The Fiction Vault — 2
Literary Fiction
After the Sci-Fi novel, I figured I was done with writing fiction. I hadn't even wanted to write that first work as I didn't consider myself a fiction writer. But as the idea wouldn't leave me, I finally decided to write it as a bespoke gift to a friend and learn the craft along the way. I started in 2016 and finished it in early 2020.
Despite its strengths, it was also rough around the edges. So, I was glad not to look back.
Then, I woke up one early morning in 2025 with a vivid dream that I immediately recognized had the full outline of a novel. Rather than going back to sleep, I got up to capture its fleeting essence. As I was writing down the major elements, I felt I was in a race against time before it slipped away altogether.
But I still wasn't all that much better at the craft of writing than I had been for the first novel.
I turned to AI for help. It became my masterclass in pacing, structure, and maintaining tone. The drawback was, since I relied on it heavily for editing, the prose no longer felt entirely like my voice.
Having said that, the story itself is the one I wanted to tell, so it worked out well in that regard.
At the same time, because of the extent of AI involvement, I would never submit it to a traditional publisher.
Once again, when it was finished, I assumed my fiction days were over.
However, a couple of weeks later, I woke up one early morning from yet another vivid dream which has become—or rather, at the time of writing, is in the process of becoming—my third novel: Joséphine Samuels.
This time I returned to writing the prose all on my own. I don’t use a human editor either.
Time will tell how it turns out.
Meanwhile, here is a summary of What We Inherit:
The novel explores what happens when a family whose identity has long been shaped by wealth begins to question the assumptions that sustain it.
Jake Ashberry was adopted as a child. Long before he entered the family, a trust had already been established—one that, by its very structure, excluded him. When he is later offered a formal position within the family's affairs, what first appears to be a generous gesture gradually reveals itself to be something far more complicated.
As the family confronts questions of inheritance, loyalty, and responsibility, each member responds differently. Some defend the existing order. Others begin to question it. Emily, Jake's younger sister, quietly watches the consequences unfold and gradually comes to see the system itself.
At its heart, What We Inherit explores not only what families pass down in the form of wealth, but also the expectations, assumptions, and invisible structures that accompany it.
So why leave it available?
Because it represents an important stage in my development as a writer. The story is still the one I wanted to tell, even if I would approach the prose differently today. Rather than pretending it never existed, I'd rather let readers decide for themselves. However, since AI was involved in its creation, I've made it free wherever platforms allow it.
