Scrapers is a near-future, adventure, thriller with a slightly punk, Gen X edge. It tells the story of Brodie Frost who lives in the slums of the US. He is joined by his international elite agent, ex-girlfriend and his best mate, Marcus, a funky ex-Darpa, pot smoking, genius, ladies man.
From the Flap Copy:
‘The year is 2028. Brodie Frost, a surgeon by trade, lives in the slums of America. He spends his days working as a Scraper, harvesting body parts for a corrupt government corporation, while secretly gathering intel for the underground resistance. By night, he saves the lives of the downtrodden, a crime punishable by law under the Machiavellian interim President. Brodie’s devious brother, Billy, works for the same corrupt corporation, scheming his way to the top.
When Brodie finds a data chip on the body of a murdered UN worker whose corpse was dropped in the slums, he soon learns that Billy has put a bounty on his head. The stakes grow even higher when Brodie can’t reach his sister. He fears she is in danger and under the control of Billy, living in the elite region of the country.
So, with a price on his head, in a race against time, Brodie grabs his best friend and his girlfriend, Nora, a highly trained agent with a global intelligence organization, as they set out on a rescue mission, dodging chaos and a gang of wild-punk killers at every turn
I started working on Scrapers around 1999/2000. It has morphed between screenplay and novel over the last two decades. The story has survived a few blue screen crashes and one apartment robbery that left me starting from scratch when my laptop was stolen. Luckily, I wasn’t home.
The inspiration that sparked the start of Scrapers was a collision of cult classic films. Those being Blade Runner, released in 1982 when I was 10, The Warriors, released in 1972, the book, written by Sol Yurick, and A Clockwork Orange, released in 1971, the book, written by Anthony Burgess. These three films coupled with the music of Portishead and predominantly, Boards of Canada, especially their video for Everything You Do is a Balloon. Boards of Canada is an electronic duo made up of brothers Mike and Marcus from Edinburgh. Their inspiration for the bands name came from having watched, The National Film Board of Canada’s award winning documentaries.
Blade Runner is still one of my favorite movies and when I was writing Scrapers, the big thing that inspired certain aspects of the story was ‘what is the gap’? What would have to happen in our world now, to get us in the direction of where Blade Runner begins.
The Warriors is a movie I saw on TV having stayed home from school sick in Junior High, long before cable and streaming. The Warriors was a big influence on Scrapers with regard to the journey, the adventure part of the story. If you are familiar with The Warriors you will see some sprinkles of similarity throughout.
A Clockwork Orange, was one of the first books and films that I’d seen that took normal characters and made them bizarre, dangerous and disturbed, and coupled them with new slang and phraseologies. Had the film or the book not had the extravagant outfits and scenery detail that both had, along with the excellent narrative and new slang, it would have been a book among many. The way that Anthony Burgess wrote this story was clever, unique and genius.
Music has a heavy influence in my writing process, along with where my ideas spark from. I tend to create playlists to get in the mood, so to speak, of the genre of the project I am working on. Just a few of the bands that are on the Scrapers playlist include: Boards of Canada, Portishead, Amon Tobin, Killing Joke, Sneaker Pimps, Echo & the Bunnymen and Stereolab,
Throughout Scrapers you will encounter what I feel is potentially coming in our not so far off future. More and more AI introductions into our daily lives, new body enhancements, implants and inserts that go far beyond lip fillers and waste thinners. I suppose in a way, Scrapers, is a small commentary on the dangers of gluttony, greed and power. But it is also a story of love.
As for the characters in Scrapers, there are a few that are based off of people within my world, as well as, a bit of myself. Brodie Frost was created not long after I lost a very good friend when he was just 22. Many of Brodie’s good qualities are born from that friend that passed too young. As well, with writing, once I create characters, its not uncommon for them to come alive. What I mean by that is they start to appear within the story, in your dreams. Our characters come alive and help us with plot blocks, crossroads and even display behaviors in our dreams that help us flesh them out on the page. Scrapers is a story where the characters definitely came alive.
Scrapers is available now to purchase on Amazon!
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