Trilogy author gets ahead of the (BlackBerry) Curve

With the birth of his son, Brett Restall realized that allocating time to sit down and write his book was becoming increasingly impossible. That was until he discovered a small mobile device called the BlackBerry Curve, writes LIRON SEGEV.

There is a saying that “Everyone has at least one book in them”. But without access to technology, writing a book is something that many people attempt, and only a few complete. Lack of time is usually the main reason given for non-completion as “life” usually takes over with its many priorities, relegating the book-writing down the list of priorities.

The lack of time was going to be the fate of Brett Restall’s books too, until he accidentally discovered a small technological saviour that allowed him to publish his first set of books – Brett wrote his books entirely on his BlackBerry Curve phone.

Brett started off writing his book on a desktop computer that was kept in the family study just after his son Kyle was born. Initially he managed to balance work and being a new dad with his writing. However, as time ticked on, Brett found that he was able to spend less and less time delving into his imagination in order to write – there was just no time.

Thinking a laptop would help the situation, he tried one, but it also proved to be ineffective. But then “a small miracle happened”, as Brett puts it. One day he was “fiddling” with his BlackBerry Curve and discovered the Memo application. It was a lightbulb moment as Brett realised he could write anytime he had a free moment.

I could write anywhere I wanted and at a significantly quicker pace than with my one fingered effort on a cumbersome computer,” said Brett. “BlackBerry Curve has its own built in spell check and a phenomenal capacity to store information. Its shape makes it ideally suited to speed-write with one’s thumbs. A lot of other cell phones are cumbersome and difficult to write quickly on and also I liked the clicking sound the keys made when I typed. There weren’t any real challenges at all. In fact, when I finally moved over to the Blackberry Bold, it was like being reintroduced to an old friend, only better.

From that moment, Brett was hooked. During his downtime, you could see him one-thumb tapping furiously on the BlackBerry’s keys. 140 000 words were hammered out to make up not one book, but three volumes, as the Shadow Axe Trilogy came to life right out of the Memo app.

The entire story unfolds on a small planet called Quanasses in an obscure galaxy where a group of young Shadow children set out on a mission to recover a family heirloom that was accidentally lost by the village chiefs only son, Joaquin. Their adventure leads them on an exciting and treacherous whirlwind ride against Gorts, carnivorous Gorpers, snakes and giant worms in a headlong rush to save their world from a multitude of ever increasing dangers until only the one true saviour is found.

Brett has now upgraded to the BlackBerry Q10 and is working on his next book.

Thanks to the keyboard that adapts to me, I can type faster and more accurately. It is a great fit for my needs,” he says.

Brett joins an elite team of BlackBerry authors who use their phone as their method of choice to be productive wherever they are.

The books are available on Amazon.com

* Follow Liron Segev, aka The Techie Guy, on his blog at thetechieguy.com, or on Twitter at @Liron_Segev