One of my earliest childhood memories was visiting my grandfather in Garden Hill. Chateau Challice was a white farmhouse, windmill, sunroom, and everything, at the top of a hill. I thought the 'Garden HIll' was my grandpa's place.
I remember visiting the general store with my Dad and spying a really cool spaceship toy. Being an easy-going guy he bought it for me. It was a Captain Harlock spaceship, maybe the Arcadia, maybe one of his support vehicles? I'm not sure, but I do remember it was blue, had a skull and crossbones, and was very cool.
I lost my dad at a young age. It's been decades, but I still miss him to this day.
That's probably where Haunted Blue comes from. Pirates, and ghosts.
Pirates are horrible people, they rob, torture, and kill. Even so, there's something romantic about turning your back on authority to do whatever you want. To stick it to the powers that be. This speaks to me. The world's often unfair, and I understand well the temptation to be unfair back.
Not that I'll actually become a pirate mind you. I think the constabulary of Ottawa would take a dim view of a 40-ish man in a canoe or tiny sailboat firing a cannon at Parlement.
They're renovating it, and have enough problems already.
Still, take a look at this...don't you just want to sail a pirate ship on by? If you say no, you're lying.
Then there are ghosts. I won't get into details, but my dad died when I was 1`. No, I've never seen his ghost and don't want to. Still, he was a rock in my life, the solid bastion that made me feel safe. With him gone, I was in free fall. I thought a lot about mortality while growing up, more than a kid should.
I measured Heaven, Hell, and nothingness, struggled, and played with them. It lead me to some weird places. An In Nomine game I ran four three years in college. Kicking around spooky ideas like an economy of souls in Knights of the Hidden Sun. A novel (never finished) about the Goddess Hel growing up in the underworld, and even a story game where you take turns playing a psychopomp, leading people to the afterlife. Near Hallow Gods touches this theme, in a way. You adventure in a world that's already been destroyed, a beautiful purgatory of sorts.
I'm not a goth. Just the Willy Wonka of death lit.
So the spark for my upcoming novel, Haunted Blue, speaks to fighting unfairness and grappling with what happens to those who die. The characters struggle against tyrannical nobles, in a spooky world to violently carve a place for themselves. They do crime, laugh, cry, and change the world.
Even the dead find their place, though they might not always rest in peace.
Huh...I guess I didn't talk much about the novel did I? No worries, I'll drill down on that in posts to come.
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