Greg Scott, Educational Cyber-thrillers, Author
The lighter side of Greg Scott, a serious author. At 60 years young, he is a man with a full life. He says, “I used to be a skinny bald guy. Now I'm a flabby bald guy. I'm an IT professional and live in Minnesota with my wife, daughter, two grandsons, one dog, two cats, and I-don't-know-how-many fish. I like trudging through waist-deep snow better than walking on the beach in the summer.” Seems the age of 60 serves him well, but something tells me we’re in for a treat with this full-time IT guy who would love to earn a living writing and selling his books.
Books have always been a part of his life. One favorite memory is an image from The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury. When those stories come to mind, he sees a “Mom and pop sittin' on the front porch in a rockin’ chair while their son rockets away on the way to Mars and waves out the window as he passes over.”
Bradbury was an early favorite, but he says there are many others. “JRR Tolkien, with The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings kept me up many nights back in sixth grade. I ran into Jerry Jenkins in the 90s. I suffered jet-lag after staying up too many nights reading all 16 Left Behind books. It was worth it.”
Greg’s list of favorite authors goes on from there: “I like Michael Crichton’s tech detail. David McCullough’s biographies of Harry Truman, the Wright Brothers, John Adams, and Ben Franklin are amazing. So is the Brooklyn Bridge story. Doris Kearns Goodwin made Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Taft come to life. I also like the Whitehouse Chef Series by Julie Hyzy. Oh – and Laura Hillenbrand. She put me right there with Louis Zamperini in WWII in Unbroken. I try to take her advice to heart. ‘Writers should tell the story in plain language and get out of the way and let the story do the work.’ I've learned the hard way that's easier said than done. Jerry Jenkins is the same way. He says, ‘just say it and don't try to be fancy.’”
Greg is the father of Bullseye Breach, an educational book disguised
as a novel. What is it about? Greg explains, “Overseas mobsters steal 40 million customer credit card numbers from fictional US retailer, Bullseye Stores, and Jerry Barkley has to come up with a way to fight back. By the way, Jerry Barkley is the opposite of a superhero.”
Bullseye Breach is the first in a series. His next title, Virus Bomb, is almost ready to publish. His 3rd Jerry Barkley book has yet to be titled. Greg has written the premise, an amazing opening tailored to Jerry Barkley’s personality, and most of the plot’s outline.
An avid blogger, Greg tries to make IT security topics interesting for regular people in the real world. He also has a few video presentations. He’s written magazine articles, pieces about life as an independent IT consultant from Minnesota, and a few church skits. He wrote a story for his then first-grade grandson titled, Tiny Tim the Troubled T-Rex. It still needs an illustrator. He also wrote a short story about a victim in the Bullseye Breach incident to show the human devastation from cyber-attacks and identity theft.
Interviewer: “Give us an insight into the main character of Bullseye Breach. What does the main character do that is so special?”
Greg: “Jerry Barkley is a middle-aged bald guy with no superpowers and an expanding waistline. Just like me, Jerry is an IT professional with an interest in cyber-security. He is not ex-military, he never worked for the government, he has no friends in high places, and no corporate PR departments to make him look polished. People use words like geek, techie, resource, and misfit to describe him. But Jerry doesn’t see himself that way. He has his quirks, but he’s a professional and all he really wants is a little respect. And paying customers.
Every once in a while, somebody notices Jerry’s work and says thanks, but Barkley IT Services mostly operates invisibly and barely brings in enough money to pay the bills for Jerry and his family. Jerry amazes me with what he comes up with. Armed with nothing but an antique PC and an Internet connection, he can diagnose Internet errors that people with fancy titles never consider. Creativity. That’s his ace in the hole. One of these days, all that know-how in Jerry’s head will pay off. In Bullseye Breach, Jerry diagnoses the attack against Bullseye Stores and helps turn the tables on the attackers. In Virus Bomb, the stakes rise to the stratosphere and Jerry has to reach way above his comfort zone to resolve the situation.”
