| Thoughts
On the Series |
| And
On Writing Shades |
| Meanings
:: Shades Terminology |
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| Thoughts
on the Series |
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| The
Shades grew from my desire to create a supernatural or SF
series based on a 'new' mythology. At first I had no idea
what sort of ethos I wanted to explore - though I knew where
I didn't want to go. |
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| Vampires
had been done to death (if you'll pardon the expression) and
were being handled particularly well in Joss Whedon's excellent
TV show, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. I've even read some of
the novels that have grown out of it. But I had nothing to
add to the history of that particular species, and had no
intention of merely following the trend. |
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| Zombies?
I'm actually very fond of zombies, and have written various
short stories (for adults) using the living dead. I've often
considered writing a longer piece of zombie fiction, but I
suspected that this wasn't the time to pursue that ambition.
Somehow they weren't right. |
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| Aliens?
There were lots of those around too, in movies, TV shows and
books. ANIMORPHS had rather saturated the YA market. The whole
outer space thing could and would be mined for original story-telling
into the future, yet somehow I didn't want to bring UFOs into
it. Still, there was potential there. |
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| Finally
I was led to consider ghosts. |
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| I've
written a lot of ghost stories, some traditional, some a bit
more left field. My last novel, 'Backstreets', though very
personal and much more realistic than your average fantasy,
had felt to me like a ghost story. Certainly it was a novel
about death and the inability of the living to come to terms
with it. Perhaps the ghosts are real, perhaps they are conjured
up by the grief of the main character. Whatever their origin,
the novel hints at a dark realm of restless spirits haunting
the streets of the city, and depicts one person's struggle
to find peace among those shadows. |
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| I
think I wasn't finished with that particular theme, though
the series I was considering would be vastly different in
tone and intention to 'Backstreets'. That book was darkly
emotional and contemplative. I was after something more adventurous
for my new series. Scary and dark perhaps, but having the
qualities of a thriller rather than a drama. |
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| What
about making up a new type of ghost? |
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| So
the idea for the Shades was born.
They would be teenagers who have come back from death and
are now trying to cope with the changes that have turned them
into alien creatures. Sensitivity to light, becoming transparent
and spectral in its presence. Passing through walls. Blending
into the darkness. Haunted by scarier and darker beings that
dwell in the shadows. |
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| I
pitched the idea to Belinda Bolliger of Hodder
Headline, emphasising its horror aspects. The teenage
characters had returned from the Death Realm - and now it
wanted them back. That sort of thing. She suggested strengthening
the non-horror, science-fiction potential of the idea. Not
the Death Realm then, but a realm of shadows -- a vast, dark
inter-dimensional space, totally alien, yet all around us.
Shadows are everywhere. What if they were all connected and
opened into another world? That could be interestingly freaky.
What if the teenagers are not exactly dead, but have been
taken from this world on the point of death and changed, experimented
on in the world of shadows? What if they have escaped back
into our world and now must face the consequences of what
they are? |
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| The
teenage years are a time of change and alienation. The Shades
could provide a wonderful metaphor for the feelings of displacement
and discontent that often characterise teenagers, I thought.
Caught between childhood and adulthood feels a lot like being
caught between one world and another, not knowing who you
are, but sensing your difference. Where do you fit? Why does
everything feel like a threat? I was suddenly very keen to
explore this metaphor. |
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| Luckily
the people at Hodder Headline were also keen. Soon I had a
contract and the real work began. |
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| Thoughts
On Writing Shades |
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| The
writing process was arduous if exciting. I agreed to a fairly
tight deadline, knowing that the pressure would help drive
my creative juices (there's nothing like desperation to get
you going) and recognizing that sooner was better than later
to get the books on the shelves. Work began in March 2000.
The deadline for all four books was December 2000. I have
a full-time job at the University of Wollongong, so I could
only write at night and on weekends. |
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| Argh!
I feel tired just remembering it! |
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| Luckily,
however, I had a stack of long-service leave available and
I used quite a bit of it in the process of writing the books.
When things got impossible, I would take a few weeks off work
to concentrate on the Shades fulltime. I wouldn't have made
it otherwise. |
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| As
the books developed out of initial plot outlines - and the
characters came alive and demanded their own say in things
- the world of Albion Bay and Nimjala was formed in my head,
along with a dark, scary realm that I called Tenebra. It was
thrilling. I love writing, but these books were a particular
pleasure to write, despite some very difficult patches, and
despite the pressure. I grew to love Nathan,
Cassandra, Melissa
and Shine. Cassandra in particular
appealed to me - so sassy, so self-confident. Yet underneath
the surface lurked pain and deep need… But more about her
later. Cassandra is the narrator of "Book
2 :: Night Beast", and I'll talk about her there. |
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| Nathan,
however, is very much the centre of this initial sequence
of four books. You'll understand why as you read through them
all. In Book 1 :: Shadow Dance,
though, he is new to being a Shade and the learning process
he goes through - his confusion and struggle to understand
and to cope - is very much the reader's as well. Belinda Bolliger,
my wonderful editor, particularly loves Nathan (it's a girl
thing, I reckon), and urged me to put him in the books more
and more as, in later books, his role seemed to become more
marginal. This, of course, is an illusion. |
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| Another
interesting thing that happened in writing the books was the
fact that I found myself doing more and more research. These
books are SF-fantasy and much of the background is entirely
made-up. Though Tenebra and the Shades have elements of other
creations in them, in detail they are new, and spring from
my imagination. I loved inventing (and then limiting) their
nature and the implications of that nature - their powers,
the monsters that harass them, the realities they must uncover.
Yet, many other, real-world elements entered the story as
it developed: the history of the Knights Templar, Matthew
Hopkins (Witchfinder General), the nature of dark matter as
it is understood in cosmological studies, the architecture
of mining, musical styles, Egyptian mythology, the geography
of Cairo and its surroundings… the list was endless, and endlessly
fascinating. You will find information on many of these subjects
within the Shades website. The internet itself was a major
source of information for me - as it proves to be for Melissa
in "Book 3 :: Ancient Light". |
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| One
element I particularly enjoyed was the language of Shine.
Shine is an odd and oddly eccentric Shade, whose manner of
speaking (and thinking) is quite peculiar. You'll find more
on Shine in "Book 4 :: Black Sun
Rising", which he narrates. I actually used a dictionary
of historical slang (and in particular Australian criminal
slang) as I wrote out his words and his thoughts. Shine, you
see, has been around, an eternal teenager, since The Who released
their greatest album, "Who's Next", in 1971. This is reflected
in the way he talks. Though I had to avoid extreme usages
(for obvious reasons of clarity), it was fun exploring this
aspect of the character. |
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