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The fury saga has taken me a total of five years to plan and write. Three years were taken in planning, plotting and in research. The other two were spent actually writing it. I have planned eight parts for it with the final part, soul mates being an entirely optional story.

Anyway a number of people have asked me where and how did I come up with the ideas for what many have called an epic story. This page will give those answers plus a few more.

Beginnings

I have been interested in all things transformation related since about the age of eight. Something appeals to me about being someone else for a while. In later years I realised that in imagining yourself in someone else's shoes you learn more about yourself in the process. By changing your point of view you somehow achieve the ability to understand those of others.

I had been pulling down virtually every TG story posted on the net between 1988 and 1994 and in late 1994 decided that I wanted to give something back. Stories such as Joe Bates, Stephanie's DNA series had inspired me to give writing a shot. I'd once been told that the best way to start writing was to write stories that were the opposite to how you really are. If you can get that right then the stories that you DO want to write will be so much easier and more complete than if you'd just got on with it.

That idea formed the basis for my Darkside alias. My stories represents the darker side of my personality, the part of you that you keep in check in normal life. My stories are the outlet for that side of me but I always give any idea a morality check before I continue with it. Incubus gave me a lot of trouble in that area because I hated the idea of a depicting a brutal serial killer/rapist in my story. I remember laying awake a few nights debating whether or not to write the story because of this very reason. My stories are the opposite to how I really am in real life and I write them in the hope that I will be good enough to write the stories that are like me, a lightside if you like.

The Idea

The initial idea came to me on hill side in Derbyshire, England. I was in the middle of 15 mile hike and sat down on a cliff face looking out over the moors. I had been toying with writing a TG story for sometime but lacked a good idea on which to start. A stray thought crossed my mind 'What would be the best way to break up a marriage?' It was from this thought that I came up with the idea of a spurned lover hell bent on revenge.

In my mind I saw only the one story, the first one. For the duration of the vacation(about a week) Hell Hath No Fury was going to have ended with the hero throwing himself off a building because he could no longer cope with what had been done to him. Once I sat down and worked thru all the permutations then it was clear that would leave so many loose ends it wouldn't be satisfactory. Dr Bexley would need to try her drug on a guinea pig first, she wouldn't leave it not working to chance. That's where Book 2 came in. That required a whole new set of characters and motives and so Cathline, John and the others were born.

Of course the ensemble of characters would have to be dealt with in order to ensure their silence and so Kat O Nine tales was needed to complete some of their character plot threads and so on. In the end I saw the need for eight stories to wrap up all the threads, plots and characters I'd opened up.

The Stories

Many people have asked me 'what does so and so mean' in one of my stories. Eventually I will get around to detailed comments on all of them but for now the how and the why will have to do.

Book 1 Hell Hath No Fury

As I've said before this originally was meant to be a stand alone tale but there was no way I could leave things hanging as they were. In some ways it's the most vicious of all the fury saga as the reader has no idea what is going to happen. All they know is that somebody is slowly being turned into something they despise and it's their own lack of self control that's causing it. Not only that but all their emotional support is firstly eroded and then taken away and finally their despised body is violated in the vain hope it will hold the cure. As I said a thoroughly nasty story.

Book 2 Birth Of Nemesis.

This book attempts to flesh out the character of Dr Bexley. She needed a test subject for her revenge and so she sets one up. There are a few events that cumulate in her starting her revenge, firstly the unavoidable death of a little girl and secondly she see's the love of her life with another woman. Combined with her already slim grasp of reality they were enough to tip her over the edge. On the surface this is a fun book with Dr Bexley and her new lover Cathline conspiring to teach someone a lesson. If you look beneath the surface you'll see something quite, quite different.

Book 3 - Kat O Nine Tales.

I really wanted to do something different with this book. It tells the story of nine of the main characters in the other two books but they are interwoven in a tapestry, mosaic fashion. Each little segment tells part of the story but like the characters you have no idea what is going on until it's too late. If you look closely you'll see that Dr Bexley's revenge hinges on one fatal event. If that event had not occurred it's highly likely that she would have stopped after the events of Fury Book 1. I could go into much more detail but for those who haven't read it yet it would spoil it. All in all there are 25 separate plot threads in the three books. It was a major task to keep them all in mind and keep up with the relationships and timelines between the nine tales. I liken this approach to Chaos theory, the smallest events can have the largest consequences. The first three books are really about the nature of revenge, how it can consume a person and take them beyond rational thought or reason. How taking the path of vengeance can only lead to self destruction and that of all you hold dear.

