Janine GriffithsA writer from East Leeds is channelling dreams, imagination and a deep love of storytelling into a growing fantasy universe that began, unexpectedly, with a four-page book.
Daniel Wilkinson, author of The Cave of Souls, says the entire idea came to him in a dream of “underground worlds that led to castles and kingdoms on the surface”, sparking a creative journey he is now expanding into a full short story.
Wilkinson describes the world he built as “a futuristic, dystopian world that was packed full of science fiction and fantasy”, an idea he didn’t plan in advance but shaped instinctively as he wrote.
“I developed the idea by doing rather than prior planning or thinking,” he says, recalling early encouragement from Chapel FM’s Peter Spafford to stop worrying about genres and “just write a story with ideas”.
One of the most striking choices was keeping the published version to just four pages. For Wilkinson, that brevity is deliberate. “I see reading as a dying art form that humanity cannot afford to lose,” he says. The short format is his way of making storytelling accessible to reluctant readers, adding “wonder and mystery” and leaving a deliberate cliffhanger. “If we lose reading after all, maybe we are the ones trapped in the cave rather than setting our minds free with a good book.”
His love of adventure runs through his earlier work too. Wilkinson, who previously wrote The Adventures of Lucas and Seb, says that book taught him he is drawn to “risk taking heroes that are set on a quest and a need to defeat the antagonist to succeed”. It also affirmed his passion for creating fantasy worlds infused with science fiction elements “thrown in for fun”.
Readers have already told him The Cave of Souls has “a strong imaginative foundation with an intentional ache for continuation”. While he welcomes constructive criticism, he admits, “for the most part I would also like readers to just sit back and enjoy it for what it is”.
Wilkinson is now working on expanding the story with “more detail and ideas to make it into a really good short story”. He is also continuing the Lucas and Seb series, although the second book “may take years” to complete.
As for who he writes for, he hopes the answer is everyone. “I like to create works that can engage all audience members, of any age or background,” he says. “That is one of my most cherished aims is to write something the whole world can enjoy.”
The Cave of Souls is available as a free download on Google Play Books, which according to Wilkinson is a gift he hopes everyone can enjoy.
