to be wrong, haha.) I also loved seeing him move from a place of bitterness toward the Lord to a place of being receptive and even passionate about His truth.
FF: Why do you think storytelling is such a powerful way to share truth?
Well all we need to do is look at the first recorded piece of fiction told: It is in the Bible, in 2 Samuel 12 when the prophet Nathan goes to King David and tells him about the poor man who has his pet lamb taken from him by the rich man, who slaughters it for a feast. The first ever piece of fiction was used to humble the greatest of kings. It turned David’s life around—it turned him to the Lord. And now that piece of fiction is part of the Bible and has affected millions and millions of lives.
God values fiction. He knows the power it has and that same God has given story ideas to writers as a tool in which to share His truth. Jesus, too, knew the power of fiction through parables. There’s something about a story that latches on to our minds in a way that changes us. God designed us that way.
FF: What can you tell us about your next book?
N/A I currently do not have another book in the works.
FF: What kind of research did you do for this book?
The fantasy element of the dreamworld has an ancient Rome bent to it, so I spent a lot of time researching the history of Ancient Rome, weapons they might use, lifestyles that affected their cities. It was a lot of fun and I’d love to go deeper into that history someday.
FF: What do you want readers to take away after reading your book?
I hope they finish this book with a clearer vision of the important things in life. I hope the noise of the world or our worries dies down enough to give my reader a breath of fresh air, fresh thought, and fresh conviction (should they welcome it!) That’s what this book did for me as I wrote it and I relished the feeling so much I’d love to know others got to partake as well.
FF: What are the biggest challenges for you as an author writing in your specific genre?
Aside from finding the time to write when not taking care of my 4 children? *wink* My biggest challenge has always been in my own mind. The genre of science fiction and fantasy is so often seen as a genre of entertainment. And while I can enjoy a story just as much as the next person, I want my stories to be much more than that—I want them to help people think or dream or grow. But I also realize that’s in the Lord’s hands, not mine! My main job is to be faithful in writing the book.
FF: What authors or books have inspired you as an author?
The Bible, C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Sally Clarkson. An interesting mash-up but as a mother of 4 children who writes speculative fiction I get most inspiration from the Lord, motherhood, and writers passionate about deep living and rich storytelling.
FF: How has your faith or world view impacted the way you tell stories?
I couldn’t tell stories without my faith. God is the reason I tell stories. He is the joy behind why I write and the purpose. I cannot abide doing anything purposeless. Without Him…I would never write in the first place, nor would I enjoy it. I tell stories from the season of life in which I live. I often wonder why He gives me such strange concepts to process through the big questions in which I’m stewing. But I won’t complain! For as long as He gives me ideas, I will write them about Him, for Him, and with Him. It is such a rich and beautiful journey to create with a perfect Creator!
The Nightmare Virus
Nadine Brandes
Enclave Escape
Genres: YA/Teen Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Release Date: July 16, 2024
ASIN: B0CS2YR15Y
ISBN-13: 979-8886051308
Book Summary:
Some viruses go after the body. But the Nightmare Virus goes after the mind.
When dream technology goes wrong, a virus spreads across the globe, trapping people in a universal dreamscape. They call it the Nightmare Virus.
Cain Cross is determined to find a cure…if he can decipher his brother’s chicken-scratch formula notes. But when he gets infected, he has only 22 days until he’s trapped in the mental prison forever. Now, every time he falls asleep, he must fight in a Nightmare Arena until he earns his freedom to live in the “new world” that exists only in the mind.
Then he finds a way to manipulate the Nightmare—to change it by mere thought.
Forced to navigate a world of nightbeasts, mistblades, and half-truths, Cain turns his focus to survival. When the Emperor offers him a LifeSuPod—and access to a cure—in exchange for a dangerous favor, Cain thinks he’s found a way out. But Cain’s new power threatens to take him on paths that jeopardize his very soul.
Will he continue searching for a cure, or will he swear allegiance to the Nightmare? And the bigger question might be…will he even have a choice?
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