About the Book

Book: Guardian

Author: Cathy McCrumb

Genre: Science Fiction

Release Date: February 20, 2024

The Recorder’s fate has been sealed, but the Consortium is not the only enemy.

Labeled an aberration by the Consortium, the Recorder is not yet free. Time is running out as an engineered bioweapon wreaks havoc on friend and foe alike.

Stopping both the biological agent and the people who created it is no easy task, especially since the Recorder and her friends are trapped on a research station infested with behemoth insects. Without Consortium technology, the probability of neutralizing the threat falls to nothing. In order to save her allies, the Recorder must activate a drone, but her success might destroy any hope for freedom, a future, and a name.

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Author Interview

1. Do you set a plot or prefer going wherever an idea takes you?

I tend to have a general idea of where I want the story to go or a thematic element I want
to explore, but really? I just watch my characters do things (and sometimes argue with
them) and let the story develop on its own.

2. What, according to you, is the hardest thing about writing?

Finding time is the hardest thing for me, but if you mean the writing itself, then the
hardest thing about writing is probably saying silly, easy sounding things. I’ve stared at
the screen for ages, wondering how to say something like, “She turned around.”

3. What would you say is the easiest aspect of writing?

The easiest aspect of writing is character and dialogue. When the characters feel alive in
my mind, then writing what they do is as natural as breathing.

4. Do you pen down revelations and ideas as you get them, right then and there?

Usually not, since ideas come to me at inconvenient times (like driving or scrubbing
something) but I do my best! (lol!)

5. Do bits of yourself/friends show up in your characters?

There are parts of me in every character I write, even the characters that I don’t love. I
don’t base characters on people I know (with one exception) but sometimes lines are
echoes of things people say.

About the Author

Cathy McCrumb graduated from Biola University with a degree in English Literature and a love for stories. She and her husband, whom she met while writing letters to soldiers, have five children and currently live within the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. While writing is one of her favorite things to do, she also enjoys reading, long hikes and long naps, gluten-free brownies and raspberries, and crocheting while watching science fiction movies with friends and family.

More from Cathy

Someone asked me recently why I wrote Guardian. My answer was that the whole Children of the Consortium trilogy is my love song to people who feel left out.

In the first novel, the Recorder—a young woman with no name, no family, and no friends—doesn’t see her life as valuable. As she discovers friendship and love, however, she realizes that every person in the system is unique, and this by definition must include her, too.

How often do we doubt our own value and that of the people around us? In a world that prioritizes youth, beauty, health, and success, many people are on the outside, looking in. I suspect that deep down, a lot of us wrestle with who we are and how we fall short of this external measuring tape.

The truth, however, is very, very different from the lie of worthlessness. While we have names (and don’t usually encounter two-meter insects, for which I am extremely thankful), we frequently forget that as humans, even though we are fallen, we are made in God’s image. Furthermore, as Christians, we have been both called and adopted.

Zephaniah 3:17 says that the Lord is with us. He takes “great delight” in us and rejoices over us. What an amazing, beautiful, and comforting image. The One who formed the stars, who breathed life into every human on the planet rejoices over YOU.

My prayer is that you find hope and joy in the midst of darkness, whether or not you find friends in the pages of these novels. Look to the Lord and hold fast to the fact that you are unique and valuable. Because even when you feel like you’re on the outside looking in, you are never alone.