Hi, I'm Grayson Taylor, author of the upcoming sci-fi novel Catalyst of Control, and today I'm very excited to reveal the book cover and some details about the story itself.
All right. So, without any further ado, here's the cover.
Catalyst of Control will be coming in spring 2023. I am very excited about this book, and I can't wait for you to read it. In the meantime, let me give you a peek behind the curtain at the making of this book and how it came to be.
Catalyst of Control is a prequel to a sci-fi, dystopian trilogy I wrote between 2016 and 2019. Titled the Fallen Nation Trilogy, it won a Scholastic Art and Writing Award, which was cool. And I wanted to do more with that world and explore how it came to the point it's at in the first book.
In case you don't know, all my published books and films take place in the same connected universe. It's called the Taylorverse, because I as the author am basically the only connecting element—it spans many genres and hundreds of years. So it was almost inevitable that I would write something that happens in between present day and the Fallen Nation Trilogy.
I had an idea for a prequel novel ever since I finished the trilogy, and in May 2020, I decided to start writing. Now, the Fallen Nation Trilogy was originally supposed to be just one book. It later expanded into a trilogy and grew in scale far beyond what I'd initially imagined. The same is true of Catalyst of Control. I thought it would just be a standalone book when I first started writing. But of course, these things never quite turn out the way you plan. Catalyst of Control will now be book one in its own trilogy. The Catalyst of Control Trilogy and Fallen Nation Trilogy will now compose the Fallen Nation Saga, which will span nearly a hundred years. And in case you're wondering, I do have tentative plans for a third trilogy, although we'll see if that actually happens.
So anyway, I started writing Catalyst of Control in May 2020. It's been a while. I've worked on numerous novellas in the interim; I have often gone months without actually writing Catalyst of Control, but all the time I've been coming up with new ideas and getting more and more excited for what this story is going to be.
This book is unlike anything I've ever written before. It's the first book I've written with dual timelines, with flashbacks to the character's past. The narrative arc of it is also something I've never quite done before, although I don't want to give away too much for spoiler reasons. Suffice it to say, Catalyst of Control will be quite a ride, both for you as the reader and for me as the writer.
To give you a better idea of what the plot is actually about, Catalyst of Control is primarily centered around the creation of mind control and the rise of an empire. It's pretty big in scope, and will travel around the world and feature dozens of characters. Though you can read this after having read the Fallen Nation Trilogy, you don't have to. It will work as its own standalone book. If you want to learn more about Catalyst of Control, go here. You'll find the book trailer, synopsis, a playlist inspired by the book, wallpapers, and more.
If, like me, you're very excited for this book, you can sign up for an advanced reader copy. You'll get a free copy of the book ahead of its official release in exchange for an honest review. You can apply now to be an ARC reader here. I'll be posting some behind the scenes looks at the making of the book in the near future.
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– Grayson Taylor