The Women Who Inspired The Alpha Flame

I never set out to write a “feminist novel” in the academic sense. I set out to write truth, the kind of truth that sits in the silence between what’s said and what’s endured. But the deeper I went, the more I realised I wasn’t writing just a story. I was writing for the women who never got to speak.

Some of those women are real. Some I’ve known. Some I’ve only heard about in half-whispers at family gatherings. Some live only in memory, or in the kind of trauma that’s passed down without words. But all of them helped shape The Alpha Flame.

The Quiet Ones

There’s a particular kind of strength in women who survive without ever making a sound. Beth’s story is woven from that strength, the hush of girls who lived through things they were never meant to endure, who were told to smile, stay quiet, be grateful. I’ve seen that silence in women I grew up around. You probably have too.

The Fighters

Then there are the loud ones, not in volume, but in defiance. The women who refuse to play along. Maggie is all fire and friction, but her strength isn’t random. It’s born from seeing too much, too young. It’s shaped by women who taught her, directly or indirectly, that power isn’t always pretty, but it’s always necessary.

The Ones Who Weren’t Heard

I’ve thought a lot about the women who didn’t get a second chance. Cindy. Annie. The ones who fall through the cracks not because they weren’t strong enough, but because the system was never made for them to survive. Writing *The Alpha Flame* was, in some small way, about giving them their due. Their memory fuels the story. Their loss makes it burn.

Writing in Their Honour

This isn’t a book about perfect women. It’s a book about real ones. The ones who walk home with their keys between their fingers. The ones who look out for each other in bathrooms and pubs. The ones who carry secrets for decades. The ones who get up anyway. That’s who I was writing for, and who I hope this book reaches.

The Alpha Flame: Discovery launches on 21st August 2025. But long before that, these women lit the spark.