The night is peculiarly tranquil when I come to visit you. I try to keep my tread light as I step across the arms of the branches. The closer you are to me, the more I want to see you. I should know better. I shouldn't be here, but I guess I'm just like any hot-blooded man. I'm weak. I'm drawn to you. I can't stay away.
Dark themed fiction doesn’t just live in the houses of horror and the spooky, oh no. I’m a multiple genre writer, my work crosses categories, you won’t find any of my work (novel, short story or otherwise) constricted to the walls of one particular genre. Dark themes can be interlaced no matter what you read, whether it’s sci-fi, crime, thriller, fantasy, drama, romance, you name it.
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I find writing incredibly therapeutic, like a form of self-medicating. I think a lot of writers feel that way, it’s in our blood, we need to do it so we can get it out of our system. I love creating my own scenarios with my own rules and laws. When it comes to the realm of fiction, I can become the engineer of my own world for a reader’s escapism.
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I hold on to the branches, easing my way across. I smell the perfume you wore today, the wine you drank lingers on your lips. My heart pounds in my chest. One single snag and I'm done for. You'd know I was here, creeping around, spying on you.
I see the click and switch when you turn off the television. I hear your heartbeat when you climb up the stairs. I can feel your soft bare feet on the carpet as you walk into your bedroom.
I like writing stories that explore unusual situations or a character’s emotional state, these could be really sinister or slightly taboo subjects to others. When I’m creating, I’m on the same ride as the reader, to see how it turns out, wondering how the main character(s) are going to unravel themselves from what’s going on. Writing dark fiction has also acted as a vehicle for me to explore negative experiences and emotions I’ve engaged with in my life. It could be from a deep depressive spiral I had in my teenage years, dealing with a lifelong health condition and going through harrowing break up after break up. Through writing dark fiction, I have been able to gain a higher perspective and understanding by looking through the eyes of someone else in order to create a unique, cross genre story.
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In 2015, I was on the train home from work when I thought about a man watching a woman from a tree outside her home. It was dark, erotic and emotional. Forgive Me originally began as a short story. I posted it on Wattpad (it had a different title back then) and readers loved it. I thought I was finished with the premise but the narrator (the man watching) wouldn’t leave me alone. So many drafts later, I published my debut novel and this book is the result!
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PLAYLIST FOR FORGIVE ME
Music is the fuel for stories
Part One
K’s Choice – Virgin State of Mind
The Runaways – Saturday Night Special
Prince – Purple Rain
Mazzy Star – Fade into You
Young Heretics – I Know I’m A Wolf
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Part Two
Anilah – Medicine Chant
Tool – The Pot
Metallica – Enter Sandman
Stone Sour – Made of Scars
Olfaur Arnalds –Not Alone
Limp Bizkit - Behind Blue Eyes
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Part Three
Fleetwood Mac – Alabtross
Rukkuro – The In Between
Sleep Dealer – The Way Home
Slipknot – The Devil in I
Balmorhea – Remembrance
Olfaur Arnalds – So Far
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Part Four
Ralph Stanley - Fire in the Blood
NF – How Could You Leave Us
Low – Lullaby
Thirty Seconds to Mars – Stronger
Iulia Mitiashova - 1944