As of April 2026, I have finally finished my latest work, ‘Ralph and the Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse. It has taken nearly 2 years to fine tune this story, into something which I could be rightly proud off releasing.
Many think writing a book is a fairly linear process, but this one took many twists and turns along the way. It wasn’t until late last year did I final come up with the story which made it into print. Even then it was still a very iterative process.
What Helped Me
I am a very visual person, and the introduction of AI enabled me to quickly turn my thoughts about characters into visual representations. Through out the writing I created several images using AI Technology to visualise and refine my thoughts about a particular scene.
My first step in this process was to visualise my main characters. So I created the Mark 1 cover below to help with that process.
But this image doesn’t actually tell the full story. Ralph the protagonist in the story was going originally going to be a Unicorn disguised as a Human much like the others. Death’s dog was going to be a traditional Hell Hound, but it just didn’t just sit right as we can see from the image below. It gives off the wrong vibe. And don’t ask me where the burning coffee cup came from.
So from this initial images I was able to develop my characters.
Astra – The Librarian
Astra is a complex character, who loves nothing more that to tell people to be quite in her library. She became the glue which held everyone together, and almost became the main protagonist of the story, Thankful I did allow that to go very far as it gave the story a whole different feel; less comic, more stern and authoritarian. She did however play a pivotal role through out the story; providing leadership and a strong moral compass to fall back on.
Bramble – The Gardener
Bramble was one of those supporting role characters. He sort of fits in the narrative, but only just, I could have developed his character arc better, but when I started to do so, it didn’t feel right. It felt disjointed, so I consigned him to a supporting sidekick role.
Ember – The Barista of mildly dangerous coffee.
Ember is the charging an let’s get fighting character of the story, she is in many way War’s directly replacement. When I started to develop her Character Arc, it was starting to dominate too much, and I left her as the punchy lets fight our way out of this support character.
Zephyr – The Yoga Instructor.
During Zephyr’s character development, I had someone who was very much like Shaggy from Scooby Doo. He is very much a background worrier who adds that fearful, frighten side to the group.
Ralph – The Springer Spaniel.
Ralph is a character who received a lot of attention, and of all the characters he is the most developed. The story of how Ralph came about is some friends of mine have a Labrador/Springer Spaniel Cross . Rolo is bonkers, and every time I visit he will charge up to me with the same battered old toy, and gives me the warmest greetings ever. I studied Rolo intensely to get the fundamental of his character down, so I could portray him as the main protagonist in the story.
Agro – Death’s Dog – The Dog of Death, The Hell Hound.
Argo was a complex character to portray, for weeks I initial want to portray him as the traditional Hell Hound. But this wasn’t sitting well with the vibe of the story. I discussed this issue with Molly, who is Rolo’s owner. I wanted something comic, but not too comedic. We batted around a few ideas of various small dog bread, because we felt that these dog always have an attitude which exceeds their tiny stature. Eventually, Two breeds we in the final running; A French Bulldog, and A Pug. I glad I settled for the Pug, as Agro’s character is exactly like one I meet regularly whislt walking my own dog.
Gordon – The Rubber Chicken
Like I said earlier Rolo always greets me with the same toy every time I visit. I thought that this was an important part of Rolo’s character, it was a glue which bound him to one physical entity over everything else. And thus Gordon the rubber chicken was born. Gordon is a complex character he is not merely a rubber chicken with a squeaker; throughout early development he became Ralph’s sidekick, his buddy, his ally, he had a character and personality of his own. I hope I have got this through in the story, it was damn difficult to phrase things in terms of squeaks.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
I wanted the story to be a comedy about the Apocalypse, but I didn’t want the traditional characters to over shadow Ralph. I need to create a mechanism to get them out of the way. In the very early days of development, I remember a conversation a group of us were having in the staff restroom of a local supermarket we all worked at. We were discussing our upcoming holidays, and how excited we were about going away and relaxing for even a little while. I thought the Four Horsemen must be something like overworked civil servant who rarely get the chance to take a Holiday, so I concocted a side story to get them out of the way, to allow the main story to develop in their absence. I knew that because this was a comedy they would have to return, but that they would have to play a minor role in how the story progress in the later stages.
Scene Development
I have difficulty in fully visualising Scenes to a large extent, and found that using AI Technology to develop a visual reference for a scene, help cement it in my conscious. Below is one of the opening scenes which I developed to get the Four Horsemen out of the way and on Holiday.
In this scene we can see Trevor the Dragon passed out in the Beer Garden of the legendary Tuckers Graveyard in Somerset. Yes The Tuckers Graveyard actually existed, and I have heard many a tale of how people have been there, forgotten how they got there let alone to the next village. Originally I was going to have Trevor knocked out whilst flying at 30,000 feet by the potent fumes of Rumble Bumble Cider, which the Four Horsemen were drinking in the Pub. But this didn’t work, and I settled for an unfortunate accident with a Rumble Bumble Cork instead.
Another Pivotal scene or the Inciting Incident took me ages to get right. I need a mechanism to get Agro, to be kidnapped whilst the Four Horsemen were away in Benidorm. I had already settled that the Ralph and the Four Unicorns would be looking after him, but I needed to get him in harms way of the antagonist ‘The Devil’ a year 9 maths teacher. I struck on the idea that Agro always and I mean always believes he is entitled to treat whenever he wants them. And thus the scene in the bakery developed to be the inciting incident of the story. Below is the image I developed of Agro being banned from the Bakery for life due to the incident.
So as you can see the process of writing a book for me at least is a little more involve than sitting down at a keyboard and randomly typing in some words.
Available from the following Retailers
Ralph and the Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse is available Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Rakuten Kobo and many other sites like Smashwords. ore Vendors will be coming shortly.
Link to Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GQRG2JXB
Link to Amazon .com – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQRG2JXB
Link To Apple Books – https://books.apple.com/us/book/ralph-and-the-four-unicorns-of-the-apocalypse/id6761636164
Link to Rakuten Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/ralph-and-the-four-unicorns-of-the-apocalypse?sId=31433a7f-6c60-4afd-bbee-c09deb17ac68&ssId=pxQ4ZA_sy4cDkaKH2Zb-F
Link to Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2004010
Link to Bookshop.org – https://bookshop.org/p/books/ralph-and-the-four-unicorns-of-the-apocalypse-charlie-hicks/21d4be0077de04f0?ean=9798233112713&next=t&digital=t
Link to Books To Read – https://books2read.com/u/3JzRpP
Charlie Hicks - Author 