Duluth Author Debuts Sci-Fi Thriller

Just as plans are being finalized for Dragon*Con, the world’s largest popular culture convention to occur Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Jonathan C. Gillespie of Duluth is relishing the launch of his new military science fiction thriller series, collectively called “The Tyrant Strategy.”

“It’s quite a rush holding the finished product in your hands,” he said.

A published author, whose short fiction once earned a finalist nod at the Parsec Awards, among others, Gillespie enjoys introducing his books to people who might avoid genre fiction. “I enjoy catching the reader who doesn’t yet know that they will enjoy this kind of fiction – moms, military veterans, homeschoolers, Christians, etc.” he explained.

“There was a time in this country when media didn't almost always rely on the profane,” he said. “I am compelled to write works that grab people with dialogue, character development, and storytelling.”

Gillespie’s new book, “The Tyrant Strategy: Revenant Man,” is a suspense thriller wrapped with military science fiction overtones which features a cybernetically-enhanced super-agent, a brilliant, unstable tactical genius, a determined mother, and a solid Christian character. According to Gillespie, the book “originally started out as a short story, but I realized that the characters were so multi-faceted that the story needed to be stretched into a novel.”

Gillespie is a married father who works fulltime as a database administrator at a well-known Midtown Atlanta company by day. He manages to write through “voluntary sleep deprivation,” he explains. He awakes at 5:20 a.m. during the week – “it’s the best time to write since the brain is relaxed.” He writes for an hour and a half, gets ready for work, and rides MARTA to Midtown, usually catching a nap on the way. He manages to squeeze some writing into his weekends as well.

“I don’t let down my employer or my family,” he said. “Evenings are sacred time. It’s time with my wife and daughter and for other extracurricular things I do.”

Gillespie’s career in information technology and his stint as a science fiction writer share common traits," he said. “It is a game of perfectionism. It helps me self-examine my work. I’m very much a perfectionist when it comes to writing.” He added: “It also means it’s nothing for me to sit at a computer for two to three hours at a time. I can slip into a zone and keep going.”

In his spare time, Gillespie is active in a prison ministry, enjoys attending church, loves reading and writing about history, likes blogging, war gaming, video gaming, in addition to hiking and camping. “I believe in experiencing everything,” he said.

The Duluth author dates his love of books and writing to his childhood. “I was the kind of kid who was finishing up the assigned stories we were told to read when everyone else was moving into PE,” he said. “I realized I didn’t mind writing assignments. I loved the opportunity to crack my knuckles and tell a story. As a kid who was extremely shy and socially awkward at school, writing allowed me to slip into another universe. It never dawned on me until I was older that I might seriously enjoy writing fiction,” he said.

Gillespie is also the author of “Sojourns Through Troubled Worlds,” a short story collection. For more information, visit www.jonathancg.net or “Like” him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JonathanCGillespie.