The process of being inspired to write the Ratchwood Prophesies began in 2010 on a family holiday with my ex-wife and her parents.  I was in a state of marital regret, struggling with compensatory measures of a destructive and addictive personality.  As a form of escapism, I threw myself into the creation of a fictional character named after a village in Northumberland, because it sounded like a good name for an anti-hero, struggling with the responsibilities of time travel.

At a time when my own negative personality traits were weighing heavily upon me and ‘inter-personal contact’ with my wife was filling my mind, the eponymous Ratchwood was infused with the burden of sexual addiction and preying upon those he deemed dependent on him.  This is what led to the creation of the Wicklow character.  First-hand experience of dysfunctional and emotionally dependent relationships led to Wicklow’s characterisation as having been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder at an abnormally young age.  Amid the pain and readjustment, her condition had then been reclassified a number of years later as borderline personality disorder.

The birth of my son in 2013, combined with both a deteriorating marriage and state of mind, pushed me further into the ‘Ratchworld’.  My inner conflict at leading a double life manifested in the fictional universe, although at this stage I was having difficulty differentiating the two.  My divorce in 2014 and the subsequent spiritual and creative exhaustion, led me initially to turn away from my faith before adopting the mantle of an Omni-Religious Seeker of Enlightenment.  My eyes were opened.

Although they had been present from the start, it was at this point the story really began to explore its religious influences.  Nearly all forms taken by organised religion or structured life principals, have at their core an incommunicable truth from which everything originates.  Whether it is accessed directly or via a spiritual conduit (I elaborate on this in future blog posts and of course, indirectly in the comic) this realisation and its associated states of enlightenment are accessible to everyone.

The journeys and character developments undertaken by the main characters, Ratchwood, Wicklow and Vygotski across all four volumes of The Ratchwood Prophecies are intended to take the reader on an insightful journey into the soul: Ratchwood, following in the footsteps of countless recognised or unrecognised guru/messiah figures from history (Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Ellen G White, Joseph Samuel Smith and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada among others) understands the incommunicable and in delivering its wonders to his followers, is misinterpreted.  Wicklow starts her journey as an emotionally dependent and destitute disciple before becoming confident and comfortable with her lot in life as a hero’s sidekick.  She then gives into temptation and is led down the wayward path of evil before finally glimpsing potential redemption.  Vygotski, initially an innovative force of intuition, embraces fully the evil nature of humanity’s destruction, becomes the human host to an alien hive-consciousness and, by the end, personifies fairly obvious satanic connotations.  

Ratchwood’s mission on earth? The unification of world religion and secular culture under an umbrella truth.  The measurement of his success or failure?…

You’ll have to read the books!