Thank you for taking your time to read all this! Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
I suppose I should give you all the story on how I made it, who doesn't love a backstory? I made Purple Roses (though it didn't get that name until 2022) during the unforgettable lockdown of 2020, I was very bored and created the character of Luca, who at the time was very similar to me. I liked the idea of two separate sides, I made him just like me, similar personalities, same age (at the time of creation), even a similar look, etc. I actually named him Luca because that's the name I was going to be called before they settled on Jacob.
Over the years I played around with many different ideas, slowly adding characters, Oscar being my second (who I was going to call Oliver originally, I know, how odd!), being the more overconfident and less considerate to their own stupidity, like how I arguably was when I was younger. I eventually built up a story I liked and have slowly but surely written it, after many, many delays. It's here. Mabel and Crystal were my later additions, with Mabel being more accurate to myself as I am now as I've finished the story. (although I don't accuse people of indirectly causing other people's deaths... obviously!)
One thing I knew from the get-go was that I disliked the idea of "plot armour", the idea of the main characters being unkillable as they're important to the plot. So, I always knew that (as much as I hated writing it), the main few had to die, to not only show people aren't invincible but also to show how brutal the villains of the story are.
On that topic, the underlying factors of the whole shadow side and the way it rules are taken from events such as the awful and devastating Nazi Regime and other large dictatorships like that of North Korea. I guess you could sort of call it's a political diatribe, I wrote it to try and get people to think about these awful events, past and present, and also the impacts it has on people and their families. I think people forget that everyone is someone with friends and families.
That being said, as much as there are very dark and upsetting sections, I tried to steer the story to have large positive and happy moments, as the last thing I want is a book that is completely and utterly depressing.
Overall, I really enjoyed writing this book, a formulation of 4 years of work and ideas. Once again, thank you for reading.
Special thanks to @Freyawritesthings_ for being one of the first and strongest supporters of this story while I was writing it.
Thanks again,
Jake
YOU ARE READING
Purple Roses
ActionStep inside a world where two sides are separated, one being a lot happier than the other. Look through the eyes of multiple different people from different backgrounds, a family forged not by blood but by love. It isn't all pretty though, sometime...
