DIY Writer Aaron Randolph Follows Successful Debut with ‘Rehka and the Inevitability of Life’

Aaron Randolph’s successful sci-fi thriller “Thane” came out in October 2023, the first

Aaron Randolph

book published by the Kenmore-born author. Now, he’s back with a sequel, “Rekha and the Inevitability of Life.”

“‘Thane’ was done, and I was like, ‘OK, where do I go next?’ Do I do the same kind of thing but different, this time?” Randolph said of writing the follow-up. “Maybe it’s a little darker? But the more I thought of it, the more my brain started saying, ‘Let’s go into a totally different direction,’ which was insane, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head of doing a fantasy adventure taking place in a seemingly entirely different world.”

“It’s kind of a stealth sequel, if that’s a thing,” Randolph added. “I don’t know how to explain it without spoiling everything, but it is a very different story. It’s a very different book” than the prequel.

The popularity of “Thane” — a book largely inspired by Randolph’s misunderstanding of an ending to a computer game that continued to kick around in his head — paved the way for the audiobook release last November, funded by a Kickstarter campaign that was so successful it completely covered the cost of hiring voice actors.

“I had an event at a writer’s night at Lock City Books, and I read the first two chapters of Thane, and they sold out twice,” he recalled. “I had to run out to my car to get more and signed them all. In half an hour they were all gone again.”

Still, it isn’t success that drives Randolph to write; doing so, he said, quite literally helps his mental health.

“It genuinely helps me to stay happy,” said the author, who has been writing since grade school. “I took some time off and, basically, whenever I had free time, I was playing video games or messing around. I was depressed. I hadn’t done any writing, I hadn’t done any work on any of my novels, and I was bummed. I thought, ‘This is the worst. I can’t keep doing this.’ So, I learned pretty quickly that I have to keep writing if I want to stay happy.”

Writing, Randolph acknowledged, is an often difficult and even lonely process. For

young writers, he said, his best advice is to pay attention to what’s going on in their heads, any ideas they have, any notions that pop up, and start the process of fleshing those ideas out. And, he said, it’s important to reach out to others for support.

In fact, while writing “Thane,” Randolph sent the first half of the book to people across

the country asking, as his own doubt set in, if the project was even worth pursuing. People not only responded with a resounding ‘yes,’ friends and coworkers provided a critical network of motivational support helping him continue.

“Everybody was cheering me on the whole way,” Randolph said. “It all helped. At a certain point you don’t want to let any of them down. You just want to keep going.”