The Origins of Raven's Eye

Following on from the Origins of Damien Hunter blog, I thought I would share where my first three novels came from starting with Raven’s Eye.

Those that have read them will know that I already include an origins story in each. I like to share with my readers where the triggers for each story came from. As music is a central theme to how I write I also include what I was listening to at the time. I’m sure you will all work out my taste in music pretty quickly.

I wrote my first three novels many years ago before deciding to independently publish them in 2020.

The central idea for Raven’s Eye and the major protagonist the Urbans grew from two distinct experiences in 2004, both late at night when I was working shift . At about 2 am I would take a break and go outside of the building I worked in. I would stare at the road and runway in the distance, hoping that something interesting would happen to distract me from a long and not very enthralling shift. My mind is always looking for inspiration.

The first experience was spotting a guard dog, minus its handler happily jogging past me enjoying its freedom. More happily for me, the dog never noticed I was standing five metres away, very still and trying to look like the pole I was standing next too. As the dog passed I showed much bravery by quickly heading back into the safety of the building. I can’t say why that experience kept replaying through my mind and its link to Raven’s Eye, but it does.

The second experience was at the same spot, at roughly the same time and I was tired, having not slept well before shift. My eyes were not working the best and I could have sworn I saw in the shadows, what would become a Crawler rushing across the road, followed by three more and an indistinct, taller version behind them, a Lieutenant. To my tired mind the image was real, and it gave me a thrill of fright, the title Raven’s Eye popped into my head and I had the idea for a story.

What became Raven’s Eye is the fifth novel I have written but was the third I published.

I wrote the draft manuscript to the long lived and low album producing Australian hard rock outfit, The Mark of Cain and the super group, Audioslave. During the redraft and edit in 2020, I was kept company by Iron Maiden, Amon Amarth and Five Finger Death Punch.