The Next Book, 'Tis Underway

I didn't expect this, but The Twilight Lover has turned into a hybrid of sorts. My original plan -- one I came up with months ago, in fact -- was of a serious ghost story with a contemporary setting. But after going through a pretty challenging time working on Compline, which turned out to be much heavier and darker than expected, I decided to switch gears and turn the new book into a comedy for balance. 

I do, however, tend to have a more difficult time making ghost stories work in a universe that's swimming in so much information and technology. And I'm not just talking about the cynicism that usually affects our perception of things and of events. I'm talking about the ease with which we're able to access information via so many devices available to us. Unless I turn the setting into a full-on urban fantasy, which I'm not interested in, it's hard to justify the mystery of a haunting without automatically debunking it in my own head. 

I've even been watching ghosts on camera type of videos on YT, and it's pretty obvious where some clever editing's been done in a majority of those "paranormal" events supposedly captured on video. It really does hamper inspiration, and I can't get myself out of that mentality when I attempt something like a straightforward ghost story in a modern setting. 

Even accounts such as the ghosts reported in Fukushima after the tsunami disaster are explained away with trauma responses and not actual supernatural phenomena (at least among certain writers and researchers, anyway). That said, accounts from survivors who claim to have encountered the ghosts of tsunami victims FEEL more genuine than what's shared on social media via videos and stuff. But they're also very limited to the catastrophe. 

What I love about writing a historical fantasy is the limitation of knowledge and technology, and characters' reactions to the inexplicable are always fun to explore. I can make it serious and dramatic or off-beat and funny, those limitations helping a great deal in forcing boundaries the characters are fighting against. 

And so The Twilight Lover is now a humorous ghost story set in the distant past, and I'll be making full use of anachronistic language to pump up the comedy.

Another thing about this book is that it's also turning into a retelling of the myth of Narcissus and Echo, which I didn't realize was happening until I actually sat back and inspected my notes. It's really weird how a lot of things we read find their way into what we do -- in my case, some of my favorite myths and legends impress rough sketches of stories in my head without me realizing it. Mind you, it didn't start out that way, but I can see various elements in my notes that mirror key things in the myth. 

But we'll see how things turn out as I work some more on this new book. I am glad I went with comedy, though. I needed it.