Welcome to the site where you can find out more about Revelations!  As an enthusiastic geek, I always like knowing more about the stories that interest me.

 

Blog entries: articles on background information and inspirations as well as my writing process.

 

Excerpt: a selection from the novel to tease and entice.

 

Character Backgrounds: inspirations and backgrounds for the characters.  Contains spoilers, so be warned.

 

Playlists: the musical inspiration for my writing.

 

Acknowledgements: thank yous and shout outs to everyone who helped out during this process.  I don't know about a village being necessary to raise a child, but it definitely takes one to make a good story.

 

Behind the Scenes: a chapter by chapter set of behind the scenes notes.  Definitely contains spoilers.

 

I'd love to hear what you think.  Send me an email at jclewis@pastthemirror.com to let me know what you thought.

Writing In the Cracks

There are days I dream of a quiet room with a wraparound desk, multiple monitors, a giant whiteboard full of index cards and a pleasant, but unobtrusive, sound system.  Then there is the reality of trying to write at the kitchen table while supper is bubbling on the stove, my kids are threatening to launch a full on nuclear attack and my boss is texting me to do “just one more thing” for the night.

I am a full time mom and I have a full-time job.  Which means that my writing must grow in the cracks of my life, like lichen on a cliff.  I’ve had to learn to stop waiting for the “perfect” time, to say no to dealing with chores or last minute requests and teach myself how to write in small fits and spurts.

When I was in college and my first full-time job, I used to bemoan my lack of time for writing.  I would come home and fling myself on the couch and curse that there were only two hours after supper.  I whined that I didn’t feel creative in the evening.  I protested that I needed long stretches of six to eight hours to commune with my muse.  Looking back, I want to slap my former self and her delusions of being a special snowflake with her creative process.

Sometime later, I emerged from the miasma of sleep deprivation after my second child was born and I realized that I did not particularly enjoy my job and that my opportunities to make my creative mark on the world were quickly going to run out.  So I decided to get a plan and make it happen:

1)      Set Goals.  I set myself the rather modest goal of 1000 words per week (terrified that putting a quota on it would quash my delicate creativity).  I reasoned that I could surely find the time once per week to write a thousand words.  Instead, what I found was that life has an ironic sense of humor and pinpoint accuracy when it comes to mucking up plans.  I would set aside a two hour window and watch it erode with phone calls and other interruptions.  Which led me to my next step.

2)      Take Every Opportunity.  Rather than waiting for my two hour window, I decided to break down my thousand words into smaller bites.  I looked at my schedule and found my downtime: the 45 minute music lesson, which was useless for running errands or going home and the half hour to an hour when my kids were watching something cute and fuzzy learn valuable educational lessons on TV.  Lessons, doctor’s appointments, anytime when I was stuck waiting.  I started bringing my laptop with me and making myself write.  Slowly my words started accumulating and I began to meet my quota.  Of course, I found my grand first novel was slowly becoming incomprehensible, which sparked the next change.

3)      Plan Ahead.  I am a pantser by nature.  Novels and short stories bloom inside my head and then as they emerge onto the page, they grow and change and become more than I could have imagined.  Unfortunately, the gap between writing times meant that sometimes I couldn’t remember the brilliant inspiration which had struck last time or I would forget the work I’d done foreshadowing a particular event and end up cutting it.  Or I would spend half my writing time staring at the screen and trying to guess where things should go.

I had to learn to become a plotter.  On days when the creative juices are flowing and I feel more like I’m downloading the novel from some cosmic databank than like I’m actually composing it, I do masses of plotting and preparation.  Then on days when I am less cosmically connected, I still have my notes to fall back on.  Often they’re quite detailed, laying out exactly what needs to happen in each scene.  Now if I only had fifteen minutes, I could get another 300 to 400 words further in the story without worrying about making mistakes or twisting the plot into an inescapable cavern.  This was my big breakthrough in changing my writing from a hobby to a serious pursuit.  But I still needed to improve.

