Unveiling the truth of human experience

Born in Istanbul in 1989, Seda Ulu, the Turkish author of Light in the Darkness (Cosmo Publishing, September 2023), studied international relations. Still, her childhood passion for the arts—writing, reading, cinema, and the performing arts—grew stronger as she matured.

Ulu decided to listen to her inner voice and, following her degree, attended classes at the Turkish Dialog Anlatım İletişim Academy, followed by a course in creative writing training at the Istanbul Business Institute. Ulu wrote her first novel, Light in the Darkness, followed by the second book in the series, Darkness in the Light, currently under translation. The following submission, although it is not an extract from either of her novels, is what Seda Ulu had to say about why she writes and her artistic process:

Start of submission on Seda Ulu’s writing process.

"I’ve been writing since I was a child. This is a passion I cannot give up. Putting my feelings on pages helps me express myself. Getting away from the outside world and entering the universe of the stories I write is the only way to cope with many emotions. And when people read my novels, they connect with these feelings. They tell me their own stories. This is the most priceless feeling in the world. You write the book alone, and the reader reads your book alone. Yet, in a moment of convergence, the solitude dissolves, and you two find yourselves no longer alone. This is one of the most remarkable reasons to write.

“Many fiction authors become that character as they write their characters. This is the most fun of the job. But the creation process can be very painful. No matter how painful the creation process is, a part of your soul travels to other worlds, and you can’t help but put it on paper. That’s what it’s like for me to be a writer. The sense of inner purpose. It is a calling.

“Words are powerful. Using them, you can create a new world and invite everyone into that world. I love this feeling. And that’s why I want to keep writing until I die. One of the things I love most about writing is that it challenges me.

“Sometimes, you reach a point where you struggle with your own characters. That grand place where fiction takes over a writer. I don’t remember how often I stopped writing or deleted what I had written and rewrote it repeatedly. I am still not stopping to write after all these experiences have shown me that this is not just a job but a life purpose. Writing is a strong passion, like the spark inside you turning into fire. No matter how stuck you feel, it is impossible to let go. You must reach the end of the story.

“In this series of novels, I write of the choices we make in life and the consequences of these choices. Whatever you choose, it comes with a price. You cannot separate the Darkness and the Light. But you decide who you are by the choices you make. The second book is more about looking in the mirror. Mirrors sometimes reflect what you don’t want to see … Big question! When evil and good collide, how can the Light in the Darkness resist the Darkness in the Light? In this series of novels, we see every face of people, and an unexpected event awaits you on every page. You cannot make a definitive judgement about any character in this book. You cannot predict their next move, and I think this keeps the reader on the pages of the book.

“In Light in the Darkness, my first novel set in England in the 1950s, an unending adventure takes flight, guided by a delicate yet emotionally charged narrative. It sweeps us through time, leaving us yearning while wrapped in graceful prose. Solitude’s potential transformation and the hidden face of possession are laid bare, entwined with tension and excitement that never wane.

“As the story dives into a partnership kindled by a shared passion, unrelenting obsession, and the enigma of Darkness, it plants a single, thought provoking seed: Could we find the courage, like Galina, to unearth love’s most mysterious and uncharted territories?

“My second (upcoming) book is about awakening. I love using the crow and hummingbird as metaphors for Darkness and Light. In the first novel, the hummingbird guided us toward the Light. However, Light can sometimes blind us, obstructing our view of reality. In the subsequent book, the crow will lead us to the realm of darkness, unveiling all truths. The crow reflects your own image back to you.

“For me, Darkness and Light represent an inseparable whole. I had to create characters and fiction to tell this in a story. Of course, the characters should have names. Like Galina, Joseph, Jack, Rose, Anthony … It didn’t matter what their names or genders were. They all represented Light and Darkness to me. The one that exists in all of us. But I had to find a symbol. I was fascinated by the meaning they attributed to the hummingbird in Aztec belief. The hummingbird represented Light, while the crow represented Darkness.

“The characters show this with their actions and words throughout the novel. Their faces under the masks … There is a grain of truth in every fiction. A reflection on people’s shadow self and how they hide it in their daily lives. Everyone has secrets. In this novel, anyone can do anything. Someone who seems terrible to you may do a good deed and surprise you as the story progresses. And someone who seems good to you can do bad things. Revenge, ambition, arrogance, sin, crime ... A fiction that describes the suppressed emotions within us in a profound and literary way.

“Darkness in the Light, the sequel to Light in the Darkness, is the story of a girl who leaves the orphanage and turns into a woman. It all starts with her making a wish. She experiences very bad things in the orphanage. This leads her to deeply desire power. Since she has been alone all her life, she wants someone to be with her.

“Her dark side is very powerful, and once she discovers it, she becomes unstoppable. At this point, she needs to learn to balance both sides. This is very difficult for someone who comes from the depths of Darkness. In this book, the reader witnesses the war inside Galina. The battle of good and evil ... Maybe she represents every woman in us. It’s like a mirror that makes us face ourselves. No matter what you do, you can’t escape your past. While she thinks she has escaped her past, fate plays another game for her and takes this novel to a different place. The heavy burden of finding out that the people from your past still have a connection to you while running away from your past. As a result, no secret remains hidden, and no one is actually what they seem. And nothing is as it seems.”

—End of extract

The English translation of Seda Ulu’s second book, Darkness in the Light (the sequel to Light in the Darkness), is currently underway.)