A little update...

Aura Ignition 2 is due to be released this month. I thought it would be a good time to write a blog post. It’s been a while. Let’s talk about stuff. Like Final Fantasy. There’s no denying the influence and impact Final Fantasy has had in my life and my writing. I’ve never been too keen on film or TV adaptations, but if Square Enix wanted to adapt my story of Aura Ignition into a Final Fantasy game, I’d be 100% on board. After all, most of my influence stems from video games. Don’t get me wrong, I love books, but growing up playing video games and watching films, I always imagined my books as cinematic stories, or cinematic video games. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I imagined a world of cinematic video games, and now cinematic video games are some of the bestselling video games out there.

Let’s talk about Final Fantasy. We all know Final Fantasy VII, the seventh entry in the series, and possibly the most successful and beloved. My first foray into the series was actually the eighth game. And ironically, my least favourite, but we’ll not get into that. Not that it’s a bad game, just not my favourite. I fell in love with the series as soon as I saw the opening cinematic. It was my older brother who had rented the game from Blockbuster. I was only nine or ten-years-old at the time, but the images of sword-wielders and insane fight choreography instantly gripped my imagination, and of course my mind went crazy with images of my own world.

I’d watched movies with clever fight scenes and set pieces before but to see it in a video game, having enough understanding to know that cinematic images such as the opening of Final Fantasy VIII was not very common during the late 90s, I knew this was something special. The epic music, the fast-paced action, the realistic graphics and just sheer cool design instantly had me sold. It’s funny thinking back to it now because my brother also found it cool but found the game incredibly boring, something that fortunately did not happen to me. He was not as keen to play a turn-based game as I was. Yeah, sure, it would have been cool to run around and hack and slash your way through, but this was not that type of game. I think my brother’s expectations definitely leaned in towards what you find with modern-day Final Fantasy games, in which they are now much more action-oriented rather than the turn-based nature of the old era.

My life changed that day. Final Fantasy, from that day forward, would become one of my favourite franchises of all time, following closely behind Dragon Ball Z. Aura Ignition started off in my childhood fan-made video game magazines and classroom short stories, of which I kept to this day. It wasn’t until the release of Final Fantasy X that I started writing the very first words of the Aura Ignition you will read today. It has mostly remained unchanged from that day. In case you’re wondering, my favourite Final Fantasy is in fact number 7. I’m especially fond of Crisis Core, the Final Fantasy VII prequel. I never truly appreciated VII until I played Crisis Core. Ever since then, I like to revisit VII now and then, and now that they have remade the games, with the third part on its way, it’s been remade and expanded in ways for the modern era for a new generation. No game, in my opinion, will ever top the moment you hear ‘One-Winged Angel’. A truly captivating and awe-inspiring moment in gaming history. I’m getting goosebumps just writing about it. Back then, Final Fantasy games didn’t feature vocals, so to hear the final boss theme blast an orchestral score, I can see why it would have blown people away. I think the effect is still very much the same as it was all those years ago. It’s a moment for the ages. cough cough I still need to play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. In the two years since I last published Darkness After Dawn, a lot has happened in my life. I got married and a bunch of other stuff. I truly feel like an adult, although I still feel like a kid when I’m writing. The images are still being planted in my head, so I guess I’ll continue writing… for now. I’m surprised I’ve stuck to my deadline in releasing Aura Ignition 2. Well, I’m a month late, but that’s Ok.

Aura Ignition 2 is on the horizon. I can’t believe it’s been two years since the debut of my first novel. The sequel is a prequel… or is it? You may wonder why I decided to go back in time with the second book. Fortunately, that’s a simple question to answer. You see, Aura Ignition: Darkness After Dawn followed Jayden, or Jordan as he’s known on Earth, who has lost his memory. He has no memory of his past life. No memory of his homeworld Mageska, no memory of aura ignitions or anything from his previous life before Earth. So naturally, I thought it would be better to release that book as the first, knowing Jayden has no memory, and neither does the reader. The reader will follow Jayden’s journey as if they too have no memory of Mageska and aura ignitions, the power of the soul. And of course, by the end of the first book, we presume Jayden has returned home, so now with the sequel, the second book, or the prequel, we are aware of his story, the world of Mageska, and what aura ignitions are. Now when we go into the second book, we will be familiar with the world and have a greater context to the story, and discover what really went on before Jayden’s arrival on Earth, and learn a little more of Mageska and Magikhan, so when the third book comes around, which continues where the first book left off, we will all be on the same page. We will be on Mageska again.

I wanted to write these stories so that they could be read in any order. Although if I were to choose the order, I would like you to read them in order of release. This is the way it’s meant to be read. In doing so, you will enjoy the story the way it’s meant to be, relishing every plot twist and turn, even if you may know the ending. It’s the journey, not the destination.

So, what’s Aura Ignition 2 about? The story follows Roden. You might have remembered him from the first book – the boy with glowing yellow eyes who visits Jayden periodically, warning him of dangers and giving him hints of the past. The first book took you on a wild alien invasion ride set on Earth, while in the second book, you know the ending. You’re in Mageska, and you know the ending because… well, if you read the first book, you will know why Jayden was sent to Earth. But it’s all about getting there and what happens in between. It’s the tension of knowing exactly what’s going to happen, but also not knowing the dots that connect everything together. It’s with this juxtaposition that I wanted to create a story of contrast between good and evil, right and wrong, the choices we have to make, whether we want to or not. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, I know.

Aura Ignition 2 is about a father who unlocks a dark secret. A mother who will do anything to protect her children, even if it means the world will forsake her. And two brothers… One destiny. Step into the world of Mageska, where steel ignites the power of the soul, and Darkness is on the rise. The story is about bonds and how far you would go to protect the ones you love, or how far you would go to question your beliefs.

I really hope you enjoy reading Aura Ignition 2 as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here’s a little insider information, I can’t remember exactly the year I started writing it, but I remember in the year 2004, I was on the way to go fishing on the pier with my brothers, and I saw a giant billboard of Will Smith and his movie I, Robot. The tagline read, ‘One man saw it coming.’ So, when you read the opening line of my second novel, remember that 13/14 year-old-me was writing the second book in the year 2004, while on his way to catch some mackerel.

We might have caught a bucket of 200 fish that day.

Watch this space for Aura Ignition 2, where one last dream will foretell the saviour of the world.

May aura guide you all…