Warning, this page contains spoilers for the story.
Blurb
Alexander Lowe, a celebrated biochemist, is shattered by the death of his wife, Mary. Driven by grief and scientific obsession, he plunges into a desperate quest to revive her, leveraging his scientific brilliance and connections with a powerful secret society. His increasingly erratic behaviour draws the attention of both his colleagues and law enforcement. As Alexander’s grip on reality loosens, he encounters a dark being deep within his subconscious, revealing secrets about his past. The line between science and madness blurs as Alexander’s relentless pursuit of life after death leads to a terrifying confrontation with his own inner demons which manifest themselves into reality.
Creation
Story
I started thinking about the story of Door 808, in 2013 while on train journeys home from work. I had always wanted to write a story of some sort, but I knew a novel would probably be well beyond my abilities, which was definitely true at the time. The album The House of Gold and Bones, Part 2 was a huge inspiration in bringing the world of Door 808 to my imagination. I listened to this album on repeat what felt like 100 times, constantly thinking of scenes and different situations.
Eventually in 2014 I plucked up the courage to start writing the story. I originally had two different visions for Door 808, one is somewhat similar to the finished product, and the other is very supernatural, almost Marvel-like which got way out of hand. When I picked the right path, I hit constant roadblocks. I had these great scenes, ideas and characters but absolutely no idea how to connect them all together.
When I left high school all those years ago, I had two Ds in English. I was a horrible writer. I had zero experience writing a story like this, and quite frankly I felt like a fraud for even entertaining the idea of writing a novel for other people to read. I knew if I wanted to take this seriously, I had to sharpen my English skills pretty quickly while also studying how to actually put a novel together. In the mid 2010s-late 2010s I spent most of my free time practicing my writing, while also figuring the story behind Door 808. I believe it was around 2018 where I started feeling a lot more comfortable with my writing style, but the story behind Door 808 was still incredibly fragmented. I eventually pushed through and ended up re-writing the early chapters a dozen times until I was happy with them. I actually impressed myself with how imaginative some of the scenes were, and with the encouragement of my friend and fellow author Jessica, I got inspired to keep going.
Eventually around 2023 I got the breakthrough I needed, and the puzzle pieces all fell into place to my absolute joy. I re-wrote the early chapters again for a final time, and just kept going until finally in 2025, it was done. Even though the novel took around 12 years to finish, I consider the first 10 years as a tutorial.
The thrill of finishing a project that took this long cannot be expressed into words, it’s a unique feeling which completely overwhelmed me emotionally. I knew I still had a long road ahead of me when it came to publishing and editing the story, but the story itself was complete. I had tears of joy and pride.
Alexander
Originally the main character was called Louis Alexander, then Lewis Alexander, and finally Alexander Lowe. I’ve always been extremely interested in science and every avenue of it. Growing up in the 90s to now, it’s incredible to see how quickly we’ve progressed as a species. I knew if I wanted to write a science fiction novel, it had to be about a scientist or at the very least incorporate science into it.
Around 2011-2012, I was introduced to a TV show called Cosmos, hosted by Carl Sagan and originally broadcast around 1980. It turned out to be one of my absolute favourite shows which I’ve watched countless times. You’ll find little nods to a lot of things I follow/enjoy throughout the story, if you look hard enough. Carl Sagan was probably one of the most gentle, kind and well spoken scientists of our generation, and I think I subconsciously asked myself: What if someone like that had a more sinister past and side to them? Alexander Lowe really grew from that original thought.
From a visual standpoint, whenever I pictured Alexander in my head, for some reason I always saw the many variants of Blaine from Pokémon, I just couldn’t ever escape that thought. Bald, round spectacles and early on in the writing process, a big moustache.
Mary
Mary and Rita were actually interchangeable early on in the writing process, but I felt Mary was a better fit to the loving wife of Alexander. I really wanted her to be kind, a little rebellious and cheeky. Her best qualities are her understanding of Alexander, as she really brought out the best in him as he never wanted to let her down. The dynamics between Mary and Alexander are inspired from my own relationship, my wife is very supportive and always brings out the best in me. She’s been an inspiration throughout the second half of the writing process.
The Dark Being
I originally wrote the Dark Being as Lucifer, the devil you know. An internal devil that sits upon your shoulder and leans you into certain directions. I tamed this back a lot, and made it a former “version” of Alexander himself which was far more relatable. I find it difficult to visually picture this creature, and I think that’s a good thing as it’s very akin to my own dreams/nightmares where I can’t quite make out the appearances of some characters, I just get a sense of knowing who they are from interacting with them.
