The Mind of God was the winner in the Popular Fiction category of the 2018 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Bevan Frank.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
The Mind of God, published at the end of 2015
What’s the book’s first line?
For the first time in many years, Bob Maggins had spent the night awake
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
A mysterious black box gets stolen from the University of Cape Town while the President of the USA is in Cape Town. Is this a coincidence or is there something more sinister at play? When the professor who worked on the black box disappears, it is up to Liz Greene to find out what happened to her father and his groundbreaking research before it is too late. Liz and her friend, Tim Fletcher, must solve one clue after another as they suddenly find themselves fleeing for their lives in a deadly hunt around Cape Town.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
The black box that forms the basis for the thriller is a real scientific device, known as a Random Event Generator. This black box is part of a large international project that deals with global consciousness, and the box actually formed a palpable ‘worldwide mind’ of grief during 9/11. In fact, it had a ‘premonition’ a few hours before events on that tragic day began. I was fascinated by this and decided to research it further and incorporate it into my fictitious thriller, that’s set in the exotic location of Cape Town. (In 2014, the New York Times published an article ‘The 52 top places to go in 2014’ and Cape Town was placed at number one!) Cape Town is a beautiful part of the world. I grew up there and decided that basing the thriller there would be a good way to expose international audiences to Cape Town and South Africa.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The heroine is Liz Greene. She has the ability to deal with what life throws at her, and once she sets her mind to something, there’s no stopping her!
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
It’s an exciting thriller set in a wonderful location. It has a great plot with lots of twists and turns along the way and the facts about the impact of world events on a real scientific black box are fascinating.
If they made your book into a movie, who would you like to see play the main character(s)?
I’ll leave that for Steven Spielberg to decide.
When did you first decide to become an author?
It was my childhood dream to become an author.
Is this the first you’ve written?
I’ve been writing since I was a kid. I’ve also written some short stories over the years. This is my first novel.