Braver Than Our Demons

Author's Note

It's been four months since November, but I don't think I had much to say about this story then, either. I came up with the whole cast practically on the same day (September 4th) and the entire thing went off practically without hitches, concluding in a 12k blaze of glory that was neatly concluded before 3 PM on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It's hard to argue with a book that comes in to do its job, does its job, and then leaves. That's what I get for writing a story about adults instead of teenagers. Writing about teenagers means you're working with teenagers, and teenagers, such as myself, are prone to a lot of griping. Working with kids is even worse (except for Penelope, who will be replacing these guys as I'm posting her book next. Penelope is a perfect angel who did nothing wrong). These guys were easy. 

This book was easy. 

No offense to anyone out there trying to write one.

I do think that it was a strange book, in addition to being an easy one. I think that's kind of an understatement when you look back on the last eighty thousand words of existential fear, cannibalism, Fantasy Race Issues, sabotage, and generally just the worst retelling of Dante's Inferno ever conceived, written by someone who didn't read Dante's Inferno and is telling the whole story entirely with sparkledogs. If you told someone that today you read Dante's Inferno's store-brand cousin with sparkledogs, they'd probably at least look sideways at you. I think that's about all I can really hope to do with this one. 

As for my general thoughts about its context in Omnia, this book, set in space, unsurprisingly feels isolated. Dog Day Wars is quintessentially Omnia without having the same well-defined cast that Roses and Thorns or The Cities Have Fallen does. Braver Than Our Demons, its evil younger brother, is all Omnia with all the mysticism removed. It takes away the fogs of myth and societal pressure that are so critical to the way Omnia works, and when it has all been reduced to its simplest form, it seems cruel and petty. I think in the face of the cosmos, you'd be hard pressed to find a society that doesn't. Nonetheless, it's not something I hope to do again, raw as it is. There's little hope in it. The characters practically say as much in what they don't say when they look back at their home planet and find that they have become, through spiritual awakening, alien to it.

Or maybe you see the story as providing hope that these ingrained beliefs, such as Alexa's, can be escaped at all. I will not tell anyone how to interpret my stories. I usually don't know what their deal is either. That would be my big literary secret: if you're shocked, I was probably shocked. If you're sad, I probably bawled. If you smiled as you stared at your computer screen, I was probably laughing. If you come away with a bunch of tangents relating to an idea instead of a definite conclusion, that was me, too. I write not to convey information, as is customary for a system devised for that purpose, but to synthesize information. Writing is how I understand the world around me and myself. There's some artsy tumblr post out there that really stuck with me in eighth grade whose text is something to the effect of "you are the cosmos tasting itself" and I think that really applies to my writing. 

The cosmos are kind of like rubbing your tongue on a battery. It doesn't taste "good", but if you're five, like I am, you're too fascinated to stop.

Now that I've digressed to the void for 600 words, I'd like to offer you a chance to digress as well. You've probably noticed I said very little about the book I just wrote in the author's note about this book, well, if you had something you wanted to say, here's your chance. If something was unclear, or if you just think I'm a hack, you're right, and here, once more, is your chance to inform me of that. 

The next story I'll be writing is a far kinder, more accessible story-- probably the opposite of Braver Than Our Demons in every way possible. I would be happy to have you along for Penstroke, but I also have several dozen other stories in my library at this point. There's probably something for you. At the very least, we'll be here in another half a year for my next NaNoWriMo, which is an old idea, which means it should be a fun one. Imagine more science, less space, and a whole lot of pretentious sparkledogs talking philosophy, but this time in a laboratory. I... really have to stop going for the specifically dry technologically-oriented Omnian books. They're so messy.

Best until next year, 

Chrona (and the kids)