4)      Go For Portable.  Having done all these wonderful notes, I had a different problem.  Namely that hauling an entire whiteboard full of plot stickies wasn’t really a practical option for my lifestyle.  Which meant that I was often trying to write without the resources I’d created for myself.  I tried making them digital and just storing them in the computer but I quickly learned that I was a visual person who needed the notes in front of me.  So I came up with what I believe is a fairly ingenious option: a photo album.  Now my writing bag has my laptop and a photo album full of index cards.  I have notes on my characters in one section, notes on the overall plot in another and individual scene notes in a third.  If I decide to make a change, I can add a note to the relevant area right away.  And I have all my research and notes with me, so I don’t get derailed by wondering what I did in a particular scene four chapters ago (which may have been written weeks or months earlier).  I was finally starting to make some serious progress, but I still had one more step to go.

5)      Get In the Mood.  I’m human, I find it hard to go from worrying about whether or not I remembered to pack my son’s gym shoes to dark and sexy alternate realities.  So I needed to find a technique which would help me to get my creative juices flowing on demand.  I spoke with other writers and heard suggestions about using inspirational pictures, theme music or even creating a stretching ritual before sitting down the computer.  I went with music, since that has always worked the fastest to transport me into imagination.  I put together playlists of instrumental music on different themes: sad, joyful, powerful and sexy.  But I found they weren’t quite what I needed.  Instead, I found myself picking particular songs for different characters at different points in the story.  Suddenly I could shift mental states quickly and easily.  Following up my mood song with an upbeat playlist kept my energy up and my fingers typing faster.

I still use my mood playlists sometimes, but more when I’m plotting than when I’m writing.  They create strong emotional reactions in me, sometimes stronger than I need.  I’ve also learned to short cut by listening to my chosen mood song in the car while I’m driving to lessons, priming me to be in the right headspace.

My process is still evolving, but I’ve gone from failing to achieve a thousand words a week to often managing a thousand words a day.  I don’t manage to write every day, which will probably be my next goal to work on.  And I’ve discovered it’s not easy for me to edit one story while working on another, which gives me another goal.  But I’m moving in the right direction and I’ve discovered that waiting for the perfect moment killed my creativity far more thoroughly than exercising it in less than ideal circumstances.

I may have glossed this over into a five point list, but I spent almost three years pushing myself before I realized I needed to start plotting.  Writing a worthy novel isn’t easy.  It takes a huge amount of work and dedication.  But it is possible, no matter what else you’re dealing with in life.  If creating something, anything, is your dream, then find a way to make it happen.  My life may be infinitely more hectic than it was before, but I’m enjoying it a lot more than I was.

Guest Post: Onyx: Unleashing Your Inner Burlesque Goddess

Burlesque is the art of expressing yourself through dance, comedy and sensuality.  Size, shape, height, none of it matters.  All that is important is finding the inner spark for yourself.

Want to try it out for yourself?  Enjoy these tips from the Blue Curtain Club and the Jewels of the Night:

My name is Onyx and I’m a burlesque performer.  Which is very different from being a stripper.  Burlesque has a long and raucous history.  We ruled the stage in the golden twenties, thirties and forties.  Pretty much until TV.  But we’re still here and still ready to make you laugh and blush at the same time.

So you want to try your hand at burlesque?  It’s fun and easy and every girl should try it at least once.  Here are a few simple and helpful tips.

Elastic is your friend.  You know what’s not sexy?  Struggling to remove clingy clothing.  Even the most gorgeous gal (or guy) can cross the line from diva to dorky when hopping on one foot to try and get a flimsy scrap of fabric off.  Professional dancers know the importance of elasticized fabric (such as spandex).  It can cling when you need it to and then stretch nice and wide, leaving you room to wiggle and shimmy as it smoothly slides off.

Easy pull snaps and zippers.  Stuck fastenings can eat up a lot of floor time.  A smooth zipper can be a tease, a little down and then a little up.  Burlesque is all about the tease and reveal.  Tear-away snaps let you mount your own shock and awe campaign on the audience.  Full length evening dress?  Gone in an instant, leaving you in corseted splendor.

Be confident.  Body shape isn’t important in burlesque, it’s all about the attitude.  Find your inner sex goddess, whether it’s channeling Kirsten Vagsness or Twiggy, Cindy Crawford or Angelina Jolie.  Own the stage from the moment you set foot on it.  Know that you are sexy and beautiful.

