Chantal Boudreau's Blog - Posts Tagged "research"

Despite the fact that I write dark fantasy and horror, I do a fair amount of research for my NaNoWriNo novels. Since I’m using a mythological backdrop, I search for as much relevant information on the mythologies I’m using and the area where the myths originated. In the case of Sleep Escapes Us, I actually wanted to set the story in Ancient Thrace and the surrounding regions, so I felt some elements should be historically accurate, despite the fantasy and supernatural nature of the tale.

I also like to include a certain amount of realism in my fantasy and horror tales, even if the events never did, or never would, happen. In this instance, I wanted some validity to my herbalist character, Kerza’s skill-base. This is what I came up with...

The Flora of Sleep Escapes Us

When I started my research into Ancient Thrace for Sleep Escapes Us, I was pleased to stumble across information from Dioscorides' De Materia Medica and Pseudo-Apuleius' Herbarius , sources that discussed the Dacian names for plants along with their English and Latin names and the uses for some of the specimens mentioned. I planned on having Kerza knowledgeable in herbalism, so I knew it would be a great resource for my story. It turned out there were several places I could make use of the information beyond the witch’s remedies and incenses. Here are the various points in the story where the Dacian flora came into play:

In chapter 3, Zalmoxis prepares to sacrifice Zelmis using a zuuster club, which is the Dacian term for wormwood (Artemisia arborescens or Tree Wormwood). This is shrub with a woody base, and a club would have to be made from securing a bundle of the woody stems into a solid bunch with some heft. It may have been supplemented with a more solid core, of wood or stone in order to issue a lethal blow. The plant was believed to be linked to things psychic and death/afterlife.

In chapter 5, Alina asks her father, afflicted by infection, where she can find the diesema (mullein or verbascum) to purge his blood. It is used again later in Kerza’s treatments for Sur. Mullein has been used historically to treat everything from colds to colics, although mullein remedies meant to be drunk have to be finely filtered to eliminate the irritating hairs. Mullein contains glycyrrhizin compounds with bactericide, concentrated in the flowers. Different extracts have varying levels of efficiency against bacteria.

In chapter 9, Kerza prepares an herbal remedy in the form of a tea. In addition to diesema, she also mentions using diassathel (wavyleaf mullein or verbascum sinuatum – sathel signifies “sieve”), which has similar properties to diesema, and lax (purslane or portulaca oleracea, supposedly used as a laxative), which was historically used to treat infections or bleeding of the genito-urinary tract as well as dysentery.

In chapter 11, Kerza tries to escape Sur’s company by excusing herself to gather kinouboila (wild pumpkin or cucurbita foetidissima), but Sur follows. Supposed medicinal benefits include using pulverized root in tea to speed protracted labor in childbirth, tea made from boiled peeled roots is used to induce vomiting, powdered seeds and flowers mixed with saliva reduce swellings and dried root ground to a powder, mixed with cold water, can be drunk for laxative.

In chapter 14, Kerza makes a stomach soothing tea from salia (anise or pimpinella tragium – having a carminative effect to settle the stomach), tuedila (peppermint or menthe x piperita – reduces abdominal pain and stomach irritation) and a bit of amalusta (chamomile or matricaria recutita – used to treat sore stomach and an irritable bowel syndrome). She also finds gonoleta ( gromwell or lithospermum tenuiflorum- used as an oral contraceptive).

In chapter 18, Kerza uses incense made from dracontos (rosemary or rosemarinus officinalis – used in incenses as it was considered a divinatory herb, possibly because its use in large quantities can cause seizures) and ziodela (sweet marjoram or origanum majorana – used historically as an incense, a mild sedative). She then anoints Alina and Zareus with holy oil made from azila (hound’s tongue or cynoglossum – it softens and soothes the skin, but it has a narcotic effect, depressing the nervous system) and hormia (annual clary or salvia horminum – primarily for aromatic purposes, a soothing/relaxing effect).

I was pleased to have a source that allowed me to have proper names for the herbs and assured what I was using was native to the area. This was probably one of the most useful results of my research for Sleep Escapes Us.

Sleep Escapes Us is available in first draft format, posted by chapter, on Scribd.com and will remain there in full until the end of December. If you would like to read it (by year’s end), you can find the first chapter at:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/71346987/Sl...

