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Maple Ridge author publishes first Sci Fi

Story takes place in the year 2337 on a planet divided in two
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Maple Ridge author Matthew Bennett just published his first science fiction novel. (Special to The News)

The year is 2337 and the world has been divided in two.

War has ravaged the planet.

Now an invention has been developed by a citizen named Adam, that allows for communication with the past.

Adam’s goal is to prevent wars from ever occurring again.

But, will the people choose to make peace with the people on the other side of the planet on their own? Or will Adam’s invention be used by governing authorities to control people from the past?

That is the question posed by Maple Ridge author Matthew Bennett in his new science fiction novel The One Being.

Bennett started writing the novel in the summer of 2018.

The 22-year-old had always been good at writing. When he attended Maple Ridge Secondary School he took a creative writing course.

“I think the first thing I ever wrote that inspired me to get into writing was in Grade 10,” said the Simon Fraser University computer science student.

For his first two years of high school he was in the honours English class, but was taken out of it for Grade 10.

He strove to get back into the honours class for his final two years.

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So, when he was given an assignment to write a short story about a super hero, he gave it his all.

“My teacher told me it was one of the best ones she had ever read,” noted Bennett.

He decided from that moment that he wanted to put his skill to good use. He knew at some point of time in his life he wanted to write a book.

And once he started writing The One Being, the Ridge resident couldn’t stop.

“I had the inspiration and I was writing all the time,” said Bennett who spent between two and five hours about six days a week working on it.

He completed his first draft in April, 2019. After a few rounds of revision he began submitting the work to publishers. It was picked up by Austin Macauley Publishers in New York.

Bennett’s genre of choice is science fiction.

“It’s only limited to your imagination,” explained the author, who felt he had some great ideas for his new book including a powerful message.

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“It’s got a really powerful sub-theme about religion in this book in that I think that faith is really important for people but I don’t think it should control your life,” said Bennett.

“I think you should be able to do whatever you like regardless of what you believe in. But I think that faith is a very powerful guiding hand for us going forward,” he added.

Bennett would like to develop the story into a series spanning seven or eight books. He is currently working on the second book.

“I want to span thousands of years and I want significant parts of human history to be in play and each book to have a specific sub-theme about life,” he disclosed about the series.

For now he is hoping readers will have the kind of experience where they have the opportunity to piece things together.

“There’s more than the physical actions that are happening. There’s a lot going on underneath.”

The One Being is available for purchase on Amazon and Indigo.


 

cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com

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Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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