Elysia

Elysia





         I started a story about 18 years ago, when I was completely taken in by vampires and paranormal young adult fiction. Reading R. L. Stine, Christopher Pike, and L. J. Smith. The story was to be about a dark and handsome vampire who saved his best friend's baby girl from an awful fate. A princess, with no ties to the outside world, until the day her enemies find her, and the handsome vampire is forced out of his hiding place within her mind and dreams, to save her, yet again. And their adventures were to be epic, and promising, and revealing.

         However the story stayed in it's box for many years, and played its stories over and over in my head. After both of my children were born, I wanted to start again. And I tried, until family tragedy forced the pages from my grasp, and sent me into an uncontrollable depression, I couldn't escape. I had suffered heartache, betrayal, and loss. And I had given as much in return. I lived 2 to 3 years in my head, I walked the grassy meadows of Elysia, saw the burning fields, talked with dragons, and met many characters.

         When I finally realized that my tragedy had been a blessing in disguise I took everything I had learned and felt and poured it into my greatest story. So many characters screamed to be acknowledged, to have their story told. I wrote everything they demanded, and filled Elysia with wonder, history, and magic.

         My first two characters, the vampire and the princess, found their way to Elysia. They made friends and enemies, and learned much about themselves. I learned even more as their story progressed and came to a point  where I knew vampires wouldn't live in Elysia. Immortals very much could.

         Three stories stood out to me, they intertwined, and relied on one another. One just didn't work without the others. As I wrote the stories of Elysia, more and more characters emerged. It became an overwhelming story, like living on a different planet with different rules, philosophies, and sciences. I had a hard time living that life and my own.

         A small tragedy, of losing all my notes and written chapters to a computer crash, forced me to stop again. With nothing but what was left in my head, the stories kept going. I took mental notes of things that moved me, and tried to forget the rest, but it wouldn't' die.

         Only once I had figured out the beginning, the end, a lot of the middle, and the subplots, I decided to sit down and write again. I wrote an outline, I put everything I could remember there. If I couldn't remember it, then it probably wasn't worth remembering anyway.

         The story grew and grew again. I thought that I probably had a series on my hands. If not at least 3 large volumes. The three main stories wouldn't separate. I had to keep them together. But what of all the others, the ones that didn't add to the main plot, but lived and suffered along with everyone else within Elysia? How was I to concentrate on the main plot, when all these other stories demanded to be heard?

         Elysia is a work-in-progress. The story is finished, but there are details that have not been worked out, rules that have not been tested, sciences that are still experimental. Nonetheless, it is a finished story.



         ***EDIT 2015***

         Elysia is still going strong and I have committed much of it to writing. My wish to finish it before I turned 40 may not happen. Considering I made that promise in my 20's, it's pathetic. But I haven't given up.



          I want to thank: My Son, with his enviable imagination has provided unending inspiration for Elysia and it's characters. His autistic logic questions everything and pushes someone to analyze the whys. He has been my greatest support for pushing through those moments that seem impossible.

         And to the two greatest men in my life, I thank Don, who without, I would not ever have a chance to write, and my children would not know the creative me, and I might not have known them at all. And My Alan, my best friend, who has always made it possible for me to experience that emotion and passion so many of my characters boast.

         Thank you, my readers and fans and friends, and all the great authors I've read, will read, and should read. -Kaytij