Hello readers,
Autumn is finally here and it is nearly three months since the release of 'Killed In'. It was around this time, back in 2016, that I started to imagine the world of this novel and, more specifically, the personality of Chris Kord.
Oh? You do not know who Chris Kord is? Well, if you have not read 'Killed In' yet, he is the complicated hero around which the novel is constructed. The word 'hero' is probably mildly appropriate when it comes to describing Chris. After all, his main mission seems to be trying to save himself from...himself. All his efforts are geared towards resisting the lure of an abyss that always looks dangerously close.
At the core, Chris Kord is a young man whose most important foundation in life was shattered; that foundation is his relationship with his parents. I believe that you can recover from all the trauma that life throws at you but that it becomes really difficult when your own parents are doing it. Imagine the following scene: a tree is stoned everyday until it reaches its full maturity. The stones are thrown by the same people who planted the seed. Will the tree grow as a normal one? Probably not. I'm not a tree expert but this image serves to describe the key element that shaped the personality of Chris Kord. It is the source of his anger and his many frustrations.
Why did I punish Chris Kord with this fate? Well, I had three things in mind when creating him.
1) A sense of anarchism.
2) Disgust at conformity.
3) Immense solitude.
Can you imagine someone with these features? Do you believe that he or she could fit within a conventional system? My answer to the second question is a massive 'No'. And this explains how I drove Chris towards the Dark Net. I needed a character who was not merely going to be an explorer but an active participant that is hellbent on carving a place for himself; a place completely outside what is can only be referred to as 'society'. Chris hates society. It gave him his dysfunctional parents and cheated on him when he was attempting to achieve some success for himself.
All things considered, Chris Kord is a character who refuses to have a meaningless life. It's easy to understand his obsession. Unfortunately, he acts on it in the worst possible way. It's one thing to be driven to achieve something, but it is meaningless if the path chosen is one where the consequences cannot be dealt with. That's the biggest mistake of Chris.
Enjoy your reading, Ashley Boolell