by Darren Lewis
Onwards brave souls.
With the conclusion to the Baiulus Series my initial inclination was to immediately continue the story of Ellie, Rox and Cole et al. I started to write the follow on story of how these characters would combat the Institute and an entire world of talented, and developed quite a lot of the first act when I read an article and subsequently watched a documentary regarding a 'cold spot' in the universe and why it exists. For a writer the most outstanding theory was this area of space as I've described in the book is the imprint of a universe next to ours.
I stopped work and started making notes and reading more about parallel universes, multiverses, paradoxes and so on. The idea of a choice leading to many outcomes is not a different one in literature and film but I decided I wanted to apply this to my story. Significantly I wanted to use it in relation to my characters, take one moment that was crucial in their history and change the outcome and see where that took them. Suffice to say I made everything that went right before go completely wrong this time around and developed the story from then on (this will be revealed in more detail in book two, sorry about that). It also meant casting aside the first act I'd written for the moment as I predict I won't actually require any of that material until the last book in the series.
Work on this new series went very well but I encountered a 'nice' problem. At 100,000 words (and growing) the book was too big, had too many concepts and way too much journeying from the present to the past and back again. I thought I might've overdone it for this book alone! I made a choice to completely eliminate my main character from the story until the very end as Ellie's history is too rich and deserving of a lot more attention than I could give her here. This brought Gabby, Mary, Brooke and Blue to the fore and I hope their story is worthy enough to stand alone.
This book also marks a departure in how I approached the writing. For The Seren Trilogy and Baiulus Series each book was written in order and I never 'jumped' around different parts of the book, finishing the middle before the beginning for example. This book however was written so each chapter could be effectively moved at my will to any place in the narrative and hopefully maintain the same cohesion. As fun as the experiment was it gave me headaches I was constantly changing my mind on who and what should go where, who was more important, what information should be given to the reader at any given time. Suffice to say, I made my bed and lay in it. I just hope it's an enjoyable read.
Well back to it. I'm currently working on book two and all the headaches and moments of joy that writing brings.
Thank you.
Darren Lewis
November 2016
About the Author
As I'm sure every author on the planet would say, 'I love reading.' In fact, it's not just love, it's a passion. Some of my earliest memories are of reading school books to my parents and then speaking about those stories to my teacher.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have a family that share this passion and by the time I was ten years old, I believe my parents had a book collection that could be counted in the high hundreds. Their collection ranged from horror to science fiction, romance to thriller and at a young age I was allowed to read some of the more 'adult' books by Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Isaac Asimov and so on. If I could take one thing away from that experience, it was that I never considered myself too young to read these authors.
My first real love affair with an author happened at thirteen years old when I read a book of my brother's entitled 'The Pawn of Prophecy' by David Eddings. I was enraptured, captivated I suppose, and wanted to read every single book of the series in one go. Here was the problem, however. I had bought my own copies except for book three of a series of five and I'd just finished book two. My older brother had a copy and it's an unwritten rule of the house that whoever buys a book reads it first…no exceptions.
So what did I do?
I waited until my brother went out for the day and stole away to his bedroom and 'borrowed' his copy. I read that book in six hours and returned it before he came home. I did feel a bit guilty and waited for the fallout to occur but it never came. To assuage my guilt I'll point him in the direction of this bio and see if he ever knew.
I never really tried writing at that age apart from school assignments as it was something I never considered myself able to do. I might've been able to think of a premise but could never follow through on the story.
I left school at nineteen and entered the print industry where, in various guises, I would stay until the age of 38. During this time I'd found the love of my life and luckily for me, married her. We had a beautiful daughter and a son on the way. Again, I had never seriously written anything while employed in print and with having my own family my time was used up, but in a fantastic way. I will never look back and think I should've been writing during this period as my family and job were my priorities.
Fate stepped in at this point. Redundancies were made at the print company and I chose to accept. At the same time, out of the blue, my daughter, Ellie asked for a story. A story for her. It seemed to be the key to unlocking the ideas trapped inside and my first story 'Ellie and the Rabbits' was born.
It took another year but I added two more stories to complete what is now called 'The Seren Trilogy.'
It was now that my path crossed that of Creativia as my brother (yes, the same one as above!) had also been writing and accepted to be published. I thought I would give it a go as well, not mentioning that I was related to the other Lewis, Creativia was publishing. This was probably the second key moment for me as in my mind it affirmed what I wanted to do now my former career was over and I was fortunate enough that Creativia accepted my stories for publication. I continued with Ellie's adventures and added five more books which are now The Baiulus Series.
It hasn't all run smoothly. Over the last couple of years I discovered, or the doctors did, major problems with the nerves in my feet which means I can't walk as much as I love to do. I had to alter my male driven ego away from being the main bread winner of the family but my wife has never been anything but supportive in allowing me to pursue this path of being a writer. It took me a while to get familiar with though I also love spending so much time with my children.
The most important lessons I learned from all this?
If you can, do what makes you happy, not what makes you rich!
Also, it took me a few years to realise I can write whatever I want, whatever I please, and that is freedom.
Dear reader,
Dear reader,
Thank you for taking time to read Sisters of Ruin. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a short review. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated.