Now that you’ve read it let me know what you think! You can do that either in the comments on this post or in a review from where you bought the book.

I wrote Lost Soul while my wife and I were studying abroad in France in 2015. While there I wrote a few short stories that have lingered in my hard drives ever since.

The idea for this particular story came from…I have no earthly idea. I’m not sure if it’s because I simply can’t remember or if it’s one of those stories that just popped into my head with no rhyme or reason (which happens more than you think).

One theory I have is that it was inspired by the Final Fantasy movie. For those that haven’t seen it, the world is in the midst of an apocalypse as random spiritual beings are roaming the surface world killing anything they come across by simply coming into contact with them. It’s a strange movie, definitely not related to the games in any way shape or form, and I always thought it was a unique apocalyptic scenario with no easy resolution.

The other theory is that the technology of this story was inspired by the movie 13 Ghosts (2001). in that movie, major spoiler alert, a man is trying to use ghosts to power a large machine to be able to see the past, present, and future. The idea of using souls as batteries was a novel concept to me when I watched it. It’s another strange movie, but a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I thought some of the ghost designs were really cool and would brainstorm possible origin stories for each.

A final theory is that I was inspired by the movie Insidious. In that movie, major spoilers, the main character must resort to projecting himself in astral form to find his son who has wandered off in astral form and been kept from reentering his body. The idea that someone could have their spirit locked out of their body was wild and raised all sorts of implications about what could happen to that body now that its original owner was out of it.

I’m not sure if any one of these stories inspired mine or it was a hybrid of all the above or something else entirely that I’ve simply forgotten. Whatever the case, I liked the idea of a post-apocalypse resulting from wandering spirits who are refusing or unable to move on to the afterlife on their own. I thought it would create an interesting division where some would want to help them pass on while others would look to harness their new form to power unique technology. Not to mention the high stakes dilemma that the only way to banish one of these spirits would be to put your body at risk of being stolen from you by one of those spirits.

This story only scratches the surface of some ideas I have with that world in mind. In my hard drive I have all sorts of notes about how it all started, what spirit tech is capable of, how the spirit guns work, Trip’s background, and how the whole thing might be resolved one day. There are still a few concepts I want to iron out before I put pen to paper (really finger to keyboard) and get it all out.

If I find that you all particularly enjoy this story I might be persuaded to nudge this novel series closer to the front of the line. It was a lot of fun finding this story again and all the notes I created about the world it’s in.

Let me know your thoughts and what you thought about Lost Soul, this world, the characters, the spirits, and soul powered tech. I’m happy to answer any questions and give some insights into what I hope to do with the concept in the future.