Find the funny.  Humor is what distinguishes burlesque from plain old fashioned stripping.  Give your audience a surprise, make them think you’re about to open a corset but instead whip out a prop like a feather boa or a lace handkerchief.  Find a ridiculous combination, like doing a strip-tease to a Disney song.  Engage with the audience to set up jokes, like “I have two assets which help in my business, my big, beautiful … eyes.”

Enjoy yourself.  This is the other part which really distinguishes burlesque from stripping.  Watch a burlesque show and you’ll see genuine smiles on the performers’ faces.  They’re having a good time and you should, too.  Figure out where you’re comfortable and stick there.  It doesn’t matter if you’re stopping at a corset or going down to pasties.  You’re entitled to have just as much fun as the audience.

It’s all about the layers.  Anyone can yank off a top when they’re not wearing a bra and flash the audience.  It’s the performance equivalent of a quickie.  Sometimes that’s what you want, but a real connoisseur can provide more.  Most burlesque performers will end up in pasties and a g-string but how they get there is the most interesting part.  Did they start off with balloons and pop them one by one to the 1812 Overture?  Unwrap themselves from a sarong like the best party gift ever?  Did they hide behind a feather fan to let little bits peep out?  Or did they start in a mascot costume?  The possibilities are as endless as the combinations.

Have a good pick-up partner.  The trouble with all those layers is that eventually, someone has to retrieve them.  A pick-up person is the unsung hero of the performance.  Their job is to pick up all the bits on stage and usually to set up props for the next act.  For a private performance, this is less of an issue but out in public, make sure someone is grabbing your discarded costumes.  And remember to always throw backstage.  I’ve lost more panties from bad aim than to bad dates.

Glamour gorgeousness.  You are beautiful.  You got it, flaunt it.  This is the time to be larger than life and twice as fabulous.  Fantastic eye makeup, elaborate hairstyles (provided you can move with them) and gorgeous clothing full of sequins and sparkles.  All of it for you.

Don’t worry about the dancing.  A sense of rhythm is helpful but not crucial.  Some of the best performances have been done to slow songs without any sense of beat.  Use the mood of the music to enhance your actions. 

It’s always more fun with friends.  Women can be the most catty, vicious creatures on earth but we also support our fellow sisters like nobody’s business when we have to.  A few like-minded friends allow for plenty of theatrical possibilities and take the pressure off you as a single performer.

In the end, a burlesque performance should reflect who you are.  No one can be really comfortable pretending to be something they’re not, even for a few minutes.  If you’re an exhibitionist, go all out.  If you’re shy, tease them into a frenzy.  Like to cook?  Come out in a Suzy Homemaker costume.  Into horses?  Whips, leather and riding habits.  This is an invitation between you and the audience.

See you on stage.

-          Onyx

 

5 Right Lessons From the Wrong Places

When I was in college, one of my professors told me something which changed my mind about the best way to learn.  He told me that I would learn more from people I disagree with and experiences I didn’t like than I ever would from those I enjoyed and agreed with.  And he was right.

Everyone tells you to read good books in order to learn how to write good books.  But I’ve learned just as much, if not more, from books I didn’t enjoy.  I won’t share specific names here, since I’m a big believer in not being sued.  But if you want to be a writer, I would strongly encourage you not to put a book aside because you’re not enjoying it.  Instead, break it down and figure out why you didn’t like it, especially if it seemed promising at first.

1)      Flat characters

Dickens is renowned for his vivid characters.  With only a few phrases or words of descriptions, he made them seem real to his readers.  But description is only the first part of making a character seem real.

I was put off with a recent library pickup, a paranormal romance, because the heroine seemed completely removed from the story.  Werewolves attacking?  Meh.  Family’s safety threatened?  All in a day’s work.  I suspect the author was trying to demonstrate this young woman’s shock by minimizing her emotional reaction.  But instead, it came off as if the character didn’t care at all.  Characters are our windows into a book’s world.  We react to stories about people, which is why we care more about one little boy or girl suffering than statistics about millions dying.

