Sunday, March 23, 2008

The Fruites of Life

Ever since I started reading the books of Kim Harrison (The Hollows series to be more precise) I've been thinking about writing a fantasy story, about witches and vampires and those kind of things. The only problem was, that I didn't have a lot of experience in the fantasy genre. Well, I have read Tolkien and Rowling and probably the odd fantasy book (Jim Butcher springs to mind) on a gray day in may and then there are the large amounts of Star Wars novels I've read, which is not strictly fantasy, but if you pay attention, actually it sort of is. But more to the point, I didn't have a lot of experience with the world of witches and vampires and elven and werewolfs and other fairy tail creatures.

Kim Harrison completely enthralled me with her stories, so I was set on writing something in the genre. So I started to do the research. The first thing I did was browse wikipedia on mythology (mostly greek and egyptian), which is not necessarily the subject I was looking for, but I accidentally started there and I was so interesting I spend two days on the subject.. I really wanted to find more about celtic fairy-tails and legends, but I didn't really know where to look. Then I finally got on track with Wicca, so I ordered a book on Wicca (A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner if you're interested in Wicca, start here!) and a general Witchcraft Encyclopedia (I haven't got it here, so I'll post the exact name later). Two things happened out of this.

The first thing that happened was, that I was amazed at how well Wicca suited me and how many of the rituals described I already did intuitively in my life. It's really shocking to out of the blue find, not only a book, but a whole believe system, that almost perfectly fits my view of life and the world. Of course I have my own opinions of some things and I don't agree with everything that's in the book one hundred percent. But that is the beauty of Wicca, there is a lot of room for your own interpretation and views and gods, which makes it damn close to perfect if you ask me..

The other thing that happened was, that I got interested in Morgan Le Fay, which came from two separate fronts. First there was the name of the main character in the Kim Harrison novels (Rachel Morgan) and the image of Morgan Le Fay on the cover of the witchcraft encyclopedia which I had bought. So I did the wikipedia tour on Morgan Le Fay. She has an amazing lineage (look it up if you are interested). I was also lucky, because I was visiting my mother that day and she gave me the book The Mists of Avalon by Marion Bradley, with which I hit the jackpot. This was exactly what I had been looking for, first of all, finally an interesting King Arthur story. I had tried to read The Once and Future King by T.H. White in the past but couldn't really get past all the dancing and singing that was in my head from the disney version. But the story by Bradley is really good and really interesting. Besides it being about Morgan Le Fay, it also gives more insight in the old celtic pagan believes, which is exactly what I was interested about. And I'm just on page seventy..

In January, after a lot of thinking, I started to write a rough outline for the story and in March I even wrote about 9 pages (the outline is 12 pages, but it still contains some ideas that are not going to make the final cut). Now I'm reading The Mists of Avalon and this has given me some inspiration that fits so eerily well in my ideas about the story, that I'm starting to believe that I have as muse somewhere (Thank you muse, for every inspiration you have and might give me in the future, I love you for it!) helping me out.

Also, I think there seems to be some more links between Morgan Le Fay and Rachel Morgan than only her name if you ask me, although if so, it is a little warped. But I have always been pretty good at fabricating connections that are not really there, so it might be pure nonsense :).

I have done a little writing in the past, but not very much and nothing really seriously although I have always had a lot of ideas (they come to me at the most bizarre moments). But now I am writing this story I come the realize how much I like it and that it even helps me to relax after a busy day and for some reason it even makes me sleep better. But most of all I might have finally found the creative outlet I have searched for, for as long as I remember.

It's a good six months. I have found something I can believe in (which I also was looking for, for a really long time) and I have found a way to express myself creatively. Although I probably would have found them eventually anyway, all this was set in motion by reading the Kim Harrison books. So, Thank You Kim, you are the best!

Love,

Mart

ps. check back soon, I have had another blog post idea today ;).