I
am very happy to announce tonight that The Divide: Origins is finally up for
preorder. It’s been a long journey to get this one ready, and today I want to
share that journey with you.
I
first had the idea for a prequel to The Divide when I finished the original
one. I never thought it would star the same characters. I wanted to go much
further back. The first Divide was set years after the disaster that put the
world in a state of chaos, and it certainly showed the fallout of that chaos.
This one would show the actual disaster, however. It needed to be chaotic and
destruction filled. Over time, I found that writing sequels to the Wrong
series, The Strange Visions series, and making The Unseen took up all of my
time. Then came Destiny. Before I knew it, I had been dreaming about the same
idea of a Divide prequel for years. When I finally got the chance to write The
Divide: Origins, I was at a low point in my life. I had lost faith and a part
of myself. I didn’t trust people, and in some ways, I didn’t trust myself.
That’s where this book started. It centered on the destruction I thought should
be present from the start, and I found that my main character was a man who had
lost who he was. For him, there might not even be redemption. It was in that
place where I found common ground with my main character and I was able to put
all of myself into this one. It gave it a sense of authenticity. His pain and
these characters’ pain were my own. It evolved into a book much more about overcoming
the worst of the world and ourselves. Just as importantly, it centered on the
one thing in my life that still felt like it was intact - family.
For
me, this book was a way to work through pain and tell a story that had been
inside me for years. I’m so glad I got to tell it, but while writing from an
angry place, I made a mistake. I allowed my own pain to become too entwined in
the story. Things were too dark in the end, so I’ve been tirelessly working to
write a new ending. It would turn out that the new ending to this one was much better.
It came from a more peaceful place where redemption might still be possible.
Just like life, The Divide: Origins will never be full of only joy or love.
There will be pain, but the words I replaced came from a place that served the
story much better. I even found that I was able to lengthen the book by another
10,000 words by including my new ending. There was more story to tell, and I
can’t wait for all of you to read that story.
I
don’t know if I’ll ever be revisiting The Divide again. This book is a narrative
that is truly finished, and you don’t have to read the other one to follow this
one perfectly. I wanted that to be so from the start. It was important that
this was approachable for new and old readers, and I didn’t want to lock myself
in for another book with a cliffhanger, but The Divide’s world and timeline are
huge. I have hundreds of stories in my mind about its world. I can’t imagine
that I won’t ever revisit this series in some form, even if it’s just for my
own enjoyment. It’s been that kind of experience writing this one. It’s been
such a joy. I’ve grown so much as a person through the experience of writing
this novel.
Well,
enough about my journey to getting The Divide: Origins into your hands. What I
really want you to see is the cover and a link so you can preorder it. Thanks
to all of you for reading and supporting me as I do the one thing I’ve always
wanted to do. Here’s to one more project completed. I hope you all love it, and
I can’t wait to share many more stories with you.
