As anyone who knows me knows, when I finished LC���s first book, KherisBurning, I almost didn���t release it.

It was too close to home, too close to what was happening for real.My story of kids living on the streets of a war torn mining colony in a far offfuture, with tanks on every corner and soldiers patrolling the bombed outbuildings, suddenly felt way too close to what was happening in Syria at thetime. It wasn���t intentional. I hadn���t planned it that way. I���d always known,way back even before writing Blatant Disregard, that LC had grown up in a warzone. When he came to finally tell his story, those one line flashbacks from BookTwo came to life all on their own.

And now, as I am finally getting to grips with Book Seven, Ihave NG facing the reality of invasion��� standing against an enemy that cannotbe reasoned with, that will not accept failure, that cannot be beaten��� as, in thereal world, we all watch the unfolding events in Ukraine.

I don���t write about war to write about war. I write militaryscience fiction, but my heroes aren���t soldiers, at least they don���t want to be.Personally, I struggle with rank, and orders, and uniformity, and conformity��� (that���swhy I���ve never been able to hold down an ordinary job for long) and so do they.I write the stories of the guys on the ground, who want to be invisible, whodon���t want to fight, definitely don���t want to lead, but find themselves facingenemies at every turn with everyone else looking to them for answers, for a wayto find safety and stability, against a foe that will not ever stop. And I lovethat they don���t hesitate to step up to it, albeit reluctantly.

It is true that sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. Aswriters, we sometimes don���t go looking for inspiration, but we find ourselvesembroiled in storylines we started writing years ago, that resonate now louderthan ever.

One of my favourite comments on Kheris, and one that made meglad to have released it after all, was that it is ���botha joyously fun read, and a window into the darkest corners of the real world������

I hope I can pull it off again with thislatest book.

Photo by Ian Robinson

If you haven���t read Kheris Burningyet, I have some free Kindle copies to give away and some free promo codes for theaudiobook from Audible. Give me a shout if you���dlike one xx

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