Welcome to my four part blog series about the things that have inspired The Luke Bright Series. The second blog is about TV series and films that have helped me on my journey to become a writer and have directly impacted my own writing. Find the first inspiration blog about the other books that inspired me here.

First, I must mention the main influence for Atlantic Split was in fact the Planet of the Apes franchise. Yes, it may sound like an odd connection, but the two sides battling out and divided with prejudice between them, but still with a few impartial people in between? Atlantic Split all over. It was my parents who initially got me interested in the franchise and I enjoyed it and liked the characters a lot. Especially with the recent reboot of the films, it’s remained a great story about divisions that changed the world as we know it. That’s what I took from it and that’s where the very roots of Atlantic Split began to form.

One film that inspired me quite a bit when I saw it (only a little while ago) was Kingsmen: The Secret Service. Taron Egarton as Eggsy completely (for me) made that film and reflected many similar characteristics that Luke Bright has. Once again, the lighthearted action sequences in that film and the coming of age story within it really related to my books. It’s probably the closest a character on screen has come to being like Luke Bright.

As well as action sequences, I love legal scenes and whilst there’s a fair few in Atlantic Split, there’s even more in the final book of the series. One of my favourite films of all time is 12 Angry Men which is the perfect film to watch for these kinds of scenes. It is such a brilliant film set in just one room where a jury debate over one man’s innocence. I did previously have a scene with the jury discussing Luke’s sentence in Atlantic Split but it got removed in the end. But just the way the whole jury’s opinion changes throughout the film is fantastic, and admittedly I wanted strong legal characters to be my lawyers. A lot of these were inspired by To Kill A Mockingbird but also by this film as well. Both Chrissie and Mr. Peters are very strong lawyers in their own right and they make the legal scenes so much fun and so powerful to write.

Finally, one film I never thought would inspire me was Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson – I only saw it a few months back. Yet, it changed the whole course of the ending to the series. The film is about a man who realised he’s a fictional character in an author‘s book and she is planning on killing him. It made me really think about what Luke would say to me should we ever meet if the premise of the film could ever be true. Would he hate me for what I did or would he eventually understand and come to terms with it? Maybe we are all just characters in someone else’s book. After all, being an author is the closest we can get to playing a god-like figure.

Next week, I’ll be discussing in part three how various situations inspired me when writing The Luke Bright Series. See you back here then!

Atlantic Split is the first book in The Luke Bright Series and is available to purchase NOW! Please follow me on my blog and my social media links below and use the links on my website to purchase a copy if you have not done so. Don’t forget to leave a review! The second book, At Liberty To Live will be released in AUTUMN 2018. Thank you once again for taking the time to read this blog post.

N.A.K