Making MYTHS 06/05/2011
My inspiration for Myths of Gods came one warm northern California day, when I went out into my yard to admire the year’s first real day of spring. The yard was lush from the recent heavy rains, birds flew overhead, and fragrant pollen filled the air. Like all transcendentalists, I couldn’t help but relate the scene to God finally waking from the slumber of winter. Like any writer, ideas began to spin through my mind about a character that might embody that sentiment. When I first wrote Myths of Gods, nearly fifteen years ago, it was in screenplay format. The storyline was crude, there were twelve prophets instead of five, and the theme covered vague abuses of religious power. It hadn’t known what it wanted to be back then, so I filed away the manuscript and set it aside for several years. During that time, I worked on my craft, writing numerous screenplays and short stories, taking classes, and exposing myself to books of all genres. I knew there would be a time when I would revisit Myths of Gods, but only when I was genuinely ready to take on the feat.  About seven years ago, I finally decided to adapt my old Myth of Gods screenplay into a novel. I ended up scrapping over half the characters and rebuilding the story from the ground-up with a stronger sense of theme and satire. I condensed the “gods” to five people embodying five condensed properties: Mind, Matter, Time, Life, and Death. I purposefully blurred the lines between good and evil, inviting the reader to redefine the two, as one character determines, “she of all people knew better than to divide the values of gods and devils.” The good and bad in people can be just as difficult to define. Myths of Gods takes place in a society where religious leaders govern with great wealth and power over the people. They are opposed to the prophecy that states five virgins will give birth collectively to God, mainly because it discredits their longstanding theocracy. This results in religion, in effect, waging war against God. The aspect I had the most fun with was balancing the mind of God, Jeza Khess, with her fallible human mind: Jeza thought back to when she was the unbodied consciousness, and how God had not considered the possibility that the manifested beings would be so wholly human and unforeseeably flawed. Jeza’s struggles between her human mind and the universal consciousness it struggles to process were ideal for speculating her limits and attributes, which allowed me to take a close, critical look at faith, belief, and consciousness. Myths of Gods has come a long way since its first incarnation, and I can say with great enthusiasm that the years have done it well. My thanks to all who helped to make it what it is today. It’s been a long and treacherous road, but the journey has been well worth it. Myths of Gods is now available at Amazon in Paperback and eBook. CommentsKate 06/05/2011 13:44
I think part of what makes religion (particularly in the form of theocracy) so dangerous is the idea of a definitive "good" and "evil" that cannot be blurred or redefined. It opens the doors the types of capital horror known in the medieval days -- and described so well in your novel. Shelley 06/05/2011 14:33
I agree. This book took me places I never imagined a contemporary novel could take me. Everything about it was thought-provoking. The fuzzy line you created between good and evil really made me think. Keep up the good work. Leave a Reply | ArchivesMay 2012 CategoriesAll |
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