Some minor fears

The first story I ever published was “Only Forgotten,” which was a short story about Hell, and most

of all ‘redemption’. The idea behind it is something that is really close to me, and when I wrote ‘Tiffany’s Model Affair’ for a Hell anthology, I knew I wanted more with these two stories. The concept of redemption and Hell appealed to me, and I thought it would be nice to turn this into a series. I decided it would be nice to incorporate the seven sins in this series, which would be a good excuse to write seven separate stories. After talking to my friend April, she came up with a great title for the series ‘Even Hell Has Standards’, and thus the idea was born.

Enthused I began to jot ideas down for the different sins. Adolf Zakerny, the main character from Only Forgotten will play a larger role in the first book, and his sin is Pride. Tiffany will get a different name and her sin is Envy. Soon other ideas followed, and one of the tortured souls in Hell in Only Forgotten will get her own story.

As I write, I have to admit, I’m worried about how the world receives these stories. I plan to make them controversial, because I believe those are the stories that need to be told. I know that there will be people that will hate them, because I don’t plan to tell nice little stories. Topics I want to use are abuse, murder and pedophilia for a start. I don’t mean to glorify them, but they’re not the typical horror topics. Now I know not everyone can like what you write, but the thing that bothers me most is that I will probably offend a lot of people. I don’t like offending, I don’t mock other people’s beliefs or lifestyles. Yet at the same time, it’s hard not to offend with a topic like this. My version of Hell is not exactly the same as most other versions. That’s what I like about it too. I like that it’s different and that it makes you think. To provoke thoughts and discussions in readers is something I like to strive for. I would love for my work to make an impact on someone. That’s the stuff I dream about.

So I am going to write this series. And all I can do is hope that I won’t offend too much. That people won’t decide my writing isn’t worth it because of this. It’s a pretty scary risk for a beginning writer like myself. We’ll have to see where it goes.