Halloween and terrifying realism in fantasy

Image Source: Deviantart

Halloween is just around the corner and I am going out on a limb predicting that there will be a fair amount of bejeweled daggers, velvet sleeves and Grecian-esque outfits accessorized with dragons traipsing about thanks to the recent popularity of the Game of Thrones series. 

My anticipation of the street flowing with the nobles and small folk of the Seven Kingdoms has gotten me to really reflect on what this phenomenon is resonating.

While many are jumping on the Thrones craze because of the HBO show's popularity, I like to think there is something about series' gruesome realism that is both shocking and refreshing.

When Game of Thrones debuted last year, I quickly became intrigued with the unapologetic way George R.R. Martin kills, pummels and maims even the most beloved characters in his series. He throws the utopian Camelot mold out the window to show that kingdom building (and destroying) can be scarier than any magic and fantasy elements. 

In my novel The Evenarian, I was inspired by, and hope to do homage to, this darker side of the human experience. Because while time travel, magic and fanciful creatures make life more interesting, people's behavior can be a story's most outrageous element. 

This is what I'll be thinking about when I see drunken Lannisters and Starks milling about Halloween parties this year. Who knows, maybe in a few years people wearing Evenarian costumes will remind others of the fear that human responses can muster.

Hey everybody, I made a video!

Who's excited to see a new video about The Evenarian? I'm putting the finishing touches on the short video that will be on my official Kickstarter page come November 1, but I couldn't wait to share it with all of you!

It's a casual conversation in a San Francisco cafe. It's a glimpse at my working routine and my office. It's also a great overview of the book. I put a lot of positive vibes into this video and hopefully you'll want your friends to feel them too, so let them know about it.

And as always, kill the prophecy, save history.

Kill Hitler

The Evenarian will be fantasy book, like Game of Thrones, but it has a character who had time-traveled to kill a historical figure who will be responsible for causing the future world's problems. It's a takeoff on the old "if only someone would go back in time and kill Hitler" idea. But would that actually work out?
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We assume the kill-Hitler scenario would work because that era is so well-documented and we have many first-hand accounts of what happened (let's face it, The History Channel owes its success to World War II's thorough records), so a prospective time-traveling assassin would be able to pinpoint the perfect moment to swoop in and complete his mission. But even though those events took place less than 100 years ago, there are still many gaps and unsolved mysteries of the era.

So...what if someone went back in time several centuries, even thousands of years, with a similar goal? What if the man they try to kill had been prophesied? Can one really kill a prophecy to save history?

Ironically, we rely on history to help shape our worldviews and often our own identities. But can we really know everything in history? No. It's impossible. Just think of all the mistakes one over-confident person could make if they were actually able to go back in time.

Suddenly that whole kill-Hitler thing doesn't sound so simple. Nether is killing The Evenarian.