I experience night terrors, they’re almost always harmless, but I often see dark figures in my room which I’m really not afraid of in the slightest. I’d even sometimes run over to them and try to chase them. I’m sure it makes sense to the reptile part of my brain, but after I wake up I question “Why did I do that?”. Hopefully you’re starting to get a sense of where I got a lot of my inspiration for the story and this character.
I hoped that the way I wrote the Dark Being made people think he would sometimes be growling, or there would be a much more bassy layer to his voice. Thankfully those that have read it have commented about how they really enjoyed the way the Dark Being communicated, and they got that exact impression. Phew.
Alex (The Boy)
I tried to write Alex as the boy full of youth and joy, but he’s clearly covered in mental scars. He held onto that football tightly as if he was trying to hold his innocence close to his chest. He absolutely could not allow the nightmare surrounding him to consume him, he knew he had a duty to hold onto that. While he may be the youngest in personality and appearance, he’s of course the oldest version of Alexander and it often leaks out whenever the situation calls for it. Writing like a scientist is fun, but writing like an excitable child is the most fun I had writing Door 808.
Lenny
Lenny didn’t have a major part in the story early on, but I began to realise that Alexander needed a friend, someone to anchor him to reality. I needed someone that at the very least could understand him and sympathise. Writing Lenny as a childhood friend of Alexander was the best decision I made later on in the writing process, and it really helped build the brotherly bond between them. I think I hint at it enough throughout the story, but Alexander is the reason Lenny got into Silver, and was his mentor throughout their careers there. When Alexander left the organisation, Lenny remained and life became quite boring for him. When the events of Door 808 unfold, Lenny gets that old spark back and embraces the old Alexander with open arms. The maroon suit is heavily inspired from one of my friends, Pod, who often wore that shade of red.
Silver (Secret Society)
The organisation known as Silver was always part of the story, I knew if I wanted Alexander to have more freewill, even in this more sci-fi world, he’d need a means of getting whatever he wanted in secret. I purposely kept the mentions of Silver and how they operate to a minimum, to reflect the secrecy of the organisation in the story. As the story develops, I add a bit more colour to Silver and their inner workings, including their structure.
Francis
I think in every job I’ve ever had, there’s been a ‘Francis’. The type that always focuses on themselves and wouldn’t bat an eyelid if you asked for their help. The type that would take your can of pop from the fridge and shrug when you ask if they knew who took it. I drew a lot of inspiration from very specific people I’ve worked with in the past when writing the behaviour of Francis. I wanted to build him up as someone you’d despise, but would also feel sorry for when things go the way they do.
No to AI
Even though nobody has asked, I just want to note here that absolutely no part of my story is taken from AI as I’m strongly opposed to using it for writing and creating art. The entire novel is my own work. I wouldn’t even let family/friends write anything down for me, because I want to hold up my work proudly and say “I made this, every single bit of the story is my imagination.”
Publishing Journey (Ongoing, check back for updates)
I severely underestimated the amount of effort required to publish. I knew it’d be a mammoth task, but it’s taken me a month of work to get Door 808 out there into people’s hands. Originally I had the following publishers lined up: Amazon (Kindle Direct Publishing), Google Play Books and Apple Books. I stumbled upon an article talking about publishing outside of Amazon, which mentioned IngramSpark. I looked into them more and they were exactly what I needed, global and mass production possibilities. I signed up, got everything ready (Along with Amazon) and waited an agonizing 10 days for my book proofs to be delivered.
I am thrilled to say, the proofs were perfect, there was no need for any alterations, PHEW. So, I checked everything again 10 times and hit Publish. It took around 5 days to publish in total on both platforms, Amazon surprisingly took the longest because the book was still propagating around the Amazon servers globally. I then turned my attention to the eBook versions. Apple Books is a joke, unfortunately, because I really wanted to publish there, but there insistence on posting your full address publicly left me scratching my head. There was always an issue with their website as well, so I gave up and stuck with Google and Kindle, both of which were a breeze to set up.
Then, suddenly, the book was live and lots of friends + family began purchasing it. I even noticed some bookstores purchase it too which was incredible to see. It began popping up on random book websites I’ve never heard of before. Family and friends are advertising it, spreading the word… it’s overwhelming and amazing to see.
This section is still very much under construction, as I’m living it every day. Right now I’m waiting to hear back from my local libraries if they’ll stock it, which would be incredible. I’m also waiting to hear back from Waterstones, fingers crossed!
Reviews
Amazon Review
Credits
- Tom J Davis – Created a phenomenal book cover which took him months to carefully piece together.
- Jessica Lévesque Thibodeau – Beta Reader and a great source of inspiration. Jessica has written some fantastic novels and would often inspire me to keep going throughout the years.
- Lindy, Jeroen and Alice – Beta Readers