Where did Beyond the Lost get its name, anyway?
Beyond the Lost is a dystopian survival trilogy built for liberty lovers sick of “progressive,” sanitized fiction that’s plaguing the literary world.
I didn’t want it to sound like Netflix-style pacing survival thrillers you find on Amazon. It needed to be more memorable, so I asked myself, Which dystopian series name will I never forget?
That led me to Kate L. Mary’s Beyond trilogy, which was libertarian enough for me to buy the physical copies. I wouldn’t call it Rothbardian, but there’s not a single libertarian out there who would turn down the “rebel” colony in that series.
I didn’t need a carbon copy, especially when the differences between Beyond the Lost’s premise and Beyond’s is night and day. In Mary’s series, that centrally planned society’s been going “strong” for two centuries.
Oh, and by the way, if you ever read my post-apocalyptic dystopian fantasy, The Rebellion Awakens, Mary’s “Society” in Beyond inspired what Sabre Kjaergaard was forced to live in. So some of Mary’s work slipped into my own.
That said, there was no way it’d fit into a series where a Red Dawn-like attack destroys America within minutes.
Beyond…what?
Because I loved Mary’s trilogy so much I’ve read and listened to it at least three times, the word ‘beyond’ was a shoo-in. But I needed something creative that would describe the series. Let the reader know they were getting dystopian survival, but don’t let them forget the trilogy’s name, either.
Finally, it came down to my protagonist, Quinn Cozens. I put a lot of work into Quinn’s backstory. Literally. Because it mimics my own, except I exaggerated it.
Quinn spurned his grandparents and they passed before he fully made amends. He put his ambitions ahead of his immediate family. His sister quit talking to him because of his self-centeredness. And before Quinn knew it, he was a successful sportswriter with a libertarian edge. Except he was alone in life.
The guy may’ve thought he’d win because he reached for and caught the stars. Instead, he created his own personal hell. And he lost. Quinn freaking lost. That’s how I came up with Beyond the Lost.
Beyond the Lost…
Naming the trilogy was only half the battle. Then came the fun part: naming the books. Beyond the Lost Horizon came to me because Quinn lived in his little, ten-mile bubble in Northern West Virginia.
He lived in an apartment and was there for a good 21 hours a day, leaving to work out in the gym and buy food. When Quinn went to that concert with his cousin Jonas, not knowing what was about to happen, he expanded his horizon.
As for Beyond the Lost Assault and Beyond the Lost Fates, Books II and III in the series? I won’t give away any spoilers. I’ll just say that the titles hold more meaning than you think. Key in on the words Assault and Fates, and you’ll have your answer.
Hell, reading through Beyond the Lost Horizon might give you a clue or two. So check it out, enjoy the bloodbath, and see if you can crack the codes for Assault and Fates.
