Now owned by MakeMusic, Finale won Best Book/Video/Software at the 2015 Music & Sound Awards[5] and has been used to score films such as Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator, Spider-Man 2, Sideways, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Ratatouille, and Michael Clayton.

This sparked a spirited discussion between Farrand and his Trekker friend as to how the communicators worked, and the inconsistencies in their depicted usage in the series.

A book producer liked Farrand's idea for a Next Generation nitpicker's guide, and so Farrand spent two years conducting careful analysis of the first six seasons of that series, spending eight to nine hours a day for months watching each episode multiple times, composing a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the plot holes, continuity errors and other trivia in the series.

[7] Although exhaustive in their attention to detail, the Guides were not intended as critiques of the series' episodes or movies, but lighthearted musings that Farrand explained with the philosophy, "All nitpickers shall perform their duties with lightheartedness and good cheer," explaining that nitpicking should be about having fun with one's favorite television shows, not pointing fingers and assigning blame.

[citation needed] Following the cancellation of the Guides, Farrand returned to the computer consulting industry, hoping to begin writing his first novel in his free time.

Those plans changed when his wife Lynette, who had served as music minister at their church for 16 years, decided to take a two-year break.

Farrand, a devout Christian who mentions Jesus Christ in the acknowledgments of all his books, agreed to serve as interim music minister; combined with his consultation job, this consumed all of his time, and he worked seven days a week.

Twenty years into the new rule, a resistance fighter named Avery Foster decides to confront the new rulers, including Judge Thomas Stone, whose brutal interpretations of the new law have oppressed anyone daring to rebel.

Farrand wrote the novel in part to explore the question of how one can distinguish between the divine and extraterrestrials, and added a topic to Nitcentral for discussion of the novel.