Tag: Fantasy Books

Possibilities and questions about what could happen inspire most of my work. Fantastic America and Midwestern Magicians examine what would happen if magic returned to our modern world. Other stories I’ve written (however poorly) examine other questions. Like, what does it mean to be human? What do we share in common as a species (like food, sleep, and death) and what differences (cultural, religious, and technical) are there besides that? Sometimes especially in a novel length work, several questions come up through the narrative. What is the right thing to do in a given situation, and how do you choose when there is more than one ‘right’ choice? How does the toss of a coin, or roll of the dice change what could happen into what does happen? Choices my characters make and the repercussions from those choices are one of my favorite topics to explore. Not making a choice at all is great to explore, though it can be tough to show how restraint is the best choice of all sometimes.

While in the Navy, I was once put in charge of firing a missile at a drone off the coast of Crete. We spent weeks preparing, days arming the missile before the firing event, and the whole ship was expecting to see a launch and explosion. On the day of the exercise I was ready to shoot. Tension was high, other Naval vessels were taking part in the exercise as well. My ship lined up to fire and everyone on board expected me to shoot down this drone. (Drones were new and untested in the Navy back then.)

I had the drone lit up on my radar, but it kept drifting out of the safe firing zone. When I finally locked on again, it had drifted too close to a trailing ship. My finger was on the launch button, but firing would endanger the ship behind us. The firing range reported seconds later that they had lost control of the drone. They recovered what was left of it on the shoreline later. If I’d shot that day, I would have put over three hundred fellow sailors in harms way. I chose restraint, but that is hardly as sexy or exciting as Luke’s run on the Death Star.

I don’t mean that every loose end must be tied up, or every mystery solved, but the main points have to have some resolution, even if it’s temporary. More important from a writer’s perspective, whatever premise, plot device, character flaw, or question asked in the inciting incident (Act I of the three part structure) needs a definite resolution in or near the climax (Act III’s pivotal moment). The best stories see the main character triumph not just over the antagonist, but over whatever held them back from heroism to begin with. Luke lets the force guide him, Frodo gives up the ring (and a finger), After defeating Shaddam IV, Paul Muad’Dib sees the bloody Jihad unleashed in his name.

Okay that last one sets up the rest of the Dune series, but the resolution still ties up the majority of the plot set up in the first Act. Each of those examples feels fulfilling because the problems encountered along the way, Frodo’s Journey, Luke’s battle with the Empire, and Paul’s confrontation of ‘The Outer World’ satisfies the readers desire to finish what Act I sets in motion. Catharsis in each of these stories comes from the resolution of the immediate conflict, the main character and their companions survival is an added bonus that makes their victories even more satisfying. Look for that same idea in one form or another in Fantastic America, not that all the loose ends will be tied up, but that Ashley Monahan will resolve the issues she struggles with through the climax.

Magic has flowed into our world before, and whole cultures lost in the distant past relied on magic to function. I’ll leave descriptions and notes about those cultures for future posts. Those cultures perished without a trace when magic failed and the bleak times began. People from these cultures were either scattered to the winds or died trying to find a way to survive a world without magic. For us, the bleak times were normal. Civilizations have risen and fallen for over six millennia without magic to sustain them. The people who lived through the end of the last magical age adapted to an Earth much different to the one they new. Just like modern inhabitants of the Magic Unleashed series have to adapt to the changing environment in Fantastic America and Midwestern Magicians.

Just the same, those cultures left a legacy that survived their demise. All over the world, people will rediscover traces of these civilizations lost to the bleak times. In addition to ruins never explored by archaeologists, some of those traces take the form of relics from that forgotten age. Scattered around the globe just like the people from those long gone cultures, these relics still hold power and pose dangers to those who find them now that magic has returned to the modern world.

But they are not the only spirits loose in the world. Ghosts have lingered in the world of the living after death for thousands of years, but since the winter solstice of 2012, they are now few and far between. Those left behind share one common trait, a strong attachment (sometimes involuntary) to the world of the living. Other spirits that go bump in the night were constrained by these free roaming apparitions are now free themselves. Wraiths dark parodies of human ghosts left over from the last magical age now scourge the living. They seek to corrupt and consume the essence of the living. Other even more alien spirits linger in places far from the living and the dead. The purposes of these lonely spirits seldom ever coincide with either the living or the dead. They have granted boons and curses through hastily agreed to bargains. These spirits and more now populate the changing Earth in Fantastic America and Midwestern Magicians, the first two books in the Magic Unleashed series.