For as long as I can remember, I've been searching for more. When I was eleven, I began writing to save myself from drowning in longing. It helped- saved me. I wrote-typed until my hands ached with the knowledge that nothing I could ever write would be enough to combat my thoughts and suffering.

That's how I wanted to preface this book. I write out of need, but more importantly, I write because I love to. It has always been my passion. It has always been my oxygen.

* * *

I developed this fascination with modern life and magic after watching every fantasy show in existence (I have a problem). After and during that, I read every fantasy novel. My friends tried to recommend books that weren't fantasy, and I just couldn't really get into it (that's changed, by the way, I read a lot of non-fantasy novels now). They would get annoyed, but I would say, "Why would I want to read about what could actually be? The point is to fully immerse in a world that doesn't exist, to escape." However, that left me with the burning question of what would happen if fantasy and reality would collide. How would that work? I concluded it would probably be chaotic. I wondered if peace would be possible. Would the world be split? These questions left me with the need to explore the thought. So that's how this came about.

I also wanted to explore topics of soulmates, war, culture, and belonging. I think these are contemporary issues that could use analyzing, especially culture and belonging. As an American, I see the world turning into not a melting pot, but a trifle of segregated nations. We have not melted, we have merely split amongst each other. So, in a way, Aurum's world is similar to ours; we are split. Split between religion, culture, race, and so on. Perhaps there is a way for peace. But perhaps there is not.