Pitch Black

One thing I do have to tell you is that my story is dark, pitch black dark, so dark that you need a torch just to find your way. My novel Never Ever Tell was realised only a few short weeks ago and I’m still riding on the high of release day. It’s been receiving a good number of reviews and those reviews and word of mouth have overwhelmingly been positive and awesome. I’ve had reviewers and customers alike state in their reviews, not for the faint of heart, so deep and dark, I was immersed in this dark drama; it makes you sit back and take stock of things.

So why is my writing so dark?

I have never written anything that hasn’t been dark in some way. I got my start way back when I was young and once I started, I just couldn’t stop. I’ve tried different genres on to see if they fit, but they always end up coming back to the same area of expertise. Darkness. It’s who I am. I’m that mum in the school yard who looks sweet as pie but after you read my books you’ll never look at me the same again. Can’t believe you wrote that! Why did you write that? Why? Because I had to. You write what is inside your mind, and my mind goes to some dark places.

I’ve always been a prolific writer. While I’ve only published a handful of books, I have dozens more manuscripts sitting on a hard drive just waiting to see the light of day. Will they ever? Not sure, my style has evolved over time, I don’t write straight crime anymore, I focus on the female protagonist, the mother, the daughter, the sister, whoever she is, what happened to her and how she reacted to it.

I’ve been accused at times of writing stories that are too dark. My books deal with hard issues such as domestic violence, sexual assault, suicide and mental illness. While they may be hard for some people to read, I think that it’s important to walk a mile in another person’s shoes. You may have been lucky enough that none of these things has ever touched you, but guaranteed that some you know has, whether you know it or not.

Life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows (although there is definitely a place for them) and while we may want the world to be filled with kind and loving people, that’s just not the case. So, for me, writing about dark topics is central to who I am. Some of these things I’ve lived, some I have not, I won’t tell you which but it's important for me, and you, to know that this is daily life for many people. And that’s why darkness has its place amongst the other books, it shows you what the other side of life looks like.

These are my own thoughts based on my experiences, no one else’s. We all walk our own path.