Also – this month marks the release of the ebook version of Elevation, the sequel to Fervor (the print version to follow at a later date). You can purchase it at Smashwords or Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Elevation-ebook...

I’m not one normally for choosing names for characters based on meaning. I usually just go with a gut feeling of what sounds like an appropriate name for the individual. With Sleep Escapes Us, however, I wanted legitimate Thracian names and my research also provided name meanings along with culturally-specific names. The majority of the names I used were sourced from Ivan Duridanov’s “The Language of the Thracians,” specifically from the section on Thracian onomastics - personal names, with a couple of exceptions. Since I had the definitions before me while I was making my selection, they did influence my choice. Here are the characters in order of appearance and the meanings for the names:

Zelmis – Diminutive form of Diazelmis, “god’s descendant”. I thought it ironic since he would actually be a god’s ancestor.

Hecate, & Zalmoxis – along with Bendis and Zagreus, these were deities of the Thracian mythos. Zagreus was actually the Thracian name for Dionysus, who was reportedly born of a mortal mother.

Iulia – "Young". Considering she died young and there is not much known about her other than a fleeting glimpse during Zelmis’s memories, I thought it appropriate.

Alina – I found this listed as both “light” and “noble”. I thought this defined her well.

Dentysyskos - "Daughter of the clan"

Mukaburis - "Man (son) of the clan." I felt he and his wife were good examples of the standard Gataen settlement members, so the names suited them.

King Rhemoxos – I went with history on this one, even though this was fantasy. This was an actual Thracian king.

Cezula – “Black and white”, the colours of her hair and skin

Kerza - from the Thracian adjective kerasa, “black”, an offshoot from her mother

Suratralis – “Strong, brave”, an apt description. I also wanted a name that distinguished him from the rest of his family.

Brinkazis – “fat, stout, a boor”, an understatement, but still appropriate

Pytros – “bawler, squaller, babbler”. I wanted derogatory names for the generals, since they were the villains.

Dentupes – “a boy, a son of the clan”. Fitting the theme of the family.

Mukakenthos – “child, descendant of the clan”. Also fitting the theme of the family.

Prince Tarutinos (Tinos) – “holding a spear, lancer”. Considering his role in the story, I couldn’t resist this one...

Skaris – “quick”, although apparently not quick enough.

Sleep Escapes Us is posted on Scribd.com can be read in its entirety in first draft format until December 31, 2011. You can find the first chapter at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/71346987/Sl...

Sleep Escapes Us grew from an idea of zombie armies tied to some lesser known mythological figure, the latter to allow it to follow Elements of Genocide in my Darker Myths theme for NaNoWriMo. Despite the fact that it is an “alternate history” dark fantasy/ horror novel, I wanted to adhere to an existing pantheon to give it a sense of realism and a historical flavour. I needed an obscure god of death that lore reported as dying and being reborn, one to match the storyline I had in mind. I wanted the tale to be something set with an ancient civilization backdrop, so I could bring in elements of culture and tradition.

My research brought me to Zalmoxis, a Thracian god with whom I was not familiar and who had a very detailed legendary existence - that of a mortal who became a god, as outlined in Mircea Elidae’s “Zalmoxis, The Vanishing, God”. The myth fit very well with what I had planned and as I further researched the Thracian culture and the other gods they worshipped, everything seemed to fit together like carefully constructed puzzle pieces. It was easy to interweave Hecate into the tale, because of her influence over witchcraft and midwifery amongst many other things, and Bendis also proved to be a welcome find for the story, giving my characters cause to venture out into the wilderness for a fertility ritual and thereby encountering more wild zombies and avoiding the armies searching for them. Lastly came Zagreus, a god born of mortal womb for the finishing touch.

Here is a sample of what my research uncovered about each of these deities of the Thracian mythos and how they were essential to the story.

Zalmoxis: Zalmoxis was regarded as the sole god of the Getae people to which he would have taught the belief in immortality so that they considered dying merely as going to Zalmoxis. Legend had it that Zalmoxis was once a slave on Samos of Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos. After being liberated, he gathered a huge wealth and once rich, went back to his homeland, a regular man before he became a god. Once home, he built himself a hall and those he received there he taught that none of his guests nor their descendants would ever die, but instead they would go to a place where they would live forever in a complete happiness.

