As Monday draws closer and I’m about to submit the final version of The Snowflake Trap, it’s all starting to feel quite surreal. More because three years ago, this book didn’t exist. This is the shortest amount of time I’ve spent between first draft and publishing and it’s crazy. From that initial idea to it being a fully formed paperback that people can read and hold in their hands? It’s been a whirlwind journey. And it’s not even over because there’s two more books coming out in the next couple of years! But, now’s the right time to reflect on the book series that has defined my late twenties.

For years, I didn’t actually have a new original idea. I spent so long getting The Luke Bright Series ready and that took over my life for a very long time, and then there was The Signs Are Coming and the massive gap of five years before I decided to go back to it. I guess between 2013 and 2019, there was nothing I felt I was ready to write about, and that’s weird for an author right?

Well, I suppose for me it’s not, because I don’t write books to just have something to write about – I have ideas, sure, but actual books and novels, I’ve only ever been able to write about something that I truly believe in and can fully envision. That’s why I never let go of The Signs Are Coming, because I knew that book had potential. With The Snowflake Trap, it was the same, kind of.

That was the first time in years I’d actually written a first draft, and the first time I’d written something original in my mid to late twenties. But the feeling of writing something afresh was exactly the same as ever. Seeing it all come to life, first through my absolutely intense list of plot points that I planned out, and then on November 1st 2019 when I wrote my first 15000 words (definitely too many for a first day!) – and to have finished it by the 17th…that power of just being able to make something from scratch, something that I was good at and something that I loved. God, I’d missed that feeling.

I will admit though, this book has been through a lot of changes and edits – some absolutely colossal ones. I ended up sending all three books in the series – which I actually wrote within the space of a year – to an editor and a lot of the story changed. Then, it changed again later with another editor and after some self-awareness (and swallowing some pride and trying to not be so stubborn.) The book it is now is so different in some senses to where I began, but actually – it’s just a huge, immense amount of progress from that initial draft.

And the characters too – to think I didn’t even know them three years ago, but now, we’re like old friends. It’s like I’m part of the ‘Millennial Musketeers’ – I’m their D’Artagnan in a way. I’ve got to know them and learnt to love them, even though I haven’t got the same history I did with people like Luke or Dark and Paul. But I’ve probably got the most in common in terms of lifestyle with this trio – primarily because their childhood experiences mirror mine.

But it’s weird – even though I’m giving them to you, the world, I’m keeping 2/3 of their story behind. The people you’ll get to know aren’t necessarily the ones that I know now and have been ‘living with’ for the past three years.

But, that’s a story to be told over the next few years. Now, it’s all about book 1, The Snowflake Trap, and that intense beginning to the generational divide that’s rocking our world already. The more and more I write about it and see what’s happening in the world, the more I know that this book is so relevant, still. I just hope people understand and learn from it, and probably people will get offended by it. But if you are offended by it, maybe you need to think about the type of person that makes you.

So, as the last blog post before the new chapter of my publication process begins, I just want to say thank you and I hope you love this book as much as I do. And when you read it, just think back to the humble beginnings where it came from. Where it started – from a spark of an idea from an author who hadn’t written in ages, the first physical copy of a book from the wider series, which will be with you very, very soon.

The Snowflake Trap will be released on September 19th and the remaining two books of The Snowflake Series will be released in the next couple of years. In the meantime, check out my other books The Signs Are Coming and The Luke Bright Series which are all available to buy! Check out the individual pages for links so you can grab your copies. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post.

N.A.K.