Lost in the Backrooms: Author's Notes

 

(At the end of the book, you will find a section titled Author's Notes, which delves into the story, the characters, and the inspiration behind this story. Below are the Author's Notes for Lost in the Backrooms.)

This book is part of an anthology/book series related to supernatural/ paranormal stories, the first book in this series is, Lost in the Backrooms Vol. 1. This is the main character’s first encounter with the non-Euclidean dimensional realm. When I began working on this book, I checked out videos and read various writings to gather more insights on the subject. Most of my research happened online, and since the Backrooms concept isn’t copyrighted and is open to interpretation, anyone can use it for videos, books, art, and other creative projects. Not all the books on the Phoenix Files will be related to the Backrooms, in fact the next time the Backrooms are mentioned it will be in Volume 3. The main characters in this book only skimmed the surface of the Backrooms. They did not go through all the levels. I place them mostly in level 0. According to the lore of the Backrooms, it starts like this: If you’re not careful and no-clip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby because it sure as hell heard you. I found this very intriguing and somewhat scary, but it gave me inspiration for this book. According to some people, most wanderers don’t meet each other in the Backrooms, it’s rare but in my story, I chose to have the characters meet each other so they can fight together and find a way out.

About the main characters: Jane is 28 years old; Father Patrick is in his early 50’s and John, her mentor, is five years older than her. Jane’s sexual preference is loosely mentioned in this book. The relationship between Mary Kate and Jane will grow throughout the book series. I feel that being diverse in character is important to go with the flow of today’s society, despite what certain groups think. As a writer, I feel that it’s important to represent certain groups in society in my writing. Jane is also half Scottish/Irish and native American. Her parents were Hunters but died during one of their assignments. Jane was raised at one of the orphanages that the Church owns and trained to be a hunter.

 What about the subtle connotation of religion in the story? I grew up Catholic, so I included some religious themes in the story. Jane and MK's faith, bravery, and trust in God really helped them as they looked for a way out. In the narrative, they belong to a church-related group that tackles paranormal and supernatural cases that the authorities shy away from because they can't solve them. Jane and MK were changed by their experiences in the Backrooms. It left a scar and for months they’ve experienced restless nights as any person would if the Backrooms were real and he or she ended up there and came back. They would have PTSD and would suffer some inner turmoil. Unlike Jane’s nightmares, MK’s dreams take her into the BACKROOMS. She is in astral form when she enters, and she can go further into the Backrooms, visiting other levels. There she finds people who have set up small colonies and are living a life there unbeknownst to the outside world.

On occasion, Reyna experiences similar dreams but cannot astral project. Reyna and others who have been thrown into the Backrooms by accident, they were unprepared unlike Jane and MK. Jane and MK are Hunters and have dealt with entities and cryptids in the past, so they were prepared but the Backrooms was something else entirely different. MK found new powers hidden within herself but once they crossed over, she was back to normal, or she thought. Jane and MK ventured through three or four levels before ending up back at level 0. They may have been prepared with weapons and other necessities, but they had no knowledge of what they would find and what to expect while looking for Talia. John arrives at the Backrooms searching for all three of them. I felt that the characters stood a better chance of escaping the Backrooms together. Together they fought monsters and together they found a way out. John and Talia were the first to exit the Backrooms and after some tribulation, Jane and MK found their way out too. The exit may appear anywhere. Portals can appear anywhere at any time. However, in the Backrooms lore, it’s probably not that way. Mary Kate’s connection to the Backrooms will not be addressed until volume 3, when she ends up entering the Backrooms once again. The gentle voice she hears in her dreams is an unknown person who lives in one of the Human based communities in one of the levels of the Backrooms. The next book in the series is called, The Path Less Taken vol. 2.

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