For my Discipulus Secretus series I wanted to create a world that was close enough to reality that readers might wonder how much of it could be true. I wanted to blur the lines some between fiction and reality. Having loved The De Vinci Code, I thought that part of the magic of that story was that sense of blurred reality. I intentionally chose my conspiracies and magic based on this principle of having my pretend world look like it could be real.
I picked a magic system that I hoped could spark more of sense of wonder and imagination because it might look more believable. I figured that a lot of the fun in reading a book like this would be in imagining that it could happen. I picked a system that a reader might at least easily see as something that others might come close to already believing in.
I've realized, however, that in doing this, in creating a world "too close to home," that it might trigger in some emotional barriers. While I intended to spark imagination and fuel the excitement and adventure, I may have inadvertently knocked against strong barriers of psychological discomfort. The word, "Mormon," alone can have strong visceral meaning associated with it that instantly raises large defenses of impenetrable strength.
With my love of many of the fictional iconizations of Catholicism, I was excited to have the opportunity to help draw and define a fictional Mormonism. Where as "ancient" and/or perhaps "lost" texts can be found while searching through one of these fictional Catholic libraries in exciting stories of the supernatural, Mormonism offered a different path for me with it's additional scriptures and promise of restored ancient truths. The fictional dramatization of this into a world of mystery, mysticism, and deception was exciting to me and I hoped to capture the imagination of those reading this into my new world of fantasy and adventure.
I should have realized that with similarities to The De Vinci Code and The Golden Compass that I was starting to tread on sensitive subjects for some readers who might have loved the same story much more if told from a completely different context, without it being so "close to home (perhaps)." I was intrigued by how much I loved The Golden Compass and didn't take into account, as much as I should have, the readers that it did alienated.
I don't want readers to be kicked out of the story because of concern or worry about how some of these issues are handled. At the same time I love making loud noises and shaking things up, at least in this literary sense. I can't imagine having written this book with a different, more fictional or fantastic, world or magic system. So I'm afraid that even though I want to apologize for any bruised or injured feelings that I may have caused by creating this fictional world of mine, I'm still going to keep it where it is.
I am thinking, though, that instead of writing the sequel next, I want to write a horror novel that is based on this same world structure. I think that will help ease readers into this imaginary world better by taking a couple of steps back from religion and just exploring the magic. I think it will also help me as a writer as well, improving all of my writing skills that are needed to write a successful horror. (And I don't think I'll take it as personally when readers are turned off because they don't like horror.)
