Of The Light (The Book)

Of The Light was the third book I ever wrote. (My first two have still yet to see publication.) What inspired Of The Light was the movie "Cocoon". After watching it, I understood the desire for elderly people to leave Earth if given the chance, but my thoughts were - "What if you were in your mid to late 20's? Would you still want to leave Earth to live in a more perfect society?"

And thus, Zenakis Vinzant was born.

I took a lot of the characters in the book from real people. For example, there is a lot of Zenakis in me. (Or is it the other way around?) LOL Anyhow, everything that happens to Zenakis, happened to me. The place where he lives in the book is where I once lived. His job was my job. My sister, her husband and kids. Even Zen's Aunt Sandy is my real life Aunt. (Just slightly changed all of their names in the book) Even Sabrina and Debbie are based on actual people whom I know. And of course, Zen's mother, Terrella, was based off of my own mother.

Even the cities, Columbus and Chillicothe, are used in the story. As the series progresses (five books in all so far) Waverly and Piketon will come into play. You can debate with your friends if I actually encountered "The Light Beings". That's a discussion for another day.

The theme of using real people, places where I have lived and certain things I have done in real life continues throughout the series. So yes, it is placed under the realm of "science-fiction" however, there is plenty of non-fiction in the story.

When I first started writing Of The Light, I had no intentions of extending it. Once completed, I realized I didn't touch base much with the alien culture. This prompted me to write a ssecond book. (Due to be released in 2013) Once done, I realized that something was missing from the story and so, I fixed that with book three. I was able to bring the character Zenakis Vinzant full circle. However, there still lingered this nagging voice telling me that there was more to the story. I needed to really bring in the "Light Beings" more. I needed to do something with them. I had a story in the back of my mind that I thought was going to be something different, but I just couldn't get it out. It was a sci-fi also. Only when I decided to make it an extension to "Of The Light" trilogy, did it all come together for me.

Now, the 4th book in the series could have been the last one. (It could have also been about 450 pages long) But I decided to keep it around 200 pages and extend it to a 5th book. I'm glad I did. And while Zenakis is in those last two books, the story mostly revolves around the "Light Beings" and some other things. (Keeping it a secret for now. No spoilers!) LOL

The first three books of the series is done in the first person while the last two books of the series is told in third person. In the 4th book, it starts off with a tale of sorts that a new character revisits. This tale that the character tells is one that really happened to me and my family one Christmas Eve when I was nine years old. It is also in book four when I actually bring two of my "selves" together. The new character I introduce into the series lives in Columbus and is based off of me during a time when I lived in Columbus too. And the character of Zenakis lives in Piketon at the time, where I live now. So in essence, I based two characters in the book off of me in the same story. (I know, I'm odd) LOL

Anyhow, the last two books have more mystery and action in it because the first three books were really about Zenakis and his search for the meaning of life, more or less. No to say there isn't any action in the first three, the action actually gets better in each book.

But it is really in books four and five when you get to read about all the fancy technology the "Light Beings" have and use.

A few people have mentioned that they felt the story got better with each book. (I have a few people who read my books before I publish them) This was what I was aiming for.

Looking back, I realize that to write this into a 5 book series was indeed the right thing to do. It was meant to be a series. I have often considered extending it into a six, and maybe even a seven book series. Still haven't decided that yet.

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