What Change?

            I’ve been reading a series of books called the Death Gate Cycle to Colleen. This is fantasy series (by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman) from the late 80’s and early 90’s that I read once before when I was much younger. It’s one of those series that really proves what I always say about fantasy being the perfect way to take a closer look at human nature.

            This series takes place in a universe where the world has been split into four separate elemental worlds – plus a couple extras, but the details aren’t important for this blog. This happened because of two races of people so magical that they and the “lesser” races believed them to be gods – but the ideals of these two peoples opposed each other, so they were at war.

            The orderly and “goodly” of these two races, afraid of losing the way, cast a spell that tore the world to pieces and reformed it, dumping the chaotic and “evil” race into a magical prison while they were at it. Many of the “lesser” races died in the process, but the “goodly” race saved as many as they could. Unfortunately, the elemental worlds were not self-sustaining, and before the “goodly” race could link them together to work as a team (as they had intended), something went wrong and they began to vanish.

            The story follows a member of the “evil” race, who is one of many to have escaped the magical prison after generations of torment. Under the command of his lord, the first of his people to escape, he is scouting out the worlds in preparation for launching a war against the “goodly” race.

            As he is exploring these worlds, he finds them in chaos – with the three “lesser” races fighting endless wars against each other while the “goodly” race is absent. Then, on the fourth world he visits, he discovers dragon-like monsters who profess to serve him, but he eventually determines that they are pure evil and that they gain power from fear and hatred.

            These creatures get released into the other worlds, where they insinuate their way into the ranks of the “lesser” races (they are shape-changers) and spread chaos, fear, and hatred. They always present themselves as wanting to serve, and whenever confronted by someone who knows what they are, they say “You made us.”

            Then, at last, someone learns how to fight them by pinning down what they actually are. They explain it simply as “they are us.” The monsters are the embodiment of all the hatred and fear the races have of each other, and the more hatred and fear there is, the more powerful these monsters became.

            As I was reading this, I thought, wow... that looks a lot like the issues we’re facing in the world today.

            And, as with today, the way to fight these monsters was for people to put aside their hatred and fear and work together.

            To me, it is an obvious message. But then, this is woven into a series of books that was written over twenty years ago and we’re still dealing with the same issues. Perhaps the time has come to say it louder.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Inspiration

Something that, at some point in time, always gets asked of an author is, “What are your sources of inspiration?” For some, it’s a simple answer. For me... well, it’s a rather long one.

            You see, for me, inspiration comes from all over the place – quite literally. For as long as I can remember, I've been an observer. Some of my most vivid childhood memories (I can place the one of the earliest at age four) are of standing apart from the other kids and watching. Just watching. I didn't want to join them; I wasn't lonely. I was perfectly content to stand aside and observe how they interacted with each other.

            I didn't know it at the time, but somewhere in the subconscious of my brain, a file was opened. I started to log away information and, I believe, from then on everything I've observed has gotten sorted in there, to be taken out when needed – completely on a subconscious level, of course. Nevertheless, when I read my own work, I'm fascinated to see how many bits and pieces have come out of things I've observed.

            Beyond that, there are, of course, other authors I've read. The most influential ones for me have been Terry Pratchett, J.K. Rowling, Margaret Weis, Brian Jacques, Anne McCaffrey, R.A. Salvatore, and, of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. There have been many others, some of which I've been re-reading recently and discovering similarities to my writing, and I look forwards to discovering more!

            There are also countless movies and TV shows that have bits that stick in my mind and show up in my books – sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. Games, too! The concept of my series’ overarching plot was inspired by a video game and, currently, I'm working on adding creatures to my encyclopedia of my world by looking through a D&D Monster Manual, cross-referencing the information with mythology and deciding what my version the creature will be like.

            As I said, inspiration comes from everywhere! I even have creatures and plots that came from dreams. Imagination is a wonderful and amazing thing. It’s almost as if it takes everything you've seen and experienced in your life, mashes it all together into dough and hands you something new.

            There, I've probably gone on long enough for this week. Now I get to hope that next week’s blog will be more inspired.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.