Creating Geoffrey Mylus
Guest Post by Chad T. Douglas
It didn’t take long to realize as I first began writing A Pirate’s Charm, that I had, in preparation of telling a story, gathered a much more sizeable pile of supporting notes than I thought. I had set out to give readers much more than they were accustomed to, particularly in regard to popular fantasy creatures such as werewolves and vampires. Everyone knows about the full moon, silver bullet, stake to the heart—yada yada yada…But I wanted to really write them into history and give them an active role. My werewolves and vampires have evolutionary histories, religion, and culture.
The details don’t stop there, either. By the time I was at the end of The Old World, I’d introduced mermaids, mythical creatures from the Amazon to Mumbai, and even included Atlantis and linked it to the origins of mortality, disease, and Death itself. I noticed while still writing novel number one that all this detail, which could just as easily have been abridged or even exempted from the story, risked weighing down my narration, perhaps even overwhelming the reader.
That’s when I invented Geoffrey Mylus. In the first drafts of A Pirate’s Charm, he’s missing entirely. I never wrote him in. But to anyone who’s read the published trilogy, Geoffrey is a key, if not sometimes briefly a central character. The first time one of his signature journal entries appears is just after Thomas Crowe and Molly Bishop are shipwrecked in book one. After that, every chapter of their adventures closes with a lengthy commentary by the self-described “lorist”. Though his character makes no literal in-story appearance in all of book one, Geoffrey hints to have known the protagonists personally, and illuminates the greater contexts of their exploits, be it a remark about the political or social weather in Barbados, a description of the inner workings of werewolf or vampire anatomy, or behavioral research notes on the Leviathan.
Some readers are perfectly content with the story that floats on the surface. Others, such as myself, never stop asking, “Why?” and “How?” and desire to know every last background detail that lies beneath. Geoffrey Mylus, my in-narrative narrator, is a kind of special gift to the reader who is in love with the infinite depths of fiction, and to some degree, I suppose, a gift to myself—an outlet through which I can participate in the Lore trilogy as more than simply an author sitting at his desk.
The details don’t stop there, either. By the time I was at the end of The Old World, I’d introduced mermaids, mythical creatures from the Amazon to Mumbai, and even included Atlantis and linked it to the origins of mortality, disease, and Death itself. I noticed while still writing novel number one that all this detail, which could just as easily have been abridged or even exempted from the story, risked weighing down my narration, perhaps even overwhelming the reader.
That’s when I invented Geoffrey Mylus. In the first drafts of A Pirate’s Charm, he’s missing entirely. I never wrote him in. But to anyone who’s read the published trilogy, Geoffrey is a key, if not sometimes briefly a central character. The first time one of his signature journal entries appears is just after Thomas Crowe and Molly Bishop are shipwrecked in book one. After that, every chapter of their adventures closes with a lengthy commentary by the self-described “lorist”. Though his character makes no literal in-story appearance in all of book one, Geoffrey hints to have known the protagonists personally, and illuminates the greater contexts of their exploits, be it a remark about the political or social weather in Barbados, a description of the inner workings of werewolf or vampire anatomy, or behavioral research notes on the Leviathan.
Some readers are perfectly content with the story that floats on the surface. Others, such as myself, never stop asking, “Why?” and “How?” and desire to know every last background detail that lies beneath. Geoffrey Mylus, my in-narrative narrator, is a kind of special gift to the reader who is in love with the infinite depths of fiction, and to some degree, I suppose, a gift to myself—an outlet through which I can participate in the Lore trilogy as more than simply an author sitting at his desk.
About the Book
Title: Lore: A Pirate’s Charm
Author: Chad T. Douglas
Genre: Epic Fantasy/Paranormal
Length: 502 pages
Release Date: June 30, 2015
SYNOPSIS: When she flees Barbados in the late 1780s, the last thing Molly Bishop expects is to begin life anew with a criminal—much less the infamous Captain Thomas Crowe. On the high seas, far from her old life and even farther from England and her Uncle Samuel’s farm, Molly learns more than just the way of outcasts. Captain Crowe keeps secrets—many secrets—and possesses an extraordinary ring crafted by Molly’s father—a man she thought to be long gone. Life on the fringes of civilization offers something forbidden and exciting to Molly, and when Thomas’s secrets are revealed, she is immersed in a world of magic and myth more real and much greater than she could have ever imagined.
Author: Chad T. Douglas
Genre: Epic Fantasy/Paranormal
Length: 502 pages
Release Date: June 30, 2015
SYNOPSIS: When she flees Barbados in the late 1780s, the last thing Molly Bishop expects is to begin life anew with a criminal—much less the infamous Captain Thomas Crowe. On the high seas, far from her old life and even farther from England and her Uncle Samuel’s farm, Molly learns more than just the way of outcasts. Captain Crowe keeps secrets—many secrets—and possesses an extraordinary ring crafted by Molly’s father—a man she thought to be long gone. Life on the fringes of civilization offers something forbidden and exciting to Molly, and when Thomas’s secrets are revealed, she is immersed in a world of magic and myth more real and much greater than she could have ever imagined.
About the Author
Chad T. Douglas was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina in 1989. He has lived in Florida since 2002 and graduated from the University of Florida in 2012. In 2009 he published the first book in the Lore series, A Pirate’s Charm. Douglas released the second installment, East and Eight, in December 2010, and the third and final installment, The Old World, in November 2011. His most recent novel, Earthshine (2012) is the first installment of a science fiction series.
Since 2010, Douglas has been a traveling staff writer for the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History. When he isn’t spinning tales of his own, he travels with and writes for the McGuire Center.
WEBSITE ~ FACEBOOK ~ TWITTER
Since 2010, Douglas has been a traveling staff writer for the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History. When he isn’t spinning tales of his own, he travels with and writes for the McGuire Center.
WEBSITE ~ FACEBOOK ~ TWITTER
