Morning all!
I hope everyone has had a pleasant holiday with friends and family alike. We can decry the commercialization of this time of year all that we want, but it's always nice to receive a gift or two.
;
Speaking of, I would like to thank Erika for supporting Transilience at the Super Reader level. We've been friends for a long time, and it warms my heart to know her name will be forever enshrined within its covers.
Transilience has a ways to go. This is a fact. However, I know beyond a doubt publication will become a reality. It's a good story. It's an important story. and above all, it is a relevant story.
Relevant story, you say??
Yep! And here's why...
Wait. So...umm...yeah. I often find myself beginning an anecdote (or expressing my opinion) with something whose relevance is not immediately apparent. I can't be the only one who does this, right? Right?
The past few days I've been mulling over what sort of updates I would like to include on Transilience's webpage. I soon noticed a theme: answering a question that begins with 'why'.
For instance:
Why should I read Transilience?
The nascent kernel that would grow into the novel I now call Transilience began as a short story for a creative fiction course I took in 2012. Our instructor posted six, or seven, images on the courses webpage. We had to pick at least three and write a scene using those pictures. Here is an excerpt of that original short story...
The faded sign for 1643 Edison hung to a perimeter fence by a screw too stubborn to let go.
“This must be the place,” I said aloud for the sole purpose of breaking the eerie silence.
The front gate was open – ‘missing’ would be a more precise term. I guided the Griffon through and cut the engine about 30 meters from the main building. After coasting to a gentle stop, I hopped out and had a better look at the remains of the now-defunct Verne Bottling Company.
This section now comprises a part of Chapter 16 of Transilience.
Once I had written the piece, I knew I wanted to do more with the character I had created and the world in which I placed him. The murder of 77 people (most of them teenagers or younger) in, and around, Oslo, by the racist lunatic, Anders Breivik, provided form to my previously vague ideas. a lot of hard work, and learning how to actually write, and viola! My first completed manuscript!
At the heart of Transilience, it is a story about hate. Irrational, blind hatred toward the Other. The person not like us. The immigrant. This distrust, dislike and intolerance for - and let's face the truth of it - people who are not white, or don't speak the language, has become so pervasive that is now one of the defining political questions in national debates throughout Europe and the Americas.
We have the audacity to call it Nationalism, as if the idea of a country is one idea, or at the most a handful of ideas, and not the complexities associated with a pluralistic society. All the while we forget that most of us came from someplace else. At one point, we were all immigrants. The passage of time should not be the reason for intolerance.
In Sweden, the Swedish Democrats are one of the fastest growing parties. They have 21% of the seats in parliament and they are likely to pick up more in the next election. Their main platform is kicking out all the immigrants. Sometimes, I wonder if I my days are numbered. Refugee centers have been attacked and burned. Families are packing up and leaving small towns where asylum seekers are given sanctuary - until the SD force them to leave. And this is Sweden! A land that prides itself in its humanitarian efforts!
In the US, it's illegals and building walls. It's spitting on someone on a bus because they're wearing a headscarf. Protests against those trying to find a better life. Isn't that what the American dream is? The UK is seriously considering leaving the EU because they want more control over who is allowed beyond their borders and who is not. Nationalist parties are also make serious gains in France, Switzerland and Denmark to name a few.
Transilience wrestles with this growing trend. It is about a private investigator trying to find the truth behind a terrible attack on the UN perpetrated by a cold, calculating xenophobe. It is also about the legacies we inherent from those who came before us. Like blues eyes, or brown hair, we pass along our prejudices to the next generation. Hate is something we learn. It's about what we do with those legacies will define who we are.
This is why I think you should read my novel. And why I hope that you support Transilience so that more people have a chance to read it.
Thanks!
Kevin
