A BLACKWOOD escape room owner-turned-author has released his second book.

Adrian Turner owns the award-winning Escape Blackwood - which has been closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this year, he turned his hand from creating thrilling escape rooms and focused on teen thrillers, releasing Shudders: Mystery of Hilltop. It did well in the charts, being ranked number one bestseller in the category on Amazon in its second week on sale.

He has now released the second book in the Shudders series: Side Eye Men.

Speaking on the inspiration behind the series, Mr Turner said: “I have always had a passion in writing. From a young child I had always had unfinished stories that I would start but never finished.

“My creativity ultimately led to me opening an escape room in my local town which allowed me to make a business out of my storytelling and built four themed rooms from scratch.”

Turning to writing was a bit of a release for Mr Turner after the escape room had to close due to the pandemic. “Having such a creative mind, it was hard to have it just shut off,” he said. “There was a lot of time for TV and so I managed to watch series after series.

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“I am a single father to my twin daughters Katelyn and Isabelle, aged 10, and I enjoyed watching the old series that I used to watch at their age. A mutual favourite was the Goosebumps series.

“I fell in love with the series all over again. I have a passion to provide a better world, a more inclusive world for my children and noticed that a lot of the TV shows had very little inclusive characters in them, and if they were, they usually had small or supportive roles.”

“My inspiration came from wanting to provide stories that not only had inclusive characters but used them as main roles.”

In Mystery of Hilltop, the main characters were triplets to represent multiple births. “The makeup of one boy, two girls held the hidden representation of myself being a single dad and my two daughters.”

Side Eye Men, released in time for Autism Awareness Week, has an autistic teenager as the main character and a supporting character with multiple personalities. “It’s important for me to get across to readers that the stories are not about autism but includes a character that simply has autism.

“All future books will include inclusive characters to act as a representation in young adult books that has not been done to my knowledge and research.”

A third Shudders book is on its way and will include LGBT characters attending a primary school.

“If I can affect one reader in a positive way where they feel represented, then it has been worth it," said Mr Turner. "As long as there are inclusive characters, I will not stop writing stories and have ideas for many more stories.

“Wales has had a fabulous history of great writers and storytelling. If I can be a fraction as successful as those who have come before me, I would be happy.”

You can purchase the books in the Shudder series through https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/kindle/series/B08TWVM282?ie=UTF8&ref_=sr_1_2