A Bonhill author who published her debut novel whilst shielding during the pandemic has now launched her second book.
Loren Fox published The Oaken Ambience last September, with the second instalment of the Broken trilogy, The Awoken Juncture, hitting bookshelves earlier this month.
And the NHS call handler admits that penning the novels changed her life during lockdown.
She explained: “I was more of a hobby novelist to start with. It was never something I planned to push forward to publish though. I think I lacked a bit of self-confidence.
“I’m immunosuppressed so had been put into shielding through the pandemic and that meant I had a lot of time on my hands, to say the least.
“It was life changing having it to work on over the lockdowns.
“I didn’t have much to focus on in the first lockdown. I’d just moved into my first property and I was completely isolated. Around the end of my first time shielding I decided to start writing - but then I went back to work.
“When we were locked down again I decided to properly focus. It was the only thing I did, day and night, I was losing days where I was stuck in this other world. It was really good to have that to focus on whilst the world was closed off.
“The Broken trilogy was a series I’d been working on for a while off my own back. Once I had all the time on my hands I decided I’d put a lot more effort into it and actually work on it as if I was planning to publish it.
“I gave it out to friends and family to start with and see what the general reception was going to be. Once I got a positive response from them they said I should look to get it published.
“I decided I at least wanted my own book on my own bookshelf because I’m quite an avid reader. I felt like that would be cool. But it was very nerve-wracking putting it out there.
“When it was released in September it did a lot better than I had expected.”
Loren hopes that her work, whilst based in a fictional world, helps to explore very real issues.
She continued: “It’s a psychological thriller type of story. It’s mainly focused on the kidnap of my main character.
“The first book follows the journey to being kidnapped. It’s told in first person, so although it’s completely fictitious it’s quite personal and intimate.
“A lot of the reviews have said that people forget it’s fiction.
“I wanted there to be a deeper inner message throughout my writing though.
“The content is quite harsh, and a lot of the emotion and struggle highlights mental health aspects that I’m trying to define throughout. I hope they can send out a bigger message about mental health awareness.
“The first book is focused on depression and anxiety and the second looks at post-traumatic stress and the recovery from that.
“I’ve widely researched mental health and hopefully have done a good job of creating awareness around it.”
However, the 27-year-old admitted that fans eager for the final instalment in the series will need to be patient.
Loren added: “It was a quick release for The Awoken Juncture, but I had already been working on that when I published The Oaken Ambience.
“I went back to work full-time in August and I’m taking some time to myself before working on the finale which should be out next year.”
The Broken series is available to buy or download on Amazon.
