Goodreads asked Brock Adams:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Brock Adams Ember started as a weird sort of half-dream. I woke up at four in the morning, when it was still pitch black outside, but I was convinced it was around ten and the sun had just failed to come up. I soon woke up enough to come to my senses, but I was left with a question: what if this thing we rely on so much that it's a cliche--if nothing else, the sun will come up tomorrow--suddenly failed on us? The slow death of the sun would be the catalyst for so much conflict and struggle on Earth that it seemed like a great starting point for a novel.

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