The last day of January – wow, the year is flying by! It’s been an eventful 2019 so far in the real world, but also in Luke Bright’s alternate reality. That’s why, in this week’s blog, I’m going to delve a little more into alternate realities and why us authors find them so compelling to write in.

You may ask the question, aren’t all books alternate reality? I suppose in a way some are, but there are ones that aren’t. First, we’ll have to start by looking at what an alternate reality is. It’s whereby the author changes something in the real world or something that is ‘canon’ which has a huge impact and changes the space that the characters live. It may not be a big change, but it’s change enough that the world becomes different to what we know here. For example, a romance novel may not be classed as an alternate reality whereas something like a dystopia is.

So, why are these good and why are these bad. We’ll start with good first. From my own experience, an alternate reality is good because you can make things up and invent new ways in the world. Whether it be new situations, new objects with unknown names or new places. Even new people. For example, in The Luke Bright Series, the alternate reality is that War Plan Red actually came into fruition and the consequence was the Atlantic Split war in 1974. It had a huge impact on the world, as you can imagine, with two of the most powerful nations in the world now complete enemies. Technology is different, TV shows and books are different, food and drink is different, people’s views and perceptions are different. Maybe even fashion is different. A forty five year long split can skew the world a whole new way and with one big incident like this, who knows what the knock on effect is to all the people that live there.

However, the negative point is that you have to make sure you keep to your rules. If you make up rules in your world, then you can’t diverge into the real world. Things have to remain separate. For example, a band who were formed in our reality may not have been around in the other reality. A company that formed in our reality may not have formed in that world. Celebrities and references wouldn’t be the same there. You have to make sure that you don’t drop out of the world you’ve created because then the reader will drop out too and lose their place. The cracks can appear and the world you’ve woven together can fall apart and the reader won’t be able to get back in as well as they did before. So, you have to be careful.

In my view, an alternate reality can be what you want it to be. I think it’s an exciting concept, especially those which are so close to the current world, and set in the same sorts of times. That’s one of the things I find so compelling about The Luke Bright Series. The world is still very similar, and it’s a time that we can all imagine, but it’s so vastly different to how it is today, (well, it’s meant to be.) Thinking of all the possibilities is so much fun and all the new things that could happen. When you start, you find it hard to stop, and though you can be very meticulous, it’s possible to just have fun with it and see where it leads. Imagining yourself in the world too, no matter what it’s like, is another really interesting thing to do. What would we lose if the UK and the USA were enemies? What wouldn’t we even know we missed out on? What celebrities wouldn’t we know about? What could change in our own personal lives if the war had become a reality. Have a think and let me know!

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

N.A.K.