Behind the Scenes of FreeFall

When I first started developing FreeFall, I thought I could tie up the war and chaos in one book. Oh, how wrong I was. Maybe I could have, but it would have shortchanged the story, and I wasn’t about to do that. There was just too much to explore, too much at stake, too many characters evolving, too many secrets still waiting to be uncovered.

In this book, the enemy seems unstoppable. Craze and his friends are forced to ask the hard questions, like how will humanity survive if they lose? They have to plan for the worst while still fighting for the best. People who once drove Craze up the wall have become trusted advisors. His circle has grown. His burdens have too.

More aliens. More truths. And more danger.

Since the series was drawing nearer to the end, I had to think about character arcs in a bigger context. That made some of the choices brutal. I hated killing any characters, especially one in particular. I loved writing him. But this is war, and not everyone makes it out.

Creating the alien enemy was its own beast. I asked myself: What would truly terrify me? And then I designed my enemy around my answers. The enemy became so powerful, I had to spend a long time figuring out how anyone could possibly defeat it. The odds felt insurmountable. But that’s what made the stakes real.

FreeFall is about what you do when hope teeters on a cliff, when survival isn’t guaranteed, when the people around you—friends, enemies, strangers—matter more than ever.