Inside Code Red

It’s release week for Code Red! Just a few more days to wait… so I thought I’d share some inside info.

Code Red is about the lead singer of a boyband (Maddox) and his personal manager (Roscoe). Roscoe has been Maddox’s personal manager/handler for four years and he’s been in love with him for three of those. While all five members of the band are equal, Maddox is singled out as the bad boy, the one everyone wants. He’s thrust into the centre of all interviews, fans and paparazzi hound him all the time, and because of security risks/measures, he lives an isolated, lonely life.

While writing Code Red, I researched boy bands such as BTS and One Direction mostly, and 5SOS to a lesser extent. And I also researched their management companies, their security details, their schedules; daily and whilst on tour. I watched tour documentaries, interviews and videos on fan and security interaction.

Phew. It’s a scary world.

One thing to remember while reading Code Red is that boy band management is very different to standard band management. If you didn’t know already, boy bands are, more or less, owned by their management companies. Their management company calls the shots in all matters, personal and professional. Their lives are tied up in contracts and non-disclosure agreements.

Another thing to remember is Code Red is fictional and not a user-guide on how boy bands are managed. I had to take some creative license LOL.

Okay now to the fun part…

The band: Atrous

The word atrous means jet black. I originally wanted to call the band Onyx but that name for a band was already taken. Then I liked the name Jet (from jet black) but that was taken too. So I searched some other words pertaining to onyx and there was perse, sable, and atrous. I went with atrous.

Atrous has five members: Maddox, Jeremy, Wes, Luke, and Blake.

Atrous’ logo is a pentagon. This logo/brand was designed by me. I needed something with five sides and a solid pentagonal shape was too hard to work with. I love the pentagon shape though and it was perfect for my guys, given the five equal sides.

Maddox and Roscoe

What do they look like? (I don’t own these photos. Licenses and copyright belong to the original creators/photographers)

Roscoe looks a bit like Chris Hemsworth. He’s tall, blond, well-built, and is often mistaken for Maddox’s security. He grew up in a small town in Vermont playing ice hockey and moved to LA to experience the gay scene, sunshine, and city life.

Maddox looks like Jeon Jungkook. Maddox is American born with grandparents from Japan and Europe. He has one sleeve of tattoos, he wears long black earrings. He sings like an angel, dances like the devil, and is utterly gorgeous. It’s kinda easy to see why Maddox is head over heels in love with him.

 

 

Atrous pic

I always pictured 5SOS (from right to left) Jeremy, Wes, Luke and Blake as Atrous.

The tour

A twenty-three concert tour of the US, Canada, and South America. I have made merch for this tour/band and you can find them at my MERCH STORE.

 

And finally….

Maddox’s Notebook

In Code Red, Maddox has a notebook that he takes with him everywhere. He writes lyrics and composes music scores in his notebook though we never see inside of it.

In the ebook and paperback, I’ve included a section at the end called Maddox’s Notebook. I’ve included SEVEN songs/lyrics in this section of the book. I added these for fun and for a little treat. I highly doubt they’d hold water in any kind of lyric writing/song making contest so please don’t expect them to. These ‘lyrics’ are from poetry I’ve written over the years and I thought it was a great way to include them into a book. I even use the word poetry loosely here. Merely just thoughts, really. And that’s what Maddox’s Notebook is as well. It’s his thoughts and the basis of his songwriting.

They look something like this:  (This is a screenshot. It’s not printable quality)

 

So that’s it. That’s all I can tell you about Code Red without giving too much away. You can pre-order Code Red at

UNIVERSAL AMAZON LINK