D.M. Cain is a dystopian and fantasy author working for Next Chapter Publishing. The Light and Shadow Chronicles series features a range of books which can be read in any order. The series instalments to date include A Chronicle of Chaos, The Shield of Soren, The Sins of Silas, Genesis of Light and Origin of Shadow.

Cain has released one stand-alone novel: The Phoenix Project, a psychological thriller set in a dystopian future. The Phoenix Project was the winner of the 2016 Kindle Book Review Sci-Fi novel Award.

Cain lives in Leicestershire, UK with her partner and two young children, and spends her time reading, writing, reviewing and indulging in geek culture (Marvel, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy).  

Extended biography

I was born in Leicestershire, UK, and storytelling has always been my passion. From the tender age of ten, writing countless stories of adventure and wonder, completing a novel had always been my dream. As a teenager, my imagination blossomed and I would spend hours creating fantasy worlds of mystery and magic.

At university, whilst studying psychology, I began to write a dark dystopian named The Phoenix Project. After graduating from university, I travelled to Japan to teach English. All of the fascinating and beautiful things I experienced in Japan inspired me and enriched the fantasy world I had created as a teenager.

In 2008, I returned to England, dejected at having to leave the place I loved so much. I planned on getting my teaching qualifications, and running straight back to the country I now called home.

Instead I resurrected The Phoenix Project and threw myself into my writing. I dropped everything and travelled across Europe via InterRail – Istanbul, Budapest, Krakow, Berlin… I visited 14 countries and spent hours on rickety trains trundling through Carpathian mountains or idly floating along the Rhine Valley. It was on this journey that I wrote the majority of The Phoenix Project – inspired by the majesty of the scenery and the freedom of the open road.                                          

I returned to England and settled into a job. I became a primary school teacher – a job I adore, but which exhausts me daily! In the evenings I continued to write, and in 2011, heavily pregnant with my wonderful son, I finally finished The Phoenix Project. A psychological thriller set in a dystopian future, Phoenix was heavily inspired by Roman gladiatorial arenas, celebrity culture and the horrors of underground cells we visited in Budapest.

The Phoenix Project had been my passion in life. I had poured my heart and soul into writing that novel and I felt oddly empty when it was completed. I wanted to feel that passion again, and yearned to write more. I imagined that a baby would stop me from writing, but strangely I found my son’s little face more inspiring than any of the scenery we’d passed on our travels, and I wrote more following his birth than I did before it!

I began to write the epic fantasy world which had existed in my head for so long, and the Light and Shadow Chronicles were born. I picked a point in the centre of the timeline and focused upon Chaos Lennox – a character very close to my heart, and began to write his story. Two years later, A Chronicle of Chaos was finished.

Chaos was much darker than I had originally envisioned. Amidst the large-scale battles and epic showdowns between angels and demons, the real core of the story was the protagonist’s battle to understand his identity and the crushing weight of a prophecy that dominated his life. A controversial and adult story in many ways, Chaos pushed the boundaries of fantasy and set the pace for the rest of the Light and Shadow Chronicles.  

I wanted to achieve something unique in the world of fantasy, and this series has an unusual twist. Each book tells an individual character’s tale and their part in the final novel, in which all elements collide for a cataclysmic battle. The novels in the Light and Shadow Chronicles series can be read in any order, which makes this a very ambitious project, but a truly exciting one!

During my time writing A Chronicle of Chaos, I began to speak with many authors online. This led to me being one of the creators and administrators of a successful online group known as The #Awethors. In 2015 we published Awethology, which included my dramatic psychological tale, ‘The End’.   

The next books in my fantasy series followed soon afterwards: The Shield of Soren, Genesis of Light and Origin of Shadow.

The latest book in the fantasy series – The Sins of Silas – has just been released. This book explores the effects of an ongoing war on a nihilistic young man who was not blessed with immortality, despite his privileged position in the Brotherhood of Shadow.

Other upcoming projects are The Ballad of Benedict and Hand of Honour.

I spend my free time reading and reviewing books, listening to symphonic metal and playing with my two wonderful children.

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