The Whys of Certain Writings
Earthbound Book 1, Gather The Children Book 2, and Before We Leave Book 3 of Chronicles of the Maca follow a Thalian/Justine alien as he survives on Earth and rebuilds his shattered House of Don with his Earth wife, Anna, their child, and Anna’s children from a previous marriage to an alien from the planet Justine.
Like many of the people in early America, Anna and her family are immigrants. People have wondered why I chose to make them German Lutheran immigrants. The answer is simple. This family would be strange enough with an alien from the stars as the husband. I had to know how the rest of the family would react during a crisis or celebratory event.
When I read a chapter from Earthbound to the local writing group, one member could not believe that was what a mother would think of doing after miscarrying a living baby not old enough to survive. She was wrong. That is exactly what my German-Lutheran grandmothers thought of doing and they had the midwife perform the baptismal ritual. They did not know each other as they lived hundreds of miles apart. It was simply what needed to be done. I do not know how another woman from a different culture would have reacted.
The same holds true for any crisis. There had been a slight breech in our family and when it was healed we celebrated at home with God’s word, hymns, prayers, laughter, games, and, of course, a huge meal. I have no idea how other families do this.
I knew I had succeeded in presenting the family as a unit when one of my nieces told me that she could “hear them.” She was perhaps hearing my fictional family, but she was also hearing us as we sang, laughed, and argued as a family.
Some of the stories have been with me from childhood. Others I had no intentions of writing, but the characters would not go away and scenes kept repeating in my head. You know you are losing the battle of not writing when you can see the wheels on a buggy turning in your mind and hear the words of the people sitting on the buggy seat. I not only heard their words, but I could see how they were dressed and smell the musk coming up from MacDonald.
The scene of Anna battling the raid in Schmidt’s Corner was another one that kept repeating. Then there was the scene of MacDonald rescuing Olga’s organ from the burning house. That scene had been with me from the time I was thirteen or fourteen. The only way to cleanse the mind is to write the scenes into a tale. It doesn’t matter if you use paper or the computer screen as long as it is written as part of the rest of the story.
I kept trying to create a long, happy love-life for Margareatha, but that did not happen. She loved passionately, but death took her first husband and twin sons. The time was the blizzard of 1888 and her husband and sons were on their bed, their faces white from death and cold and the pox scars on their faces and any uncovered portion of skin. She could not bury them as the ground was frozen.
The other Earth husband was the special agent she had married. When mobster killers arrived at their home ready to get rid of him, Margareatha used her mind and brought them to their knees, one man vomiting as he went down. That scene would even bring up the smell of the vomit. It had to be written down to expunge it from my mind.
The series is based on two men. One from the planet Thalia, but he is also part Justine. He is marooned on a primitive Earth and learns to survive, find friendship, and a true love. Earth beings do not live as long as Thalians or Justines. Earthbound Book 1 Chronicles of the Maca covers those years.
The other man is a boy when you first meet him. He is Earth and Justine. He has the Justine two hearts and their mind ability to enter other minds and control them. Gather The Children is his coming of age novel.
Each novel advances the trials and triumphs of this strange Earth/Thalian/Justine family. The Maca Returns begins their adventures on Thalia. You’ll find all the Chronicles of Maca here on Goodreads.
The novel that I meant to be the last to involve the Thalians was not written last. I knew it would be the most violent one. When my beloved Lanny Dee died, I, like many of those left behind became angry. To erase the red rage and the red-hot iron claw dragging at my insides, I wrote Man, True Man. It was finished before any of the other novels. It was not published until after Return of the Maca.
Life is full of surprises for an author. Instead of being the last, it has become in my mind the first for a new series about the planet Tonath and its inhabitants. The second is now a work-in-progress and is tentatively titled The Silver and the Green.
Take a look at my novels and anthologies listed here on Goodreads or go to my website at http://maricollier.com/
Like many of the people in early America, Anna and her family are immigrants. People have wondered why I chose to make them German Lutheran immigrants. The answer is simple. This family would be strange enough with an alien from the stars as the husband. I had to know how the rest of the family would react during a crisis or celebratory event.
When I read a chapter from Earthbound to the local writing group, one member could not believe that was what a mother would think of doing after miscarrying a living baby not old enough to survive. She was wrong. That is exactly what my German-Lutheran grandmothers thought of doing and they had the midwife perform the baptismal ritual. They did not know each other as they lived hundreds of miles apart. It was simply what needed to be done. I do not know how another woman from a different culture would have reacted.
The same holds true for any crisis. There had been a slight breech in our family and when it was healed we celebrated at home with God’s word, hymns, prayers, laughter, games, and, of course, a huge meal. I have no idea how other families do this.
I knew I had succeeded in presenting the family as a unit when one of my nieces told me that she could “hear them.” She was perhaps hearing my fictional family, but she was also hearing us as we sang, laughed, and argued as a family.
Some of the stories have been with me from childhood. Others I had no intentions of writing, but the characters would not go away and scenes kept repeating in my head. You know you are losing the battle of not writing when you can see the wheels on a buggy turning in your mind and hear the words of the people sitting on the buggy seat. I not only heard their words, but I could see how they were dressed and smell the musk coming up from MacDonald.
The scene of Anna battling the raid in Schmidt’s Corner was another one that kept repeating. Then there was the scene of MacDonald rescuing Olga’s organ from the burning house. That scene had been with me from the time I was thirteen or fourteen. The only way to cleanse the mind is to write the scenes into a tale. It doesn’t matter if you use paper or the computer screen as long as it is written as part of the rest of the story.
I kept trying to create a long, happy love-life for Margareatha, but that did not happen. She loved passionately, but death took her first husband and twin sons. The time was the blizzard of 1888 and her husband and sons were on their bed, their faces white from death and cold and the pox scars on their faces and any uncovered portion of skin. She could not bury them as the ground was frozen.
The other Earth husband was the special agent she had married. When mobster killers arrived at their home ready to get rid of him, Margareatha used her mind and brought them to their knees, one man vomiting as he went down. That scene would even bring up the smell of the vomit. It had to be written down to expunge it from my mind.
The series is based on two men. One from the planet Thalia, but he is also part Justine. He is marooned on a primitive Earth and learns to survive, find friendship, and a true love. Earth beings do not live as long as Thalians or Justines. Earthbound Book 1 Chronicles of the Maca covers those years.
The other man is a boy when you first meet him. He is Earth and Justine. He has the Justine two hearts and their mind ability to enter other minds and control them. Gather The Children is his coming of age novel.
Each novel advances the trials and triumphs of this strange Earth/Thalian/Justine family. The Maca Returns begins their adventures on Thalia. You’ll find all the Chronicles of Maca here on Goodreads.
The novel that I meant to be the last to involve the Thalians was not written last. I knew it would be the most violent one. When my beloved Lanny Dee died, I, like many of those left behind became angry. To erase the red rage and the red-hot iron claw dragging at my insides, I wrote Man, True Man. It was finished before any of the other novels. It was not published until after Return of the Maca.
Life is full of surprises for an author. Instead of being the last, it has become in my mind the first for a new series about the planet Tonath and its inhabitants. The second is now a work-in-progress and is tentatively titled The Silver and the Green.
Take a look at my novels and anthologies listed here on Goodreads or go to my website at http://maricollier.com/
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