Supposedly, Zalmoxis then dug an underground residence in Kagaion (also referred to as Kogainon and other variants) and, once finished, he disappeared from the Thracians going down to his underground residence. The Thracians missed him and feared him dead. Then he came back amongst them and upon his return, Thracians became in the immortality of the soul, which explained their reverence of the dead and the belief in their ascension to a better place where they would be gifted with god-like powers. Death was not to be feared, and past and present were not separate in time, but coexisted as one. Caves were considered by the Thracians as symbolic entrances to the womb of the earth. This is likely where the notion of Ialomicroaia (also referred to as Ialomicioara and other variants) Cave and Kagaion, Zalmoxis’s subterranean chamber in the Bucagi (also referred to as Bucegi) Mountains, came from.

Human sacrifice was sometimes practised by the Thracians. I based the lottery for the sacrifice to Zalmoxis on the writings Herodotus, in his “Historiae,” who spoke of sending a messenger to the god every few years (some references say four years, other say five) by means of a death ritual.

Zalmoxis was a fairly enigmatic god, so I was comfortable manipulating the myth slightly to work within my “alternate history” for ancient Thrace and Gatae. He was associated with bear skin so I incorporated into the ritual required for birthing his replacement and he was also linked to spears and the number three in his rituals, so I used that in his death scene. Because of the necessity of translation, there are variants of the name, Zalmoxis and the locations associated with his rebirth as a god.

Hecate: Goddess of the crossroads, this deity was one of multiple forms and faces, her personifications sometimes varying to a significant degree. She was the “Mysterious One”, not understood by those who did not worship her and often feared for that reason. She had both a negative persona, associated with magic, poisonous plants, witchcraft, the restless dead, necromancy, darkness, lunar lore, snakes and crossroads, and a positive persona associated with healing plants, childbirth, nurturing the young, gates and walls, doorways, torches and dogs.

Hecate had a number of depictions in art and religious iconography. Sometimes she was depicted as a singular maiden, virginal and demure, other times she was a three-faced crone or an angry, gigantic woman with snakes for feet and hair, wielding a torch and a sword, surrounded by thunder, shrieks, yells, and the barking of dogs. She was even presented as an invisible figure, appearing only as a glimpse of light. These depictions are referenced in Lewis Richard Farnell’s “The Cults of the Greek States” from Clarendon Press and “Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome: Hecate” from Anno Urbis - The Roman Empire Online.

Hecate’s mysterious nature allowed her seers in the story to be more intimidating and their hidden lairs in the catacombs beneath Lagina and her temple seemed like an appropriate home for her favoured followers in my tale. This followed with information also drawn from my research, from Strabo’s “Geography”, which stated regarding Hecate: “The place of origin of her following is uncertain, but it is thought that she had popular followings in Thrace. Her most important sanctuary was Lagina, a theocratic city-state in which the goddess was served by eunuchs. Lagina, where the famous temple of Hecate drew great festal assemblies every year ... where she was the city's patroness.”

In addition to witchcraft and midwifery, Hecate was closely associated with plant lore and the concoction of medicines and poisons. In particular she was thought to give instruction in these closely related arts. This association allowed Kerza to possess the skills she used to help Sur and Alina when they needed medical attention.

One of my sources, the Oxford Classic Dictionary, described her as: “Intrinsically ambivalent and polymorphous, she straddles conventional boundaries and eludes definition.” It was because of her varied forms and supposed assorted spheres of influence that when she made an appearance in the story, I described her as shifting and indefinable.

Bendis: The Thracians revered nature and believed in a “Great Mother”. She was goddess of wild nature. It is believed she encompassed influences from the strong fertility goddess cults which thrived in the Balkan lands during the earlier Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (per A Spell in Time/Professor Ronald Hutton’s “Bulgarian Myth and Folklore”.)

As great mother she initiated creation, bringing forth from herself her son, who was both the sun in the daytime and the fire god at night. She united with him in divine marriage so that the cosmic cycle could be fulfilled and fertility renewed.

