Coming Back To You?

   I wanted to let everyone in on what I’ve been writing. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m writing a prequel to The Divide. I want to share more with you than just that today, though. I’m going to tell you the central theme of this book. The theme of the original Divide was separation through class and how we can break down barriers. This story won’t share the same characters or theme. It will have a theme of division, however, and it’s one I’ve experienced myself. I think we all have at some point.

   The theme is of the division we feel when tragedy strikes in our lives. The Divide Origins is set in a world where a disaster has hit, killing countless people in the process. Families and friends bury each other, and as changing temperature and weather patterns threaten to take everyone else, people are left with one question. What would you do to stay alive? At the story’s heart, it’s about more than that, however. In times of grief and crisis, we do things that we never thought we could - horrible things even. When it’s over, we still have to look in the mirror, however. Is there redemption for us, or are we forever changed? The innocent person we once knew could be gone forever. Do we get to come back to who we were, or are our sins too great to overcome? That’s a complicated question. The answer is dependent upon how much of yourself you’ve lost and what you’ve done in the process. This book will explore the best and worst of humanity. Love and forgiveness will be themes throughout the chaos, but so will hate, anger, and death.

   I originally wanted to write this story because I loved The Divide’s chaotic world, and I missed it, but when I started writing, this book took on a new form. It isn’t the old Divide or anything close to it. It could easily be a standalone book with a totally different feel. It shows how much I’ve grown since I wrote The Divide. It also shows the struggles I’m going through in my real life. Hidden in every page is all the good and ugliness inside me. You see, when I started writing this I was in a deep depression like I’ve never been in before. I’m still not completely out of it. I was questioning if I would ever get back to who I was. I had so much hate and anger in my heart, and none of it was like me, but it was who I was becoming. I was just fresh off of writing Destiny, which made me incredibly happy, but a lot changed afterward. I found myself isolated and with nothing to do other than to examine every reason why I was sitting alone in my house all day long. There was a lot of blame to go around. Most of it belonged to me, and a portion of it was put on others. I grew to hate people for the first time, but most of all, I found myself disliking who I was. This book is a mirror of that. The beginning of it starts with a man in prison. When the disaster happens, he’s given a second chance at life. All the things he’s done and the isolation doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all about what he’s going to do with his second life. Does what he’s done define him, or is Max more than who he used to be? Can it all be justified and forgotten, or is it forever who he is? For that matter, the other characters in this book are changed, too. They lose people, see unthinkable things, and find themselves wondering what is left of themselves or the world they once knew. Do they get to come back from it all? Is there still love and normalcy? That is their story, and it’s mine, too. The simple answer to that question is yes and no. Sometimes you can be too far gone, but the majority of us find that our scars heal. The sun metaphorically pops back out when we open ourselves up to it. I’m not there yet, and as I write the ending to The Divide: Origins I find that sometimes the sun is too far buried for it to ever see the light of day again. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression of my new book. It certainly has its playful moments and even romantic ones, but this is a darker journey for people who love survivor stories.

It’s strange to think about it, but over the last few months, I’ve written a romance book that’s completely lighthearted, the final Wrong Visions, and a disaster novel that features some of my deepest feelings. I’m proud of all of them, and nothing I’ve written lately tops Destiny as far as a great story, but I don’t want to sell Wrong Visions or The Divide: Origins short. They’re both a part of me, and I’m finding that Origins is personal to me in a way I never anticipated. I can’t wait to share all of them with you. It might take a while to get them out there, but I promise that it will be worth the wait.

Thanks for reading. It helps to have this outlet when I do feel the isolation and complete division from everyone else in the world that Max felt in a prison cell. Sometimes these four walls can be like one. Hopefully better days are around the corner and I can see a glimpse of the guy I used to be again.