A little insight...

I have something to say…

The year is 2001. September. I’m 10-years-old. It’s a normal day. At least I think it is. A school day. My 10-year-old mind couldn’t comprehend at the time that my life and the lives of many around the world were about to change. I vividly remember my teacher saying, ‘We have lived through history.’ And we did.

9/11. The day the world changed.

Now, you may wonder, what do the events of 9/11 have anything to do with Aura Ignition, a story about an alien assassin hunting a boy with unusual powers? That same alien who invades Manhattan and starts gathering an army, converting earthlings under his command? Well, let me start off by saying that my parents kept a framed picture of the famous ‘Twin Towers’ in the hallway. To this day, my mother has the same framed picture up on her bedroom wall. She loves the buildings. I don’t know why she still keeps the picture, but it’s there, the top of the frame laden with layers of dust from a time that seems like a dream to me. Over time, I too became enamoured by the towering structures reaching for the heavens. Maybe it was its binary nature, some innate feeling that triggered the neurons in my brain from being born a twin. I wonder if the buildings infatuated my twin sister as much as they did to me. So, naturally, having the image of the Twin Towers embedded in my mind whenever I walked past the picture in the corridor, as if the picture of the Twin Towers burned into my pre-pubescent mind, I’d conjured ideas of an elaborate alien invasion battle taking place centred on the two lofty towers.

The images I had created within my mind became a reality the day I came back from school on that fateful day. I could feel the colour from my face dissipate as I gawked at the TV, stunned at the images that were playing back at me. The Twin Towers had collapsed – destroyed. Terrorists had hijacked planes and crashed into the Twin Towers, and the buildings tumbled, creating great plumes of smoke and dust. People ran for their lives. People trapped in the upper floors jumped to their deaths to escape the fires. And people sobbed on the news. It was genuine horror on a level I had never seen before. I had imagined these very images. It was almost as if the story I had created came to life. Instead of humanoid aliens with sword-wielding magic, it was human religious extremists. Selfishly, I thought, I can never write it now. An epic showdown between good and evil that took place on top of the Twin Towers could not be done. The buildings did not exist anymore. More importantly, there was the morality of it.

Of course, years later, a new skyscraper was built. One World Trade Center. The scene where the last battle takes place. I still get goosebumps whenever I read my story – a scene that is reminiscent of that horrible day. As disappointed as I was to hear such devastating news that reverberated around the entire world, nothing would have prepared me for the hurt that would follow.

I am a Muslim. Suddenly, the entire world perceived us as these evil beings – that all Muslims were bad. That’s how my 10-year-old self saw it. Not everybody saw us that way, but there was, sadly, a minority that believed all Muslims were bad. There were the jokes. The ‘ooh, he’s Muslim’ murmurs within class. The glares, the scowls that came with all the racism. Suddenly, I felt alone in the world. A world where people believed Muslims were the enemy. That feeling of alienation is what I wanted to convey in Aura Ignition. From Jordan’s solitude and unknown alien heritage to the extinction of the Magikhan race to Emma’s loneliness shrouded by her brave, optimistic façade, the sense of alienation I felt following the events of 9/11 is something that changed my view of the world and my storytelling. I was angry, but more importantly I was upset. Upset to truly discover that evil really existed. Upset to discover that even those close to you, or people you might meet in the future, will falter upon hearing that I’m a Muslim. And equally terrified that what I imagined had come to life. Islam forbids creating images. Strangely, I felt guilty for even thinking such a disastrous event could take place and feel just as much guilt for creating a story. But I have a story to tell. How could I not give life to that which talks to me?

There are many influences behind the story of Aura Ignition. Most came from the trials and tribulations of growing up and my desire to read something I would enjoy. Good vs Evil. Heroes and villains and objects of power. I just wished it had not been so close to home. I suppose fiction isn’t always so far away from reality. After all, I want my stories to escape reality, but I soon realised that fantasy is born from true feelings, true stories, events, and memories. Fiction at its core is drawn from real life, woven by a world from our imagination that seemingly wants to reach out and be heard. The experience of life creates stories. Dig deep enough and you might discover my feelings within the text. Not only my feelings, but your feelings. The reader. Everyone has their own story to tell. This is my story. I hope you find your own story within my story. Some feeling.

I do not like to call myself a writer. Rather, I like to call myself a storyteller. I question every day how this story came to me. And to be honest, I could never answer that question other than that it came to me in my dreams. Friends, family, people ask me all the time – what inspired you to write? How did you get your ideas? I honestly do not have an answer. This story, Aura Ignition, was born out of chaos, hope, and dreams and simply – wanting to tell a story. A story that I could read because I struggled to read as a kid. My goal is to ensure that my writing is clear and easy to comprehend. I cannot explain the images I dreamed. If someone can decipher what it means to dream about glowing swords and glowing eyes, please let me know. I just hope I’m not mad. Although, you have to be a little mad to tell stories. You’d be answering an age-old question I’ve been asking since the very first dream I saw. A man with glowing eyes. But that’s a blog post for another day. Most importantly, I hope you enjoy my debut novel, Aura Ignition: Darkness After Dawn. Until next time…