Local author Susan Cullen has not only closed a chapter in her writing efforts, but finished the final book in her World Collective trilogy.
Having two in-house target audience members helps.
Cullen, an award-winning author, is proud to have finished “Uncounted,” the final book in the series that she began writing in 2018. It’s a young-adult dystopian series that earned Cullen recognition as a Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer finalist and Word Award winner.
It delves into a world where truth has been buried under layers of lies, perhaps the most powerful discovery is that hope’s song never truly fades — it just needs a willing heart to hear it.
“It’s an accomplishment that I’m pretty proud of,” the mother of two teenagers said. “This one hung onto me and I had to keep going.”
Cullen said her children helped drive the writing in the series.
“Both kids have big imaginations. They are great sounding boards when I’m working through stories,” she said.
The World Collective trilogy may be dystopian, but Cullen said its target audience was a little younger than typical dystopian efforts. In fact, the younger audience inspired her work.
“I would say the biggest motivator at the time was I had a reader who wanted to read a lot of dystopian content, but was finding it a bit mature,” the former teacher said of a young teenager. “A lot of the story came from trying to write for the teen readers who aren’t quite ready for too much violence and too much romance who still want the fast action.”
The protagonist, Rygita, is only 14.
Cullen said she enjoys writing for the teenager crowd, as the audience can be quite varied.
“Kids tend to read up. You tend to read for characters who are a little older than you are,” she said. “Every kid is different. Some are all about the crushes and romances, and others will skip over those. I tend to keep it more on the crush side and annoying roommates.”
Cullen said there is a book party on Feb. 15 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Anyone curious about her books or the writing process is welcome to attend.
“It’s wonderful to have a local book store. They champion local writers,” she said of Turns & Tales. “That’s very heartwarming.”
Not coincidentally, the store stocks her trilogy. So does Amazon, and the books are directly available through Chicken House Press, her publisher.
It is also available at the Chatham-Kent Public Library, and Cullen said it’s showing up in more libraries in local schools as well.
Cullen said she’s already begun work on her next effort, another apocalyptic romance where a city boy meets a country girl at the end of the world.
