Gods of Verdan

Against All Gods, the fifth book in the Verdan Chronicles has been available for several months and follows closely after the events of the fourth book.  You can find it at lulu.com.  While it has its own share of epic battles (can you say ’50 foot titan’), it also sets the stage for book six where Terek’s bid for power and Adara’s plan for revenge are either realized or fall short.  Even if you suspect you know the answer, expect more twists along the way.

Recently, I was at a convention where Edgar Wright was asked for advice by an aspiring writer/film maker.  The part of the advice that resonated with me was to make his work personal and the more personal it was, the better the chance it had to “stand out”.  It made me ask myself, “Is my work personal?”

The simple answer is yes.  The whole reason I started writing is because I had this story in my head that wouldn’t go away.  It was an epic story that incorporated all the things I wanted to see in a story.  So, yes, it’s personal.   Everything in the Verdan Chronicles is either interesting to me, or it’s not there.  If a character stops becoming interesting to me, then I either find a way to make them interesting, or they don’t stick around for long.

So if the Verdan Chronicles is written for me, why publish it?  Good question.  Mostly, my son thought it would be cool to put my story into book form so I had something tangible and personal to put on a shelf.  It is cool and it’s a special gift I’ll cherish forever.  But then a few friends found out about my book(s) and said they wanted to read them.  Really?  I never thought of my books as publishable, but I was flattered and little embarrassed that they wanted to read it.

And so I asked my son to take the next step and find a way to publish the books in an affordable format for others to read.  Eventually, we settled on Lulu and there’s where you can find my books.  If there’s any down side, it’s that my son is very busy and can’t always get them published as fast as I can write them.  So while Book five was published early this year, it was actually finished about a year before that.  As I once indicated, the entire series has been mapped (in my head) and will encompass nine books.  I hope one day that all nine will be written and available.

But let’s get back to the ‘personal’ thing and how it relates to Against All Gods.  As the title implies, this book deals a little bit more with the gods of Verdan and how they’re reacting to recent events.  To an extent, they each get involved in their own way to manipulate how things turn out.  But when we talk about Verdan’s gods, are we really talking about religious icons?  Certainly, the inhabitants in Verdan worship these beings.

So how does this tie back to me personally?  Well, in book five I’ll introduce another religious concept, one that may strike a little closer to home for many people.  Don’t get me wrong, my intent is not to turn this series into philosophical exercise on the merits of religion.  The books are first and foremost intended to be fun.  At their highest level, they’re an epic story about good versus evil and how different characters influence and are influenced by those events.  It is their personal struggles that I find the most interesting.

But religion plays a huge role in our history and therefore I felt it needed to play a role in the history of Verdan.  The significance of that role will vary by character and the nature of their journey.  To that end my goal is to introduce different religious concepts and beliefs.  The merits of each can be judged by the reader, but at no time should it be inferred whether or not these beliefs coincide with my own.  So how is this personal then?  Many of the questions asked by the characters in these books are questions I ask myself?  The debates they have (internally and with each other) are debates I have.  And to that end, these books have helped me build a framework for my personal life.

And so there you have it.  Be warned.  There are many issues in our society today and you’ll see many of them played out over the course of the series in Verdan.  Lots of questions and I’m not sure I believe there is one right answer, but it’s fun to see the answers my characters come up with and to see where it leads them.  Again, I really hope these books are taken first and foremost as something fun to read.  But if a few questions are raised along the way, is that really so bad?