We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joshua Grant a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Joshua, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Several years ago, I found myself looking out the windows at an endless storm. I was a young camp counselor with a cabin full of fourth graders, and we were just getting ready for bed. Rain was coming down in endless torrents, filling the brook at the bottom of the canyon in minutes, but we were safe in our cabin, up away from the tumult on a hill. Or so we thought.
Suddenly, water burst through the wall, producing the loudest, scariest sound I’ve ever heard like a canon shot. The lights went out and the building collapsed on us. The water followed suit, smacking us with three feet of icy force. It was pure chaos (and I honestly don’t even fully remember what happened), but somehow, miraculously, we all got out with only scratches and bruises. We went up the hill and sat at its top, huddled together and hoping the storm would end…which it did, an hour later.
The next few days were similarly harrowing as we waited for people to dig us out. Water had carved up the mountain roads and highways, cutting deep ten foot chasms in places, while burying others in ten feet of mud. Still, we had food, water, and each other…and that’s what I discovered is all we need as people.
I had this amazing moment in all that chaos. It was a day after the flood, and we were all making due as best we could, cooking over an open fire and trying to entertain hundreds of kids of various ages. It was stressful, hard work at every turn. And in the midst of this stress, I sat down for a moment, just needing a break. But in that moment of just feeling defeat and exhaustion, I looked up, realizing all my kids were laughing. We had these blankets and pillows that Red Cross gave us, and the kiddos had used them to build the most epic fort. And all on their own, these kiddos who literally had a building fall on them the night before, built a new one with what they had. And they were laughing, not just surviving, but flourishing.
That was one of the most profound moments of my life. It taught me so much, all in the span of a moment. There are always storms, and they always seem endless. And they always end. Human beings are powerful beyond measure. You are powerful beyond measure. Everything can get wiped away in an instant, even sturdy buildings, but as long as we have simple blankets and each other, it can all get rebuilt, and even be better than before.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Life has pushed me in many crazy directions that I never expected to go in! These days, I wear many hats (and I seem to be adding new ones daily!). I have written and published a number of bestselling novels spanning everything from horror (Pandora, Jericho) to young adult sci fi and fantasy (The Fifth Ascendant, Nexus). I love getting to build lived in worlds that have a lot of layers, worlds I personally love to get lost in (minus the horror books, I wouldn’t want to live there, lol!). But really, it’s all about character for me. People are so interesting, and I live having a diverse cast in all my books. The biggest thing about my stories is that they all have a twist. Every person and each world always has a mystery embedded within. I’m a huge fan of what’s called perspective shift, where you tell a story and show the audience what’s really going on the whole time, but they don’t see it until later when you reveal that one little detail. It makes going back through the book a second time a lot of fun!
During the pandemic, I decided to try my hand at creating comics. I had this crazy idea to retell the story of Peter Pan, but where Peter becomes a vigilante crime fighter like Batman. It was so much fun adapting the original story into this gritty retelling that takes place in the real world. I had loads of fun with it, but I had no idea The Lost Boy series would shoot to #1 on the charts. After that, everything became comics. Last year, I published Another Zombie Apocalypse, a collection of short stories that are very different takes on the classic zombie apocalypse trope (but are all connected and are building towards something). We got to experiment with robots in the zombie apocalypse, or vampires. It was so much fun! Apparently, the audience thought so too since it made #1 over The Walking Dead (although we were dethroned by Plants Versus Zombies)! I’m now in the years long process of converting my fantasy novel The Fifth Ascendant into a full graphic novel.
In addition to all this, I’m working on developing two video games. One is a 2D sidescroller set in a future dominated by killer robots and is inspired by classics like Metroid called Augment Anthem (due out in later 2024). And the other is a pokemon style RPG called the Periodic Table of Monsters, where players collect adorable little monsters based on the elements from the periodic table of elements (releasing early 2025).
AND if that’s not enough, I decided to write and produce my first film! Husk is based on the first chapter of Another Zombie Apocalypse and follows Emmerich, a service robot, as he tries to care for Hal, a paralyzed human, during the outbreak of the zombie apocalypse. Husk just entered filming during February 2024 and will release in the fall of 2024!
I love people, so if anyone would like to connect with me or learn more about my work, they can always reach out at my website Diabolic Shrimp! (I often give away free books and provide other cool opportunities like being involved in some of my projects, many people got to be converted into zombies last year!)
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Life has taught me a masterclass in perseverance! Like my opening story, there is no such thing as a storm you cannot weather if you have the will to move forward. ‘Always Forward’ are two words I have written on my work desk. If you are willing to move forward, despite what comes your way, you will always find success.
That leads into my next important skill: flexibility. Most of my successes were not the ones I expected or what I was striving for. People often feel like they’re giving up or compromising when life demands flexibility. Flexibility, at its very core, means to bend, and people see that as weakness. But like rubber bands, bending and stretching has a power all its own, holding things together and often propelling them to new unexpected places. Be like a little rubber band person and work where things take you.
And I know it’s cliche, but communication is one of the last pillars I build my little empire on. Talking to people is scary (I actually used to be extremely shy until life threw me into an acting career much earlier in life), but once you acknowledge that you have meaningful things to say (and you do, don’t let anyone, even you, tell you any differently), you will find it makes all the difference. People want to be listened to. People need connection. If you’re willing to pick up the phone, talk to someone face to face, ask that question…well, you’ll have already surpassed 95 percent of the competition out there. Talk to someone. It pays back in huge dividends, and you’ll be making a difference for that other person like me who has a hard time starting the conversation! 🙂
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
Working on a gazillion projects while also trying to have a family and social life can become overwhelming. This brings me back to those days in the flood. I learned very quickly then how to focus on what’s important. Life is a little teeter totter balance beam. On one side, we have The Big Picture. On the other, there sits The Little Picture. If The Big Picture is starting to get heavy and overwhelm you (in my case, I start to see the spinning plates of the seven projects I’m doing simultaneously and everything I have to do to keep it all from crashing), then it’s time to focus on the Little Picture. I stop looking at all the projects all at once, and focus on the littlest thing I can do to advance the littlest project. I look at tiny milestones and successes. I sometimes just dump out the little paper trashcan at the base of my desk. This helps me balance things again. Even the little progress starts to snowball into bigger things.
The same goes for the opposite. When life starts leaning too much towards the Little Picture, and you feel like you’re going through the motions or you don’t have any goals, simply start focusing Big Picture again. Make a five year plan for yourself (I do this for every professional project I start).
And with all of it, remember that, even if it’s unbalanced, the teeter totter always eventually hits the ground. So even if you do nothing and leave your life unbalanced and in a flux of chaos, the chaos and stress will eventually hit a stopping point, and then you can build up from there. Build that fort out of those blankets and pillows!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://diabolicshrimp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diabolic_shrimp/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rubido.Jolinar
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-grant-25193022b/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@diabolicshrimp
