Aylesbury author releases prequel to successful science fiction thriller

An Aylesbury author has released her second book a prequel to her inventive science fiction thriller.

Janet Humphrey who grew up in Aylesbury has independently published Dust-Jed which is a follow up to her debut novel.

Janet’s first book was called Dust, and chronicled eight strangers who became infected with a dust-like substance.

This unknown infection prevents the characters from breathing, but their hearts continue to beat.

Dust-Jed focuses on one of the eight lead characters, as it gives a backstory to Jed.

Jed is a troubled complex character, this book explores how he becomes the young man we see in the Janet’s original novel.

He is loved by his mum, but lives a difficult life in squats and on the streets of Exeter.

Her death forces the youngster to fend for himself and grow up in a local church children’s home.

Dust-Jed catches the character just as his life starts to spiral out of control as he struggles to cope with persistent bullying both at school and at home.

Janet who writes in her spare time often before she gets stuck into her day job as a financial assistant, is now working on a sequel to Dust.

Initially Janet thought the sequel would be book number two, but after she hit a wall mapping out parts of the plot for Dust’s successor, she turned her attention to Jed.

That is now behind Janet, she has written 30 chapters for novel number three already.

Janet told The Bucks Herald: “Because the character had been rolling around in my head the whole time I was working on book two.

"It helps to flesh out book two with regards to the fact he’s one of the main characters in book two.

"So I wanted to explore his early years, his meetings with a ganger and his eventual, in theory, demise but he doesn’t die and his revenge on him later.”

Janet has enjoyed great feedback since releasing Dust, her novel was downloaded on Kindle as far afield as New Zealand, while a number of people in India have added her on Facebook.

She is still getting up early to pursue her passion for writing and has recently been joined by two publishing assistants, rescue kittens, Harry and Bruce, who are regulars in her writers’ room.

Dust-Jed is available to order on Amazon.