She supposedly had temples hidden away deep in the wilderness, a formidable location for a fertility ritual required for the conception of a new god. I felt this scene and setting were an appropriate bridge from the introduction of the story and the main characters into the centre of the action and the plot. It also allowed for a different kind of zombie battle.

Zagreus: Zagreus was the name used for Dionysus in Thrace. He was considered to be twice born, a dying and reborn god who was born of a mortal woman, one who met a premature death. He was tied to Zalmoxis in some instances and appeared to be a suitable “replacement” for the living god.


Just as with Elements of Genocide, the mythology integrated into Sleep Escapes Us blended fairly seamlessly with the story and I’m hoping that my plans for next year’s NaNo, Wearers of Skin, will combine as smoothly with Scandinavian mythology as well.

When I decide to write "Sleep Escapes Us" as an alternate history of Thrace, I wanted to seed the tale with details that reflected the actual culture of ancient Thrace - other than the mythos of that location - to give it a truly Thracian flavour. During my research, I managed to dredge up a series of interesting tidbits that I felt I could thread into my story to make it seem more realistic, despite the magic and the zombies.

One great source for this was Tosho Spiridonov, Roumyana Georgieva and Maria Rejo’s “Ethnology of the Thracians”. It discussed their dwellings and lifestyle, and provided me with such details as predominant foods (the lentil and cabbage mash that Zelmis was fed at the Temple of Zalmoxis,) fabric and fashions (the tunics, leggings and zeira, the multi-coloured cloak commonly worn by the Thracian people, as well as their types of adornment,) and the use of tattoos (which I applied with the tally marks.)

In addition to common lifestyle, I also found information on religious rituals, including descriptions of animal sacrifices and the ritual pits where they occurred, performed in hewn rock niches. These details allowed me to present Zalmoxis’s Temple with the type of character it should have as a proper exhibit of the worship of death. There was also mention of the funerary feast Zelmis was hunting to provide for at the beginning of the book, part of the Thracian burial rituals. In fact, Roumyana Georgieva outlines the funeral rites in great detail:

“Burial rites occupy an extremely important if not foremost position in the Thracian system of customs, due to the fact that the dead ranked higher than the living in ancient Thrace. All rituals performed between the occurrence of death and the closing of the grave (the closing of the eyes and jaws of the deceased, bathing, preparation of the body which was left for three days to lie at stake, mourning, animal sacrifices and burial feast) were aimed mainly at facilitating the deceased individual to make his transition to the world beyond. The faith in his supernatural power, together, with the apprehension or hope that he is capable of influencing the fate of the living, were among the reasons for the exceptional care devoted to the dead in Thrace.”

Since funeral rites were an important part of the culture, it made sense for them to also play a strong role in the book, particularly since the story surrounded the mythology of the Thracian god of death.

Another cultural factor with a strong impact on the story was the fact the Thracians had no written language of their own. That was the reasoning behind Alina seeking out Kerza in the first place, and the repercussions of the situation had significant influence in the story. It also meant I had liberty to play around with some of the cultural aspects within the tale since historically, they are vague. Most of what is known about the Thracians comes from their “archaeological remains, and from the Greek writers who were their contemporaries” (per Moni, from the A Spell in Time group - she did not provide me with a last name - in “Background to Bulgarian Myth and Folklore.”) They are sketchy at best, allowing for extrapolation.

Overall, I think I was able to incorporate enough of what was known about the Thracian culture to give Sleep Escapes Us a distinct Thracian flavour. It was definitely one of the more interesting cultures I’ve ever researched.

While doing research for a story you will run into things you would never expect. One story led me to look into situations where spiders are eaten and associated facts. What did I discover? Well, aside from learning that spiders supposedly taste like peanut butter, I also found out that they are cooked and eaten in some recipes in Cambodia (http://www.cambodiancooking.com.au/). Mention that to most people, and they’ll cringe and say, “ewww!”

Are spiders such an unusual dish? Arachnids are not far off from crustaceans, and we happily eat crab, lobster and shrimp (all things a non-seafood-eating friend of mine likes to refer to as bugs.) And how about escargot? Why would eating snails somehow be acceptable but the idea of chowing down on the creepy-crawlies with eight legs makes you want to spew?

Ever hear of chocolate-covered ants? Apparently those are available for consumption too.

