For the release of Hunted Fate, I was asked to write some blog posts for bloggers to use during the release tour. (So you may have seen these somewhere already.) However, I thought it would be useful to put them on my own blog, as well, so readers could see some of the inspirations behind the books. Here’s the second one. The first is over here.
My Threads of the Moirae series was supposed to be a three book series. But now Hunted Fate is out and there’s one more book to come. What happened?
Well, it would be easy to say that the story was bigger than I thought it would be. Or that I am simply a poor planner and didn’t realize what I was getting into when I said, “Sure, three books!” And both of those would be true to an extent. With a potential cast of characters as large as the Greek pantheon, the stories could go on forever. Throw in a writer who often has no idea what she’s doing and you can see the problem.
But the real truth is this: Morpheus did it.
I’ve long been fascinated by Morpheus, the god of dreams. I think it goes back to hearing the phrase, “In the arms of Morpheus,” used to describe someone who is asleep. Since Morpheus is usually portrayed as this sexy, angel-like guy, it’s not difficult to be fascinated by the idea of resting in his arms.
But more than that, dreams fascinate me. All the weird stuff that my subconscious serves up at night has to come from somewhere. The idea that it comes from a god who is delivering messages is better than the idea that my subconscious is deeply disturbed.
I knew I couldn’t leave the series without giving Morpheus a part somewhere, even if it was just a walk-on role. But the more I researched him and his family (especially his two equally sexy brothers, Phantasos and Phobetor, bringers of surreal dreams and nightmares respectively), the bigger I knew their role would become.
And then one night I had a dream about being lost in their homeland, Erebos, land of eternal darkness. While I’m sure science says that my subconscious served up this dream because I’d spent too much time studying these gods, I prefer the other explanation. That Morpheus sent me the dream so I would make him, his brothers, and Erebos a bigger part of my book.
Lest you question my mental state, let me say that I’m sort of kidding here. I’m not super big on psychic stuff, but sometimes things just make you wonder.
And that led me to the idea that the brothers could help Atropos by influencing human minds in her favor. We don’t always take our dreams seriously, but at the very least they often make us wonder. If Morpheus and his brothers were putting dreams into the human’s heads that showed how badly the gods treated them, then that would encourage them to fight alongside Atropos. Wouldn’t it? Since she badly needs the help of the humans if she is to overthrow the gods, this seemed like the perfect way to recruit them.
While much of Morpheus’s role remains to be worked out in book four, he and his brothers needed a big space in which to work in Hunted Fate. Their presence added quite a bit to the novel and while they weren’t the only reason the series is stretching to four books, they are a big part of the extension. See, it’s Morpheus’s fault. Told you so.
(Photos courtesy of PeterDargatz, VY)