What is your dream as an author?

What is your dream as an author
What is your dream as an author?

A few year’s back I’d never have believed I’d be a published writer…what an amazing journey and experience this has been.

Now that I’m published, I wanted to share my dream as an author with you. As I can now officially call myself an author.

Now that I have my first book published, my next dream would be to have my novel made into a film…wouldn’t that be so exciting?

Recently, when my wife and I were away in Barbados, I was watching a bit of TV in bed and a program called Naked And Afraid came on…you may initially ask…’what has to do with my dream‘…well let me explain.

Seeing this program for the first time, I realised  that there is obviously a following from fans who like this type of thing…Naked And Afraid is about contestants (if I may call them that) who are sent out in the wild to fend for themselves.

However, the difference between Naked And Afraid and another program like The Island with Bear Grills is that all of the contestants are naked! Their ‘private bits’ are masked or blurred on the TV, but this does not get away from the fact that they are not wearing any clothes…whatsoever.

The other main difference is in where the contestants are left to survive. With Naked And Afraid they are out in wild and in potentially dangerous places…like the South African Savanna with Lions and Hyenas lurking or in the Everglades with Alligators…to name two. I watched the one set in South Africa, which is what reminded me of my novel.

On The Island, the contestants are battling with finding food and drink to survive, whereas on Naked And Afraid they not only need to know survival skills to eat and drink, but they also have predators to watch out for too.

So what has all this got to do with my dream and my novel Nothing Left But Fear I hear you ask?

Well the simple answer, the premise of my novel is similar.

I only realised there was something similar to my novel out there when I first watched a few of this series when we were in Barbados is December 2016…the opening chapter in my book reads as follows:

Nothing Left But Fear Novel by Adrian Russell

As he drifted up through layers of sleep, David Lane began to sense that something didn’t feel quite right. He reached instinctively for the comforting edge of his mattress. It wasn’t there. And where was the duvet that usually kept him warm?

His pulse quickened. Reaching further, trying again to find the raised mattress edge, his fingers grasped something that felt like straw. Straw? His eyes shot open. He found that he was not in his bed at all, but lying on the floor of what appeared to be a cavern. Straw was scattered about him everywhere. He was stark naked and itching all over.

Fear struck him like a lightning bolt: He really was no longer in the safety of his own little bedroom at home!

‘Where the hell am I?’

To find out, David jumped to his feet. Or, at least, he tried to. His legs, shaky from some kind of drug infusion he didn’t understand, since he didn’t do drugs, were not prepared for the suddenness of the move. He fell back onto the straw-covered surface, a jarring experience that didn’t help ease the racing of his heart.

He lay there for an instant, breathing heavily, feeling vulnerable and lost. Soon, though, he realised he would have to fight his fear and try to get up again. As he tried to grasp what was going on, he picked up a handful of the straw. It was dry to the touch and had an odd, unfamiliar smell. This did not make him feel any less afraid.

‘Am I going mad? Am I having a nightmare?’

Trying to calm himself, he began studying his surroundings more closely. He noted that the temperature in the cave-like room was warm, so, despite his nudity, he wasn’t cold. What dim light there was came from a single source, what appeared to be an entrance to the cave, but as he looked into the blackness behind him he could feel the almost abysmal depth of an unfathomable, empty space.

A new shiver of fright went from the base of his spine to the nape of his neck. It was as if someone had just walked over his grave. With his thoughts turning to …’where the fuck are my clothes?’…he cupped sweaty palms over his face in frustration and racked his memory for what might have caused him to end up in such a place. He vaguely recalled going to the withdrawal point at his bank in Chelmsford, where he lived, after his social security had been deposited.

‘I don’t remember going to bed at all.’

He rubbed his eyelids, then, as if in some way that would help lessen his confusion. It didn’t.

His mind, desperate for an explanation, soon began to grasp at straws. Train tracks, he thought. A train tunnel and tracks would make more sense than a cave. A quick look around determined no railway track had ever been there.

‘But how did I get here?’

He kept challenging his brain for answers, trying to piece together the few facts he had to make sense of it all.

Again, he recognised that the warm air in the cave certainly was odd; he should be feeling cold by now, but he didn’t. That wasn’t normal. As he looked toward the light, he could make out trees and some sky. That definitely did seem normal, although he had his doubts.

‘That can’t be outside in England, can it?’

Heart still beating fast, David slowly got to his feet, being careful not to fall this time. He stood, wobbling a bit, and drew some confidence from realising he was not under immediate attack. But that feeling was undermined by a wave of emotional — or was it physical? — fatigue.

‘Do I really want to know?’

Whether he did or he didn’t, he realised he had to do something. But what?

He looked at the welcoming light at the entrance. At the moment, naked as he was, he was reluctant to venture out there. Then he turned his head and peered again into the cave’s sloping depths. No way was he going in that direction! Staring into that impenetrable darkness sparked unpleasant images.

‘What if there’s something bad down there?’

That thought triggered a strange foreboding in his brain. He was still very unsteady on his feet, so he braced himself by stooping and resting his hands on his knees. He closed his eyes for a few seconds to temporarily shut out this disturbing, unwanted new reality.

‘Think, David! Think!’

If only he could tap into the memories he knew were dancing somewhere at the edge of his consciousness. If only he could Just then, two men came into his mind’s view. Were they real? A flash of fear shot up his spine once more. And he opened his eyes and screamed.

The important elements of the above chapter and premise of my novel are…in this case David Lane is Naked, but not only that, he is Put out in the wild…he is Naked And Alone, but also he is also Naked And Afraid…he experiences a deep primal fear. He experiences a fear that we’ve lost the meaning of in our safe lives away from nature.

However, my novel and this Discovery Channel series brings this fear back to life for the people concerned…

So this got me thinking…maybe my novel Nothing Left But Fear has legs…and what I mean by that is…if there’s a following on The Discovery Channel for people surviving out in the wild naked, then my book may have great opportunities too.

The End of article on novel writing software

I’ve already had good feedback about the novel from some of my readers, so I’m hopeful that perhaps one day my dream of it becoming a movie may come true. Having seen this series, the reality is a bit more real.

My second dream…or should I say second on the list, is to have my next novel published…and then after that to have a string of novels to my name.

So what is your dream as an author?

Please share in the comments what your dream is, I’d love to hear from you.

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