Into the Arms follows a woman from her early days at a Catholic boarding school through a series of life-shattering experiences into womanhood, leaving her questioning everything she was taught and seeking a life filled with truth and joy. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I think as young children we see the world through a different lens than the adults around us. We have an innocence and grand awareness of what is happening, a wisdom and a sensitivity that actually allows us to see through things without the burdens, expectations, ideals and conditions on life that we seemingly pick up through our developing years. Yet this is crushed so very quickly and we are asked to jump aboard the treadmill of life with little to no concern of what may be true for us. 

The staggering numbers of young suicides, teenage self-harming, drug and alcohol abuse is only but rising. I don’t know a single person who hasn’t questioned why we are here or what life is about in some shape of form throughout their years. With no answers, often a distinct lack of purpose, and only a show of hands pointing us in a direction other than what we are sensing from within, it seems we stop trusting ourselves and what we feel, usually at a huge cost.

I wanted to offer something more than the usual depiction of life, that may allow space for others to ponder on something grander than what is usually served up; to return to the innocence, wonder and sensitivity we all had as children; to not brush over all the daily irks but to acknowledge them for what they are, and to live untainted by their brutality, in the glory of who we truly are. 

All of these factors and more were the inspiration. 

I found Rei to be a very well-written and in-depth character. What was your inspiration for her and her emotional turmoil throughout the story?

Rei is a character that many, if not all, of us can relate to. A young being inquisitive, playful and eager to see the world and explore its people; a being craving to be seen and loved for who they truly are. It’s what permeates our skin and is often the basis for all that we do, whether consciously or not. We see each other as such vastly different characters on the world stage and in its playground, when in truth there is so much we have in common with one another. Despite this commonality we are taught to covet our insecurities which often creates further separation and emotional turmoil. 

Our pathways through to, and including, adulthood are paved on our experiences at birth and as youngsters; these are often turbulent, rocky or laden with nuances that distort our behaviours moving forward. We are taught that there is something wrong with us and we react accordingly, when actually perhaps it is more than the individual stories and structures we have grown up with. 

Bringing light to emotional turmoil such as this is important to help us all understand that intrinsically there is nothing wrong with any of us, we have just been encrusted with layer upon layer of brutality from everything around us. Unpacking this is wise, it’s no-one’s fault per se, yet the burdens we carry are often grossly unnecessary and harmful for all. 

I feel we have a responsibility in life to live and share what is true. Unpacking and unpicking situations and experiences can be hugely healing and empowering and it gives us an awareness from which we can grow. Using Rei’s character, I felt able to give voice to occurrences that are often left unspoken about, and that felt great.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

Abuse is such a huge word with many connotations and examples attached to it. Just as everything in life there are 50 shades (and more) of it. The novel touches upon this but I’m not sure in life we stop and give it much air time. Whilst it happens to ‘someone, way over there’ we are quite happy to go about our every day regardless. To add insult to injury, because we have these 50 shades of abuse, we often accept the so called lesser-scale abusive behaviours because there are far-worse versions out there, telling ourselves it’s not so bad, it could be worse. And so the behaviours go on, not being called out, not being stopped. For this reason we can see how we are all complicit enablers in the play out. This is an extremely relevant and important theme that runs through our daily lives that I felt was necessary to explore. 

Love too was, and is, a biggie and is believe it or not linked to the abusive theme above. Without fully loving ourselves it is easy, if not second nature, to accept abuse, regardless of where it falls on the so-called sliding scale. Anything that is not loving is abusive. Simple. Why would, and do, we settle for anything in-between and call it something different? Why have we given up on ourselves and the love we truly deserve? We can’t expect the quality of anything to raise if we except lower standards ourselves; supply meets demand. I wanted to explore this too, because too often we bitch and moan about everything, without actually making the small, simple steps within ourselves that we are capable of making that could and would bring about huge and eternal change globally. 

Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with Rei in the novel?

I think a character as universally relatable as Rei could continue on as a never ending story. There are so many experiences in every day life, minute-to-minute, moment-to-moment that highlight things that go on around, or to, us. Perhaps we have given voice to them, perhaps not, but they are all possible learnings for us. How can one possibly cover them all? 

Rei’s journey had to have an end date (2025 in this story), but perhaps there could be more as the years unfold and she connects back to what came before and all that is left there to deepen into. Within the pages it felt complete, but as the story so beautifully depicts There is always more.

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