Characters may feel real to the author but sometimes they don’t transfer onto the page.  To feel real to a reader, they need information sprinkled throughout.  Favorite foods, a nervous habit, souvenirs from childhood, all of these sorts of details make a character feel real.  And most of all, they need to react to what’s going on.  I was told to make sure my point-of-view character reacted either emotionally, intellectually or physically to every action in a scene.  And it makes a difference.

Another common character challenge is a stereotyped character.  Another recent book I picked up felt like the main characters had been picked up out of a discount bin.  There was the Peppy Cheerleader, the Brooding Poet and the Dumb Jock.  Not once did any of them break with their stereotypes: the cheerleader was enthusiastic and ditzy about everything, the poet wore black clothes and brooded in corners and the jock failed to recognize such exotic places as “Mexico”.  The concept of the story was interesting but the flat characters sucked all the fun out of it. 

Every person is unique and every character should be, too.  Even secondary characters should have something unique about them to distinguish them from the thousand other gum-snapping waitresses or awkward tech specialists out there.  Main characters should break out of stereotypes in a dozen different ways, at a minimum.

2)      Failing To Deliver

Nothing ruins a story faster than anticipating something which never happens.  In one small-town romance I read, the heroine arrives on the run from an abusive stalker ex-boyfriend.  Throughout the book, I kept waiting for the ex to find her.  She worried about it constantly, running away from a local TV broadcast, not giving her real name to anyone, lying about her background.  Halfway through the book, she sees a news broadcast telling her that the ex-boyfriend has died in a car accident.  That was the closest he came to playing a role in the story.

 
I felt incredibly cheated by that novel.  I’d been looking forward to some kind of confrontation, maybe between the ex and the hero.  Or maybe the heroine would have to decide between staying with the man she’d come to love or escaping the one who hurt her.  I even held out hope that he’d faked his death to lure her out of hiding (since he was described as obsessive and manipulative).  Instead, the problem was solved without her having to lift a finger or make a decision.
 
Readers will expect narrative promises to be fulfilled.  If an author brings something up, then readers expect it to play a role in the story.  Crises and plot points should never be solved “off camera” away from the reader.

3)      Too Much Backstory

 
Personally, I’m obsessive about backstory.  If I like a character, I want to know everything about them.  What songs did their mother sing to them at night?  Where did they hang out in high school?  I like knowing details.

On the other hand, there can be too many details.  One rather hefty novel I picked up had a 30 page prologue detailing the hero’s ancestry and his ancestor’s achievements.  None of which ended up playing any role in the story.  Granted, it helped to establish the world but that could have been done much more concisely.  Details should establish character, establish the world in the story or create the mood/scene.  Otherwise, the pace is bogged down and readers can’t pick out the significant information from the multitudes. 

4)      Overdeveloped World

 
Technically, I suppose this flaw is really an extension of the “too much backstory” and “flat character” flaws.  Sometimes authors have a real gift for world creation.  They can create an alternate reality or a fantasy world which feels incredibly innovative and real.  Setting is supposed to feel like another character.  It isn’t supposed to usurp the actual walking-talking characters.

I’ve read any number of historical, fantasy and paranormal novels where the world was fascinating but the flat characters ended up feeling like a distraction against the backdrop.  In one Victorian romance I read, the author devoted a lot of time to making 1860s London feel real and substantial.  She explained customs deftly and had done her research on dress and manners.  But her hero and heroine remained stilted and awkward. 
 
One of my friends wants to write novels, but he fully admits he’s much better at coming up with unique worlds and grand sweeping arches of fictional history than he is at creating characters that other people want to read about.  I’ve offered him the following litmus test: if I pulled these characters out of this world and stuck them anywhere else, would anyone be interested in what’s happening to them?

5)      Too Many Surprises

 
I like being surprised, but only in a good way.  I want to look back at the story and say to myself “My God, how did I miss that!  It’s so obvious!” as I eagerly flip the pages.  I do not want to be sitting there going “Hunh?” as events play out.

