Why I Wrote The Alpha Flame: A Story Born from Silence, Secrets, and Sisterhood

Some stories arrive quietly, like whispers. Others come crashing in, all fire and fury. *The Alpha Flame* was both.

I didn’t set out to write a novel about trauma. Or identity. Or the brutal grip of silence. I wanted to tell a good story, something suspenseful, gripping, maybe a little dark. But then Maggie appeared. Then Beth. And suddenly, I was no longer writing what I planned… I was writing what needed to be said.

Where It Began

I grew up in Birmingham in the 1980s, a time of tension and change, when the streets felt older than they should and nothing quite made sense. I remember the smell of damp brick, the sound of distant sirens, the graffiti on the flyovers. There was beauty in it, yes, but it wasn’t gentle. And neither is this book.

I wanted to capture the forgotten places. The girls no one listens to. The pain that doesn’t get processed, only buried. And what happens when it finally erupts.

Creating Maggie and Beth

Maggie came first. Fierce, clever, fire in her eyes. She’s who I wanted to be, strong enough to fight back. Beth came later, quietly. A girl carrying too much. She’s the kind of person we walk past without knowing what they’ve survived.

Writing them was hard. Sometimes too hard. But I couldn’t let them go. Because their story, though fictional, speaks to something very real. Not just in me, but in people I’ve known, things I’ve seen, truths we don’t always talk about.

Why I Kept Going

There were moments I thought I’d never finish. It was too raw. Too much. But the world needs stories like this. Stories where girls fight back. Where they don’t just survive, they ignite.

And when I look at *The Alpha Flame* now, I don’t just see a novel. I see a reckoning. A reckoning with silence. With shame. With everything we’re told to keep inside.

Read the first chapter, and meet the girls who changed everything. This one’s for them, and for anyone who’s ever fought to reclaim their voice.