Author Rob Holmes surrounded by a middle school class of students holding his Zero Point Girl novel

Two years ago, I sat daydreaming in a coffee shop when a story arrived in a download from the universe.

A family sailing a catamaran around the world. A UFO smashing into their boat during a wild storm at Point Nemo in the Pacific. Two humanoid aliens revealing details of zero-point energy technology that could end the use of fossil fuels forever.

Two ships at Point Nemo.

I’m obsessed with sailing and UFOs, so it felt natural to write this story. I filled page after page, watching the movie play out in my head. It felt electric.

I believe we all have a Team Unseen that drops ideas into our minds. Whether you believe that or not, when inspiration arrives, just say thank you.

I decided to write a screenplay… for the very first time! After a quick Google, I discovered Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder, and wow, my brain was blown!

It turns out there is an underlying story structure that creates the foundation of every story, every movie, every novel. It was like discovering the Matrix, and all I can see now is the code… the story code!

Of course, these 15 beautiful beats that sit there under every story are the Hero’s Journey that Joseph Campbell wrote about. That is our journey—the great human adventure. Taken from our everyday world and thrust into a new chapter, into Act 2, where life is never the same again.

My Catalyst was reading Save the Cat! and I have never looked back.

I built the script around those 15 beats and teamed up with two brilliant Hollywood writers, Steve Deering and Naomi Beaty. My hero emerged: Natalie Hutchings, a sarcastic, gifted, broken 16-year-old. The script became Zero Point Girl.

Then the shocker. It started winning. Ten accolades so far, including…
• Best Sci-Fi Screenplay 2025 at the Chicago Script Awards
• Best First-Time Screenwriter 2025 at the Berlin International Screenwriting Festival

None of it would have happened without Save the Cat! It gave me the structure and emotional character arcs to make the story work.

I loved creating the opening and closing mirror scenes, which show how much the world and the characters have changed.

Here’s the logline: After a teenage girl and her father encounter aliens, they fight a rogue Air Force general to be able to publicize a world-saving technology.

I am looking for a film production company to help me get Zero Point Girl green-lit. It’s Race to Witch Mountain and A Wrinkle in Time meets Super 8 and The Adam Project.

In the meantime, I decided to write the story as a novel for young adults, and after another year of learning and working with an editor, the book has just launched worldwide on Amazon.

Zero Point Girl novel front cover

The audiobook version will be available in February, 2026.

The five-star reviews are already coming in for Zero Point Girl, with readers saying it was a page-turner and they couldn’t put it down. Of course, they couldn’t—the story was embedded with Blake’s magic ingredients.

And yes, there’s a cat in the story. A 50-foot sailing catamaran. I planned to save it. But in a moment of rebellion, I had it torpedoed to the bottom of the ocean.

Sorry, Blake. I hope you forgive me. Rest in peace, and thank you for your brilliant work.

Zero Point Girl poster

Check out the Zero Point Girl website.