A series I was enjoying ended up completely flipping the expectations from the first book in the last one.  There was a secondary character who I fully expected to be revealed as a villain (perhaps a reformed villain trying to mend her ways but a villain nonetheless).  There were all sorts of hints that she was not what she appeared to be.  But in the last book it was revealed that she was, in fact, exactly what she appeared to be.  Meanwhile, the good guys had become the bad guys and everyone had changed their minds about what they were fighting for in this particular post-apocalyptic landscape.
 
I read interviews with this particular author who admitted that she went through a major reconceiving of the overall story about two-thirds of the way through the series.  Unfortunately, the preparations she had done no longer applied.  And so the ending scenario came off as incomprehensibly surprising.
 
This is where a good beta-reader is invaluable.  Someone who has not talked to the author about the story and who only knows what is on the page.  Authors may think they’ve explained something or set it up perfectly, but the reader is still in the dark.  A good beta-reader will tell you if your plot and character actions make sense based on what you have already established.

Final thoughts:

No author can ever indulge in the belief that she or he has learned all there is to know.  To quote Jurassic Park: “Creation is an act of sheer will”.  The spark of inspiration is only the kernel.  After that, comes the layers of sheer will and determination which turn the tiny kernel into a pearl.

So take the time to indulge in some “bad” stories.  You’ll learn more than you think.

Into the World of the Lalassu

Lalassu is an Akkadian word which means spectre or hidden.  Since my community of supernaturally powered people goes back to ancient Babylon, which spoke Akkadian, I chose it as the name of their secret society.

I love the idea of secret organizations and communities living within the regular world.  The Templars and Masons, the Illuminati, even the original gatherings of Christians under the Roman Empire’s rule, there’s just something appealing about the idea of being part of a distinguished, but secret, group.  Of course there are actual distinct communities which share space but not lives.  The best illustration I’ve ever seen comes from J. Michael Straczynski’s Midnight Nation, inspired by his observation of how the homeless and destitute share geography with the regular folk, but remain unseen and hidden from view.

When it came to creating the world of the lalassu, I spent a lot of time thinking about how they would interact with the world.  Ancient Persia, Greece and Rome all have myths of powerful demigods with strange gifts, usually extraordinary strength.  The lalassu could have lived quite openly and comfortably.  Some probably even had cults and rituals based around them.  The turning point would come with the Roman Emperor Constantine and his adoption of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire.  After that, local cults were no longer tolerated.  The lalassu would have had the choice of fighting the Romans (which some certainly did) or withdrawing and hiding amongst the crowd.

With the Middle Ages came the witch trials.  Suddenly having strange powers was a death sentence, no matter how useful or helpful those might be.  Historically, many of the “witches” burned at the stake were healers and midwives, so I’m sure the inquisitors would have had no trouble condemning mediums, shapeshifters and predictives as demons.  The witch hunts would have driven the lalassu survivors deep underground and pushed them to the fringes.  Like gypsies and tinkers, they began to travel frequently to escape the scrutiny of suspicious neighbors.  They likely would have been welcomed among the tents of travelling entertainers as psychics, strongmen and freaks.

Gradually the world ceased to believe in extraordinary powers, making it easier for the lalassu to hide.  However, the rise of science threatened a new exposure, one which could be replicated rather than dismissed as legend.  If a naturalist discovered the lalassu, he or she could bring unwelcome attention on the entire community.  Keeping out of traditional roles became even more important.

The increase in the authority of the state drove yet another nail in the coffin.  Up until a hundred years ago, it was relatively easy to simply start a new life and a new identity, provided one was not claiming to be part of the aristocracy or other elite groups.  People more or less trusted newcomers to be who they said they were.  But as governments began to issue official identification papers and keep track of their citizens, it becomes harder to exist on the fringe of society without leaving telltale traces.

I based lalassu culture on the loose organization of the Romany (albeit in a very general way as there is little available for reliable detailed research).  Each group of lalassu has its leaders but each leader has a great deal of autonomy to make decisions.  They communicate to warn of potential problems for their people or to pass on invitations to particularly lucrative ventures.  They work in cash-under-the-table jobs such as day labor or the quasi-legitimate markets of palm readers and other psychic ventures.  Some cross the line into criminal enterprises.  They move frequently to avoid drawing attention to themselves.  Their safety relies on being effectively invisible.