Book 4 - Incubus

It was this book that took me the longest to write, in spite of it being one of the shortest. The subject matter about a serial killer/rapist gave me nightmares and I really had to struggle with myself to persuade myself to write it. Kat O Nine tales was written before this one even though this book was started first. It really did take that long. This book was started in June 1997 and wasn't complete until spring 1998.

It's been likened to an X files episode but what I really wanted to achieve was a complete turn about in story genre. It starts off as a gory horror story but about mid way it flips into a love story. In other words the reader thinks they are reading a graphic horror story but in fact they are reading a love story. Of course it has both parts but I always think of Incubus as a love story not a serial killer one. One question to ask yourself is 'What would happen to the fury saga should the detectives fail to stop the serial killer?'

Although this story does stand alone I needed a way to bring in the characters of the detectives for the final three books. The only way I could see this happening and still provide enough depth for the reader to care about them was to write a 200K story about them.

Book 5,6 and 8- The Fury Directive.

Here things start getting serious. In the previous stories I'd made use of music, poetry and literary references but with FD I wanted it to be integrated into the story. The one element that had gone untouched in the previous four stories was the guild of assassins. FD touches on this and much much more. Whereas Fury Books 1-3 had about 25 plot threads FD brings this number to above 60. I wanted this to be more than just a TG Tom Clancey story.

If you ignore all the action, gunfire and politics you see a real cry for help by at least two of the major characters. There are at least three chapters that will reduce the hardest heart to tears and that's how I wanted it to be. If Fury Books 1-3 were about revenge then the final books are about redemption and reconciliation.

I think the few lines I've singled out from The Trachiniae by Sophocles are the most apt ones for summing up the entire saga. In fact the use of greek melodrama and mythology is a big insight into how Dr Elizabeth Bexley views both herself, her schemes and the world at large.

"Such are the fortunes of this house. Rash indeed, is he who reckons on the morrow, or haply on days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is safely past.."

Book 8 Soul Mates

The final book of the saga is perhaps, my darkest story of all. Again, I make liberal use of music,poetry and literary references in order to bring the story to life. If the previous books were about the battle for the body, then soul mates is about a struggle for the soul. As the opening quote says, the journey we embark on in life is not always an easy one.

'There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities. It is against chaos and despair! Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain."

Where Did Dr Bexley come from?

This is the commonly asked question. I've always liked the name Elizabeth so naturally that was the choice for the first name. The last name needed to be a memorable one, not like smith or jones but one that would stick in the memory. Bexley was my attempt at such a name. As for the character she sums up all that my darkside pseudonym is all about. I have no idea where it came from only that I wanted villaness who was brilliant, deadly and inexorable. Dr Bexley is the result of that mix.

When asked If fury was going to be a movie who would play Dr Bexley I've always thought Nicole Kidman has just about the right look. That's why I've put her face on the website. It gives you clue and only a clue as to the look and face shape I was aiming for.

Dr Bexley's alias Rachel Martin is a different matter she is the ultimate black widow, an impossibly beautiful woman who is just a lethal as she is beautiful. The image on Kat O Nine Tales is of Natasha Henstridge who looks nothing like Rachel Martin but summons up the image of the ultimate femme fatale.

The character of Kat is based on my wife, as is the physical description of Carolyn in Incubus. You know Kat you know her. Which character do I see myself as? Well it's not Dr Bexley it's probably Matthew.

The other characters are homages to various people. Vickie Turner is a name play for Vickie Tern, a lady who has helped me above and beyond the call of duty. I count it a high honor to be called her friend.

Stephanie Lane is a nod towards Stephanie who helped proof Fury Book 2. All the other characters are based on people I've met or just plain made up. I usually use names that can work either way around, Matthew Stephens, Cathline Richards etc etc. I'm terrible at making names up so being lazy I use that method.

Darkside's Writing Tips

I get asked what tips can I give to new writers.

Well I have three

1. Try it you never know until you give it a go.

2. Work out what you want to do in advance. Other writers may be able to make it up as they go along but I'm not that good.

3. Follow the choices,actions and consequences rule.

Every character has choices to make, describe them, then describe their actions and then work out the consequences of them on all the others in the story.

Well that's about it. I hope this little essay has been interesting for you. The only thing left to say is that I write for free. The only payment I want is for you, the reader to tell me what you think of the stories. If you hate them, say so, if you love them, say so. It's your feedback that pays my encouragement wages to write more. Anyway enough of this, why aren't you reading Fury?

These stories are free for you to read but not change in anyway, all I ask is that you tell me what you've thought of them, either by Mail or by the Guestbook.

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