Why 1001?
Currently, with a subscription to The Maqaraqan, my newsletter, you receive a free Reader’s Guide to 1001, The Reincarnation Chronicles. The Guide has all kinds of goodies explaining the fantasy series, book synopses, character breakdowns, and reincarnation resources. It’s a great intro tease to the series, or a nice clarification for those in the soup already. You can learn more about the Reader’s Guide on the JOIN page of the website, but I’d like to highlight one feature for you.
The Reader’s Guide delivers an article, “Why 1001?” where I basically spill my guts about why on Earth I’m writing an 11-book, 1001-chapter tome full of hidden structures and narrative labyrinths. And it’s not just ‘cause I’m crazed, but that does explain a lot. “Why 1001?” presents the grand theme of The Reincarnation Chronicles. Infinity. To wit, here’s how it starts:
“1001, The Reincarnation Chronicles takes for granted the immortality of the soul. If the soul never dies, it lives an infinite number of lifetimes, and Time has no beginning or end. Reflecting this impenetrably vast scale, the 1001 series’ eleven characters discover that they have shared a thousand and one lifetimes. The number 1001, as in The Thousand and One Nights, is a symbol for a vast number; in 1001, the number symbolizes the Infinite.”
Boom! So the series attempts a picture of vastness, immortality, Infinity. A neat trick for an author, since it’s allowed me to stuff as much as I want in the books. And ignore editors wanting it simpler. Sorry, friends. And you Mystic Nerds are begging for more, so it’s all good, right?
“Why 1001?” continues with a synopsis of Book One, The Qaraq. (The qaraq is the soul group of those eleven main characters who keep reincarnating together.) And how those characters correspond to characters in the Scheherazade frame tale of The Thousand and One Nights. If you don’t know what my fuss in the series is all about, here’s a taste:
“The ‘Scheherazade in New Jersey’ narrative acts as a frame tale that sets up each chapter’s past life story. Unlike the Scheherazade story in the Nights, this central ‘mainframe’ tale of 1001 evolves in each chapter.”
From there, the article talks about the hybrid nature of the series, where the past life stories appear in a variety of genres: fantasy, romance, historical fiction, microbe-biography. Given this sprawl, and the series’ vast scope, many readers ask if I know what happens in all 11 books. I think I do, but the characters keep correcting me. In the next part of the article, I sketch out the series:
“In Books 1-3, Sahara Fleming and the qaraq discover their fantastical situation: they have access to past lives, they have been inextricably bound to one another for eons, and they have an uncanny link to the Nights.
“In Books 4-6, the qaraq learns about their lifetimes up to the creation of the Nights and on to their present day situation.
“In Books 7-11, the qaraq recalls lifetimes from the extreme past and future. Sahara transcends the group’s psychodramas and frees herself from the infinite cycle of worldly existence.”
Next, “Why 1001?” discusses the underlying structures in the series, my playthings, which are “hidden, complicated, acroamatic.” Love that word, look it up. I should one day. In the article, I then torment you by describing a shining example of a hidden form, how it works, and how the qaraq relates to it. When all is said and done:
“The casual reader can miss the structures and still delight in the books; the infatuated reader can obsess over the labyrinthine complexity.”
“Why 1001?” concludes:
Why all these insane complications?
1001, The Reincarnation Chronicles takes for granted the immortality of the soul. If the soul lives an infinite number of lifetimes, and Time is endless, then everything is possible.
For more on the “enigmatic marvels of the journey of the soul,” check out “Why 1001?” in its entirety. If you already have the Guide, the article is in the Explore section. If not, join The Maqaraqan, get your free copy, and enjoy news about 1001, The Reincarnation Chronicles.