Because they stay to the fringes, they have to rely on themselves to take care of any problems which arise.  If a customer cheats them, they can’t go to the police to complain.  Instead, they might call on relatives to teach a physically painful lesson on keeping one’s word, or use their gifts to frighten the mark or even break into the customer’s home or business to extract retribution.  If money becomes scarce, they cannot apply for assistance.  Instead they rely on their families and fellow lalassu to assist them.  The family becomes everything, support system and safety net.  Breaking from the family leaves an individual incredibly vulnerable and isolated.

Things are reaching another turning point for the lalassu.  In an age where the shadows they hide in are becoming narrower due to constant surveillance and international cooperation, the risk of exposure is becoming greater with every passing year.

The lalassu books will focus on different aspects of the community and the reality of dealing with superpowers and still trying to keep them secret.

Inspired By Special Needs Children And Those Who Love Them

Every parent believes his or her child is special.  Bringing home a newly wrapped bundle from the hospital or from the adoption agency is one of the most frightening and wonderful events possible in life.  It can become even more frightening when things don’t go as they are supposed to.

Some parents find out before birth, others while their child is still a toddler and others after their child is grown.  The number of possibilities are terrifyingly prolific.  Ask any pregnant woman who has had to look over long lists of conditions and disorders.  Not to mention accidents and all the other pitfalls waiting in the outside world.

As soon as a parent discovers their child has special needs, the entire game changes.  Some describe it as the death of their hopes and dreams.  Others spoke of a terrible shock, as if they literally cannot comprehend what they are being told.  Even when a parent suspects, having their fears confirmed is a difficult experience.

I based my character, Martha, on real parents who struggle daily with their child’s outbursts and limitations.  They are exhausted.  They are bruised, emotionally and physically.  They face daily scenarios which defy all expectations, such as cleaning up toileting messes from teenagers or having to spend an hour coaxing their child out the door because a different car is parked outside.  But I was struck again and again by how much they loved their children.  When no one would question it if they were ready to give up, the sight of their child still brought a loving smile to their face.  These parents are ready to sacrifice anything: their time, their savings, their homes.  Anything which might give their child a chance.  Many had to quit jobs to devote themselves to hours of therapy and multiple weekly appointments.

The truly remarkable part is that they don’t see themselves as remarkable.  In their minds, they’re just doing what they need to do.  What anyone would do in their situation.  If their assessment is true and we all could step up to do what they do, then the world and the people in it are better than our daily news report would like us to believe.

Bernie is not based on any particular child but I was inspired by the special needs children I met.  Although their differences often make the initial contact uncertain and hard to navigate, once you get past that, you see an amazing array of unique little personalities.  Children with autism who had no social understanding and are thus brutally honest and rapturously thrilled with equal intensity.  Children who defied brain injuries to learn to speak and walk and their contagious delight in their accomplishments.  Some couldn’t speak but still managed to communicate their enthusiasms and dislikes.  Others needed constant supervision because of their ingenious talents for thinking outside the box.  In all of their cases, their spirits shone through.  Their parents cherished those moments, perhaps more than we might expect, because of the contrast with the challenges.

My hero, Michael, is also based on real therapists who devote huge amounts of their time and energy to helping these families.  Male therapists are exceedingly rare, but I indulged in a little literary licence.  It’s difficult to find men who are interested in such an intense caregiving role and even more difficult for those men to find jobs.  Sadly, our fears of abuse make any man who wants to work with young children into a suspect personage.

The therapists I spoke to love their work.  Trust me, the money they make is nowhere near enough for anyone to do the job who doesn’t love it.  They love the moments when they manage to teach a child something he or she has been struggling with for weeks, months or even years.  They enjoy interacting with the children and discovering their quirky personalities.  They find little toys or stickers and pick them up for their clients.  They spend hours playing boring, repetitive games and still have smiles on their faces.

I asked parents what message they would like to send out and the response was almost invariably to be thankful for what you have and to be understanding of others.  Parents whose children cannot speak see children relentlessly nagging their parents for a toy or treat and think “I would give anything to have that problem.”  They ask for patience and understanding when they are dealing with a meltdown in the grocery store, instead of angry comments and disapproving glares.  Many of these children have no outward sign of their disabilities, making it hard for others to understand the challenges.