Insects, spiders, worms, grubs, slugs – all manner of wriggly invertebrates are high in protein and could conceivably end up on the menu. What decides what we choose to eat and what we turn away? The choice for all cultures is not the same.

Some people have even gone so far as to cast aside societal reservations and eat the things that disgust their neighbour. Survival shows and reality TV do it all the time, showing us close-ups of people sucking the juices out of a camel spider, crunching into a still wriggling cockroach or spitting up the giant grub that just exploded its guts into their mouth, for the shock factor. Our local natural history museum has presented a “cooking with bugs” series that has been an effective draw. You can even find entire cookbooks on the topic, such as David Gordon’s Eat-a-Bug Cookbook:

http://www.amazon.com/Eat-bug-Cookboo...

or how about Julieta Ramos-Elorduy, Phd’s Creepy Crawly Cuisine:

http://www.amazon.com/Creepy-Crawly-C...

How many of you groaned, uttered a heart-felt “gross!”, or even clutched at your belly to stop it from doing flip-flops at the thought?

Some of you may be thinking that these are novelty cookbooks, which they are, but only because our society has decided to discount bugs as a proper food source. It’s that novelty, however that has brought us such treats as the Cricket Lick-it, a candy-encased bug, and its kin, a candy-coated scorpion (my husband and I bought one of these for my sister-in-law, one Christmas). You can find them both at Hotlix, along with many other buggy delights.

http://www.hotlix.com/index.html

So what do you think – if you have the chance to sample some arachnid cuisine – would you go for it?

Overtime season has finally come to an end for me at my day job, I’m closing in on the last chapter of the first draft of Providence, and my home life is more subdued because the garden has been reaped and the kids are back at school. As much as I might wish this means things will calm down for me, I’m afraid I’m not that fortunate. October is creeping up, after all, and October is the month for horror writers, so October finds me as busy as ever. What do I have on my plate, you may ask? Well how about I share that with you:

Editing, editing, editing - My regular publisher, May December Publications, has experienced a few delays, so the edits for Transcendence I was expecting to review in September have yet to arrive. I’m anticipating they’ll come my way in October. This also means preparing my blurb, my preface and my acknowledgements, all time consuming to some degree. On top of that, Harper Voyager is opening up a brief two week window when they’ll be accepting unsolicited, unagented submissions. I have three manuscripts, Elements of Genocide, Sleep Escapes Us and Intangible, I intend on editing and submitting within that two week span (they’ve all been edited at least once or twice previously, but I’ll be polishing them up again.) By the end of those two weeks, I’ll be lucky if I have any hair left.

Anthologies a plenty – With Halloween approaching, it is prime time horror anthology release season. I know I’ve mentioned these before (in My Hurricane Season), but now I have more details. To begin with, Crooked Cat Publications is releasing their Fear charity anthology, a scary collection of tales from 60 different authors, in two volumes. My phobic tale, “Octavia,” will be appearing in volume one. You can find out more about it at their online launch party on October 3rd. Another anthology from Crowded Quarantine is scheduled for October release, Tales for the Toilet: Volume 1, a horror Johnny reader containing my short tale “And Then the Crow Said ‘Henry’”. I’m also pleased to say that my wicked tale, “Orbs” will be sharing the pages of the Mistresses of the Macabre anthology from Dark Moon Books with other frightful female writers. It had an anticipated October release, but the schedule is not firm and from what I’ve seen with small presses, expect to be flexible.

Preparations Galore – Preparations will be required for two upcoming events. The first is Hal-Con at the end of October. While I won’t be appearing as a guest this year, I will still be there - only with much more freedom to attend panels, hang out and be friendly, and come and go as I please. I’ll also have a backpack full of books and business cards with me and I’m working towards showing up in costume. I’m hoping to see some of you there. The other event is NaNo. I have a great deal of research to do on Lapp mythology, culture and language for my planned “The Trading of Skin” novel. I’ll also be doing more research into North American mythology, for a separate project. I loooove doing research, so this part of my chaos will also be my bliss.

And just a quick mention that I plan on making October a “My Favourite Monster” month for my blog. All my non-review blog postings will offer up something about some of my most-loved monsters, until I start my NaNo blog hiatus in November. I’ll be on the hunt for guest bloggers before then.

Toodles, until oodles, for now!