The Phoenix is the first book in The Lucky 13 Series.

The Phoenix Academy It’s about a young woman who learns some disturbing news about her father’s past all during a time when she’s experiencing some major life changes. Officer Maddie Conley is still mourning the loss of her fiancé Ethan when she and her partner Jay take on a new corporate case. An out-of-town detective is brought in to lend his expertise on the case. Although their relationship has a rocky start, Alex and Maddie soon begin to develop feelings for each other while solving the case together.

Unfortunately, Alex is more involved with the case than everyone initially thought.

He has a lot of deep dark secrets that go as far back as his childhood in London where he and twelve other young men were students at a military school known as The Phoenix Academy, where the headmasters were slightly unhinged to say the least. The Lucky 13, as they called themselves also known as The Brotherhood, endured years of unspeakable pain, torture and abuse that left them all damaged well into adulthood as they tried to escape their twisted past. As secrets are uncovered it is revealed that everything is connected, and everyone’s lives are drastically changed, some for the better, others for the worst. I was inspired to write this book and the others that follow because of my love for stories that are filled with action, intrigue, and suspense. This series has been difficult to categorize because it has dramatic elements and even a little humor here and there. But there’s a love story all throughout it that causes it to fall into the romance category as well.

Over the years while writing it, I’ve added a lot of my own life experiences to the story, which inspired a lot of the dramatic and highly emotional scenes.

Music has also been another huge influence for the series, including all types of genres but mainly various forms of rock music spanning from classic to modern songs from artists such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Thirty Seconds to Mars. I hope that readers simply enjoy the series. I hope they see that even when things appear to be hopeless, you can still dust off the ashes of your past and be reborn, like the phoenix. I want readers to find that happiness and laughter can exist even during times of great sadness and confusion. And I also want my readers to see that love is a powerful force, whether it is between best friends or lovers, that can truly conquer anything that gets in its way.

My target audience for this book would be adults, mainly females between 18 and 40-50 or so.

But I’m hoping the series could be relatable to a broader audience. I have recently changed the name of the series from The Phoenix Academy Series to The Lucky 13 Series because I didn’t want people to assume it was a YA series since it does contain some strong adult themes including violence and abuse. I have several plans for this series. I’m currently working on a prequel that will investigate the origins of The Lucky 13 and The Phoenix Academy. I’m also working on a spin-off for the series’ antagonist, Angus Sheppard, that will go into more detail about his backstory. Along with that, I’m also planning to write a script based on the books. I’m enrolling in online classes with The Los Angeles Film School and will be studying for my bachelor’s degree in their Writing for Film and Television course, I start classes in August 2023.

I started writing the first book in the series over a decade ago and have enjoyed every moment creating these characters and their whirlwind of a story.

The second book, The Devil in the Details introduces the series antagonist Angus, who easily became my favorite character to write. And the third book The Edge of the Earth is my favorite of the three because of how it wraps everything up and brings some closure for the readers while still leaving some room for the series to expand. I hope that readers love my characters and their story as much as I still do. I look forward to what the future holds for all of them. I appreciate the opportunity to share my series here with everyone on The Authors’ Lounge.

You can find my series on Amazon in eBook or paperback format Amazon

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