As a teenager, I kept a diary. It started as a record of what I’d done, with the occasional hope or fear mixed in but it soon morphed into something more. Flights of fantasy began to appear – farfetched tales of high adventure – if you’re a Calvin & Hobbes fan you might know his ‘Spaceman Spiff’ alter ego – yep that was me too.
Fast forward to a creative writing degree at university and then a career in communications – and slowly the formation of a sci-fi novel was forming in the background. I got the chance to meet the legendary author Iain Banks whose books like The Wasp Factory and sci-fi Culture novels formed a huge amount of my reading. We chatted about how to write a novel and he said to keep a notebook with me at all times, jot down ideas and then when time permitted, go back and expand on them. That is what I did and Complete Darkness was the result.
It took about 10 years for the ideas to solidify – the concept being ‘what if we accidentally mapped Hell in the near future?’ The manuscript took form and then I found a publisher (the excellent Burton Mayers Books). In October 2019 the book was unleashed on the world. The launch was in a pub in Kings Cross Station London, I sold tickets and thus gathered 35 or so people to hear a debate between a Satanist and a Vicar about ‘what is Hell?’
National media coverage helped the book top sales charts and incredibly it was chosen as one of the ‘top books of the year’ by UK site: Den of Geek alongside the new releases by Philip Pullman and Margaret Atwood.
One of my favourite things that have happened since launch was when a reader took the time to make and paint figures of my two main characters – they now sit on my shelf and make me grin every time I see them.
It’s been a wild ride since then and a second novel is on the way along with several short stories published in various anthologies. Now my excitement levels are maxing out because Complete Darkness becoming a comic too.
My dark near-future story was developed into a comic format during the lockdown with artwork by Northern Irish artist Karl Brown.
As a comic book fan, I'm beyond delighted to have the chance to now launching my own. Comics are an art form that is becoming more appreciated by the mainstream, with many of them becoming Netflix / Amazon series too so who knows where this might lead?
It’s been scary launching the comic through Kickstarter as it’s very public if you fail but fortunately, we have fully funded the comic and made the stretch goal of getting a 2000AD Judge Dredd artist to create a limited alternate cover too!?
Am now sourcing t-shirts, snood bandanas, and art cards for the backer – some have even taken the chance to have themselves immortalized by being drawn into issue two as a cameo character…
Find out more at: www.completedarknessnovel.com
I’m @cleric20 on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Cleric20) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/cleric20/ ) plus you can see artwork and more about the books and comics on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/completedarknessnovel
