Corvus Rex

by J K Ishaya

  Beside me, Kvasir nods and opens the door to the rear compartment, and more respect than I will ever feel I deserve replaces his humor. “Yes, my king.”

  AFTERWORD

  Corvus Rex was conceived as far back as 2009-10 and particularly bloomed at a very difficult time in my life. It would be remiss of me not to speak of the journey this project has been through.

  Originally it was a vampire novel and also planned to be in third person. The lead character, an ill-fated hero, was a monster fighting monsters, but a vampire was never quite enough for me, and given my love for H.P. Lovecraft's works, and his legacy of inviting other authors to join in his mythos, I thought, what if I set it in a Lovecraftian universe? First of all, Yuri Corvinus could no longer be just any vampire. I wanted weird. I wanted warped. I wanted Lovecraftian.

  Thus began a new evolution for the character as well as completely new directions for the story and new branches of research I never expected to take. The next thing being that I wanted him to be an old warrior both physically and psychically (hello, inspiration from Blue Oyster Cult's "Veteran of the Psychic Wars"). His original war was to be with Rome, and in looking over the centuries of history, I came across the Dacians, a people who were possibly as advanced as Rome in its heyday and who put up a valiant fight for years before their defenses completely collapsed in 106 A.D. Theirs was a very rich history but with plenty still left to speculation that I felt confident I could handle such an ancient setting for my character's human origins. Fine, now to figure out what exactly he would become. If not a vampire in a traditional sense, then what? The answer became very complex, indeed.

  Enter young Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

  Along with the Dacians, I started gobbling up Lovecraft biographies like M&Ms and carefully choosing where best it would be for his life and Yuri’s to collide. It was enough to cause option paralysis, but that was a nice problem to have and gave me many delightful experiments along the way. I am certainly not the only author to have developed a fictional and fantastical take on the enigmatic father of modern horror, nor shall I be the last, but no depiction of Lovecraft is the same in any case. Mine is a seventeen-year-old struggling to define himself and understand the universe around him even as it grows more terrifying.

  Howard also left me with a particular challenge to get out of my comfort zone. It is well known now how racist and xenophobic Lovecraft was, even at an early age. While that was a common trait of his era, his seems much greater in proportion given that he left behind evidence in over one-hundred thousand letters to friends and colleagues, some of which were more intense in this expression than others. This elephant in the room could not be ignored on my part, but most descriptions of Lovecraft by his friends and contemporaries paint the portrait of a proper—if sometimes snarky—New England gentleman for most of his public presentation even when he was a teenager; therefore, a balance needed to be struck. Although I entirely reject dear Howard’s bigoted views, and could never condone them in any sense, I strongly believed it would be disingenuous to whitewash them out of the picture. This was where I would begin to find a way to present it realistically in my depiction of him at seventeen and meet this challenge head on.

  Meanwhile, as the story developed, life became complicated. I was tasked with the job of taking care of my mother who had been on a renal diet to treat kidney failure for years, holding off the inevitable need to go on dialysis for quite some time, and being the model patient. But that time ended and, as it came on with some urgency, we chose to go with home hemodialysis. I trained for a month to be her caregiver, and after training, we were set up and ready to go and for nearly a year and a half, I ran her home dialysis starting at six days a week, and eventually five, while working a full-time day job. Many plans shifted, juggling my schedule was very difficult. Development on Corvus Rex slowed down, though occasionally I could get in a little art time to conceive a portrait of Yuri in his Dacian incarnation as Zyraxes. Ironically, I piled on the creative projects, including an agreement to a collaboration, despite the additional stress.

  At some early point in all of this, I happened to be on Facebook and came across a friend's posting of his acting demo reel. This was John Wells of Louisville, KY, who proved so talented in his ability to morph into his characters that I was quickly convinced he would be the perfect Yuri and he had the look for it, too. I had met John once at 2009's Fright Night Film Fest in Louisville and in early 2016 I would come to work with him on a psychological horror short film I wrote titled Viridescent which has since had an excellent festival run.