After seeing what they experience, it certainly made me want to give my own children a hug.  And it inspired me to try and show both sides of their experience: the wearing grind and the inexhaustible love.

Finding My Revelations

This novel started with two inspirations which quickly became intertwined.  The first were stories about the Babylonian temple harlots.  The second was the idea of using superheroes as my main characters.

Religions have always fascinated me.  There is a huge variety in beliefs and cultural attitudes out there, all with people equally devoted to them.  I believe humans may be drawn to different religions but begin their search for the same reason, to explain their personal experiences and sense of something beyond themselves.

I first learned about the Babylonian temple harlots in high school.  They were initially presented as prostitutes, a way for corrupt priests to make money.  However, as I started doing my own research and learned more, it became clear that this was a perfectly socially acceptable form of worship.  The French refer to the moment of orgasm as le petit mors, the little death.  It is implied that it is a moment of spiritual and emotional transfiguration and awareness.  The temple harlots were trained to help worshippers achieve that moment.

The idea of sex as something sacred which could be pursued openly intrigued me.  It is such a radical difference from our “don’t ask, don’t tell” social policy.  More research led me to the myth of the succubus, a demon which comes to virtuous men and has sex with them in their sleep, causing them to sin and lose their souls to the devil.  The two ideas became paired in my mind.  Many pagan beliefs and deities became demonized by the Roman Catholic Church (such as the Celtic god of the woodlands, Cernunnos, who was remodeled as the devil).  I wondered, could the temple harlots have been demonized as succubi?  There’s absolutely no evidence for it, but the idea stuck with me.

The second part of my inspiration was to use a superhero as my heroine.  I grew up in during the revitalization of comics, when stories moved out of childhood and into maturity.  I devoured stories plumbing the depth of the human/superhuman experience, such as Chris Claremont’s Phoenix and Dark Phoenix sagas and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns series.  Heroes weren’t infallible, they made mistakes and questionable moral decisions.  I wanted to create a heroine who felt the weight of her supernatural gifts, who didn’t want the life of sacrifice which was required of a hero. 

Dani was born out of a mixture of defiance and desperation, ready to go down fighting to her last breath but still denying there was anything good or worthwhile about her.  She would be descended from the temple harlots, able to open her lover’s mind to the infinite majesty of the divine cosmos.  But what would that kind of awareness do to someone’s mind?  People are quite happy in their delusions most of the time.  Those without self-sustaining delusions are the clinically depressed.

Dani needed an appropriate hero to match her, which let me explore another idea of mine.  A hero who was not more badass than his heroine but who inspired her instead.  It’s a bit of a flip on the traditional match of the romance hero and heroine, where the goodness of the heroine inspires the aggressive hero to become more than he has been.  While Dani emerged as a full-fledged (and opinionated!) character in moments, Michael took a little more time to come fully to light.  I had to coax him to share his secrets with me.

He began his fictional existence as a youth counsellor, but that didn’t quite sit right, no matter how I tried to make it work.  Then one day I met a little boy with an attendant in tow.  His parents explained that the boy had severe autism and the attendant was his therapist, who worked with him every day.  Lightning struck and I suddenly understood Michael’s true role.  He was a developmental therapist who worked with children and he had psychometric gifts which allowed him to peer into otherwise silent children and find out what they were feeling.  Like discovering that the previous half-hour’s tantrum was because of an itchy clothing tag.  His big-hearted kindness and optimism came into focus and I finally understood how he fit into the story.

After I had my hero and heroine, then I needed an appropriate villain.  Someone who was the antithesis of them both, combining their worst qualities and fears.  André deigned to explain it to me.  Some people are given supernatural gifts, and those people have the god-given right to rule over the non-gifted.  Ruthless, driven and sociopathically practical, he is simply doing what anyone else would do, given the opportunity: making sure he is not out-gunned in the drive to acquire people with special gifts.

The three of them quickly took over the story and pulled me into a new world filled with strange powers and secret societies.  I’ve only begun to scratch the surface in Revelations and I’m looking forward to telling many more stories of the lalassu, the hidden people.