Behind the Words

This series delves into the creative processes behind my stories and the memories they evoke. Every tale is a reflection of both the past and present.

I embarked on crafting the narrative that would eventually become Our Ethereal Legacy in July 2012. As previously mentioned in my Behind the Words posts, the story opens with a flashback to my sophomore year in college during the late 1980s. The main narrative unfolds over a span of about three to four months. After completing what is now Molding Minds, I temporarily set my pen aside.

Three years later, inspiration struck again, compelling me to write more. This led to an intense writing period lasting nearly three months, resulting in 23 chapters of varying lengths. My narrative oscillated between the contemporary and the late 80s, while also incorporating flashbacks that ventured back 20 years and further still. The ideas blossoming into Awakening Angels and Dueling Demons required exploring not just my characters' lives but also those of their parents and grandparents, hence the "Legacy" in the title.

Reflecting on this process, it became apparent that the technology I used to write the story in 2012 was vastly different from that of the late 80s. For instance, during the writing of Our Ethereal Legacy, tools like email, the internet, GPS navigation, and cell phones—commonplace today—were nonexistent back in the late 1980s. At that time, CDs were not yet the standard for music, nor were DVDs available for movies.

While my characters attended college, they had access to email accounts, albeit in a limited capacity. I recall using email during my university years, but it was far from the ubiquitous presence it holds today. Platforms such as AOL and Yahoo were still in their infancy, and Google was yet to be invented. The dial-up services of the era, like Compuserve and the nascent Prodigy (which gained popularity in 1990), connected users primarily to bulletin board systems.

Navigating the roads was another challenge. Nowadays, one can simply pull out a smartphone and access a multitude of online maps with GPS assistance. Such conveniences were unimaginable in the late 80s, when cell phones were scarce, and public GPS services did not exist. Travelers relied on physical maps, guidebooks, or, if fortunate, a stack of AAA TripTiks. Most often, a trusty Road Atlas, like Rand McNally, was a staple found at gas stations.

Navigational methods have transformed drastically since then. Remembering my first journeys, I would often follow handwritten instructions from parents or friends detailing highway numbers and turns, which made for an adventurous experience, as the passenger took on the role of navigator.

The subsequent books chronicle a long road trip through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, drawing upon memories of family vacations and a memorable outing to a lake in Idaho during my time with a 1972 Datsun B-210. An overheating fan turned what should have been a three-hour drive into a six-hour odyssey. By 1990, I drove the same route in a new Ford Escort GT, which offered a much more comfortable experience.

This nostalgic reflection serves as a reminder that writers often rely heavily on their memories rather than meticulous research. Even events from recent times can be colored by imagination, leading to potential errors and anachronisms in storytelling. If my work weren't categorized as erotic fiction, I might face more scrutiny for these inaccuracies. My hope is to craft narratives that allow readers to suspend disbelief and savor the story for what it is. I, too, find myself jolted from a narrative by a factual inaccuracy, often leading to a mix of frustration and amusement, knowing that my own writing may not always be flawless.

Our Ethereal Legacy depicts a whimsical adventure involving five colle