  I gradually unveiled some ideas to John on using his likeness with the ultimate hope that Corvus might someday go to screen in some form, whether feature film, tv or web series, and he was not only interested but gracious, allowing me use of various photos in his portfolio. Some readers may also be surprised to learn that John shares something in common with Yuri’s human past, and that is a case of scoliosis so extreme that it leaves surgery too risky for comfort. John’s method of therapy has been a strict strength training regimen that has thus far maintained and prevented his curvature from growing worse, though he still processes a great deal of pain. I found this to be so admirable and inspiring that I asked his thoughts on incorporating it into the human Zyraxes and thus adding a complexity that enriches the character and builds on his early strengths and further defines him prior to his transformation. Ever positive and open about it, John agreed and even loved the idea, and so my warrior figure now had even more substance. To learn more about this condition, go to www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org/shc/pediatric-scoliosis

  So, during all of this, my mother's health remained steady, and, after a year and a half, the issues which had caused us to need home hemodialysis resolved to the point she could then go to clinic three days a week instead of having five sessions at home. I was able to move forward at a greater pace then, and Corvus began to take off again.

  And then I put the cart totally before the horse. I had so many visuals in my head for a book trailer (I dare say a mini film, really) and I wanted to work with John again, so I spoke to him about it, supplied a script, and received such a positive response that I decided to go forward with it quickly. Working with my friend Joe Holt, a cinematographer with acute attention to detail, we put together the trailer on a shoestring budget along with the help of some wonderful reenactors, the kids in Joe's cinema club, and a smoke machine. After seeing me running around directing, solving creative problems on set, reviewing the footage, my mother made the comment, "You were in your element," which made me beam with joy. Soon after, the first trailer was cut and ready to share, and later a second one. Plans remain to use the full footage in a long, polished cut, but as with small independent productions, much depends on the time of the individuals involved and, in this case, trips across state lines.

  The trailer finished, I proceeded to keep writing the book, which was again soon stalled by a new difficult situation. In the spring of 2018, I moved to Santa Fe, NM to be with my husband, who had been working out there for nearly a year. This move was supposed to be a new start for us, but I was hardly there before the situation changed. After only three months in Santa Fe, I was moving back to North Carolina and my husband with me. I settled back into my old job and after more time juggling and a few more experiments in story-telling, finally finished the book and with a multitude of material left over to fuel the rest of the series quite well.

  In the end, Corvus Rex is the most unique style of writing I've ever tried. While one could describe it somewhat as Interview With A Vampire in structure, it goes beyond that. While it is, indeed, a sort of interview and comprised primarily of narrative through dialogue, it takes that a step further as another character in the room makes interjections to the story. Yuri, speaking in first person, pauses and occasionally addresses his companion, Kvasir, who will add an extra nugget of information for eager young Howard’s notes, also in first person.

  Furthermore, both Yuri a
nd Kvasir are telepathic, able to read and manipulate the minds around them (an element revealed immediately on page one), and thus, as Yuri occasionally gets inside his audience's head, he is able to convey a somewhat omniscient point of view. First person omniscient is a very rare format, tricky to boot, and to my delight, the beta responses were quite enthusiastic. I do not know what I expected in trying this method, but it has worked for me and will continue to grace Corvus Rex's five primary books, while the supplemental novellas and short stories that are planned may each vary in style depending on what I determine will best fit its story.

  As any book parent feels, I hope that readers will enjoy and find the flow as smooth as my beta readers have. I am a big girl and well aware that some will simply not even like the present and past tense shifts no matter how clear I've labored to make them. Ironically, once upon a time, I did not like reading in present tense, let alone writing it, but the method of screenwriting, in many ways, helped alleviate that and allowed me to grow as a writer. Now I feel that were Corvus written any other way, it would not have the punch and tone that I feel makes it work, and now, at last, my new baby is ready to fly the nest (see what I did there?).

  I am very proud of this gory little fantasy I've concocted. It remains a lot of fun and escape for me, and I hope you will enjoy the continued ride along with me in and out of the Dreamlands, and beyond.

  J.K. Ishaya

  August 2019

  ABOUT J.K. ISHAYA

  J.K. Ishaya is the author of the fantasy-horror novel series Corvus Rex, for which she also wrote and directed an extensive trailer. She also penned the award-winning short film Viridescent, which had its world premiere at the TLC Chinese Theater in the Beverly Hills Film Fest. Her work continues with The Arcadia Chronicles, a dark urban fantasy series co-written with Kenneth Mader. Her focus is primarily on literature of a Lovecraftian nature, exploring the concept of cosmic horror and the fear of the unknown through the crossed genres of historical fiction, horror, and fantasy.

  A graduate of UNC-Asheville, she has also studied abroad at Oxford, England. She has lived in the Washington, D.C. area and Los Angeles, CA. She currently resides in her home town outside of Asheville, North Carolina, where she is part of the Society for Creative Anachronism, an international medieval reenactment group. She will read almost anything to feed her mind and the muses with new ideas, loves good food, and travels as much as possible.