That’s a stupid question. Just read the story overview. It’s like two sentences long. (I’m just messing with you – here, I’ll copy and paste it for you)

“A cursed and suicidal teen with unnaturally gifted abilities fights to end his life as he’s continuously forced to save other students at an elite academy.” // “Kane Academy student Zero Hale knows two things: that he is cursed, and that he wants to die. But his plans for suicide are interrupted when he discovers his classmate, Briar Thornswood, about to jump from the same bridge he is.”

Lol. I wish.

This entire series is based off of a drawing I made for someone as a gift. The boy that appeared (an edgy looking teenager with dark hair, pale skin, and one hell of an attitude, sitting in the snow) just seemed like someone I had to write about. As if he already existed and I just needed to bring him onto the page.

As for Zero’s specific character traits/past, I’ve always been fascinated by suicidal characters & morally gray, antagonistic MCs. I won’t get into the personal reasons for all that, but let’s just say that Zero perfectly encompasses everything I’ve ever wanted in a character.

The specifics of the plot started forming when I got a “vision” out of nowhere of two people standing on a bridge, in the snow, staring at each other as each of them realizes the other is here for the same reason they are: to end it all. I started thinking more about what the relationship would be like between two such characters and how they’d impact each other from then on. Obviously, the tormented teenage boy from the drawing had to be one of these characters And the other …

More specifics came to me when I went out for a drive the summer of 2022. I was alone, in the middle of nowhere, and lost in thought when I almost ran into a snake. It seemed to appear out of nowhere, as if it wanted me to run it over. Then I went a bit further and a rabbit bolted out in front of me – again, nearly killing itself. A bit further, and a bird actually did run into my car. A bird. If that’s not a sign of bad luck, I don’t know what is. This was all in the span of about 5 minutes. But what struck me as interesting is that it wasn’t me who would have been in trouble in any of these instances had the luck been a bit worse, it would have been every other living thing around me.

And lastly, anyone who knows me has probably heard me joke about being “cursed.” Really, it only makes sense that this character and series would one day appear.

I officially started writing it that summer (before my senior year of college) and used it as my senior thesis.

I’m currently writing the third volume (which will be split into two parts), but my team and I have laid an approximate outline through the end of the series. It will probably span 15+ volumes.

Trust me. If distribution platforms would allow it, we’d put the print copy up for $0.99. But they have rules. This is literally the least expensive we can possibly make it while still getting it printed.

Aside from the usual benefits paperback gives you, Zero has two main features that don’t come across nearly as well (or at all) in the ebook and audiobook versions. 1: charts & image layout, and 2: page references. There’s no way around it – holding the charts in your hands just make them a lot easier to follow along. And all of the pictures look better when properly placed rather than in the forced, fixed-position ebooks make you use. As to the second point, page references are a way for Zero to cite his clues and let you check his sources & line of logic. Naturally, it allows him to direct you to a precise page with the precise intention of having you relook at a scene for clues you may have passed over as he gives his grand reveal.

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