Rory McMillan

Thank you for reading this note. I am currently a freshman in high school. I have been writing and imagining different stories for years now, but this is the first time I have published something.

My first book "A Phantom Pain," was made during November Writing Month. This was my first time doing November Writing Month and it really got me into writing. I hope all of you reading this will try out November Writing Month and maybe get into writing stories. I planned out and brainstormed this story for months after my English teacher first mentioned November Writing Month.

My main inspiration for this book was Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. Besides the title being inspired by it, the theme of falling to evil for the sake of revenge in Metal Gear Solid gave me the initial idea for the plot of this book. The creator of Metal Gear, Hideo Kojima, was a big inspiration for me. Kojima is known for making incredibly complex and deep stories. One day I want to be able to write stories equally as deep and complex. After this book is published, I plan to continue writing. Kojima works incredibly hard and does most of the work on his games and stories, which I have also been trying to do. There are a lot of references to Metal Gear in the book.

I included a ton of references and easter eggs to many different kinds of media from movies to songs to musical artists. If you saw something and you thought it was a reference or was similar to something else, you are probably right. There were also a few references to and people named after people I know in real life.

I am planning on writing a completely different book set in a dystopian future, as well as a prequel to A Phantom Pain about Casey’s first case. The book about the dystopian future will most likely come out first and will take place during a global conflict in which a soldier discovers a plot to overthrow all of the world's governments and destroy the world. It will still be similar in some ways to A Phantom Pain, but there will be a lot of differences and will most likely be longer than this book. The current pending title for that book is The Man Who Sold The World which I have begun working on. I hope you all also enjoy those stories when I release them.

If any of you reading this are writers or considering writing, remember to stay creative and keep writing. Anyway, thank you for reading this note, and have a great day.