Toltec Dawn Etc.

Somewhere, about fifteen years or so ago, I was reading the local newspaper and noticed a headline about how once again our nation had mistreated the indigenous North American folk. I can’t remember what the article was about but the thought that immediately sprang into mind was, “I wonder what it would have been like if the shoe, or moccasin, was on the other hind foot?” The question that followed was, “how would I write that?”

I occasionally tell people one reason I write fantasy is that I don’t have to do a lot of research into detail. I was afraid of getting lost or at the least, sidetracked. I like alternate history or what-if stories, but I found this particular project made me stretch a bit. How could I make it work and how far would I carry it? The novel that resulted from this exercise massages a lot of details to make everything fit together the way I wanted it to. At least I had some background interest in history, a fond subject of mine. I once spent several years in charge of the judges running a Canadian History Book Contest. I had to bend several rules for this novel but in the end, “Toltec Dawn” was the result.

Why the Toltec? I chose the time period across the pond when my events would take place, then had to look back at who was prowling around the Americas at the time. The Aztec had not yet risen, the Maya were scattered, and feuding like Greek city-states, and the South American empires were located on the wrong coast to make for an easy invasion of Europe. In my research I came across the Toltec, the time period fit but the information on them was a bit vague. I found three general lines of thought about the Toltec.

1. Archaeologists disagree. They didn’t exist, or if they did, they were an obscure culture the Aztec claimed as ancestors to give themselves some cred.
2. They were magicians playing with crystal skulls. This was not going to be that sort of tale.
3. They were a militaristic state that conquered all of Mexico.

You can guess which one I went with.
One of my editors suggested I direct this to a different publisher. They accepted it, but said that 140,000+ words were a bit much for them to handle in print format. They advised me to cut the manuscript in half into two volumes, flesh these out, and write a third one.

So I did, and created a what-if historical fantasy.

What followed Toltec Dawn became “Toltec Khan” and “Toltec Noon.”