And which actor would be the perfect fit to play the role of Jerry Barkley on the big screen? Greg says it would be either Robert Duval or Dwight Schultz. Whoever the actor is, the guy would definitely need to be bald. That’s one characteristic that Greg will not depart from. "Except for Dwight Schultz. But we could probably make him bald for the part if needed."
Bullseye Breach is available anywhere books are sold, but Greg says the easiest way to buy it is from his author website at http://www.dgregscott.com. “That's where you'll find all my blog content. The other stuff - church skits and magazine articles - I have copies but not on the website.”
It’s no wonder Greg is drawn to the educational cyber-thrillers genre. He knows the IT industry inside and out. It’s an industry filled with people he calls the “unsung heroes who keep the infrastructure running. People we all take for granted. Somebody should tell their stories.”
Interviewer: “When did you decide to become a writer?”
Greg: “I decided to finally get serious about writing in September 2013. My youth was unusual and I wrote Facebook posts about much of it. People in my church loved them. People at the publishing company I talked to hated them. I spent a year studying material about how to write stories and then decided to write one of my own as part of a how-to book on IT security. The story took over and I never wrote the how-to stuff because there are already lots of great how-to books nobody reads.”
When writing his stories, Greg draws ideas from real-world experiences and “what-if” questions that run through his head in the middle of the night. He says he doesn’t have any special inspiration – just lots of trial and error. Time to write is not readily available for this active granddad who works from home and tends to his family and a house full of animals. His quiet time for writing usually comes between 10 pm and 5 am. In other words, he doesn’t recite the “I don’t have time” excuse.
Outlines and plots can provide a guideline and help the writer understand which direction to take their story. Greg uses outlines as a starting point. “I try to outline where I want the story to go. But sometimes research or the characters won't allow it. Virus Bomb was going to be about somebody stealing nuclear waste casks from a power plant. Until I found out those casks are almost as big as houses and it takes special trucks to move them. Then it was going to be about medical waste, until I found out about autoclaving. It ended up being about a biological attack, with a cyber attack triggering a bunch of misdirection. I spent months figuring out how an attacker would steal a blood sample from an Ebola patient without anyone finding out about it until too late.” This is the stuff most writers talk about, that writing freedom they give to their characters and stories. It starts with a thought, but takes on a mind of its own and Greg explained it perfectly.
How does this writer relax? “I fall asleep when I can't hold my eyes open anymore.” And for writer’s block, he says “All I know how to do is sit down and work through it, even when there's no super-inspiration, even when I have to struggle to find the words.”
Motivational inspirations? Greg says he’s not sure he has any. “Motivational speeches don't get anything done. Hard work gets it done. I just now made that up, but maybe that could be my favorite motivational phrase.” Gotta love this guy. He has a real down to earth personality with a sense of humor that makes him likable.
Interviewer: “What advice would you give to aspiring writers?”
Greg: “Read this blog post: http://dgregscott.com/talent/ Seriously - read it. I put lots of thought into it and it says what I want to say to any aspiring writer. Or anyone aspiring to achieve any worthy goal.”
Greg is a serious reader. Here’s how he describes his love for books. “You know you're a reading nut when... Back in 1992, I was getting ready to take the GRE test to get into the MBA program at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. I was just finishing up an out of town meeting in Nashua, NH, and the test was scheduled for Saturday morning in Nashua. I had this Star Trek book and I couldn't get it out of my mind, so I stayed up most of the night in my hotel room reading my Star Trek book instead of doing my final prep for the GRE test. I did well enough on the test that I got in, which was good, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to laugh about it this many years later. If you have to go to an out of town meeting and you've scheduled an important test to get into graduate school the day after the meeting, don't bring any fiction books with you on the trip. And stay away from book stores until after the test.”
To learn more about Greg Scott, he says, “Tell everyone you know to explore my website at http://dgregscott.com.”
