I began to write stories inspired by the fantastical public image of T Rex. Bolan and Finn, as the band, were as fictional no doubt as the things I wrote, but I didn’t care about that. What is most annoying is that I destroyed a lot of what I wrote, because I went through a phase of being terrified of my parents reading my writing. Even then, I wrote mild ‘slash’, and I often felt guilty about it. Why, I don’t know, because now I don’t think my parents would have minded one bit, if in fact they’d ever bothered to read my exercise books full of stories, but schoolgirls can have rather strange ideas about the older generation. What I feared most was that they would laugh. My stories were set in a fantasy world and I really regret now that they didn’t survive. I still have a few of them, but so many were lost. In fact, these early stories were set in the world that eventually turned up in my novel ‘Sign for the Sacred’, so it’s as ‘old’ as Wraeththu, which is quite bizarre to realise. I began a novel called ‘Sun Incarnate’, which I still have, even though I never finished it. Mickey Finn was the physical inspiration for the character Micythus, who was the original prototype for Resenence Jeopardy. When I finally got round to writing ‘Sign for the Sacred’ though, it was not with all those early influences in mind.
Of course, I can’t leave David Bowie out of the equation either. In particular, his album ‘Diamond Dogs’ was a soundtrack for me to write to, and I think that album was also somewhat inspired by William Burroughs’ work. Bowie came prominently onto the scene after T Rex and was another seminal artist of the Glam movement. It’s hardly a secret that the film ‘Velvet Goldmine’ fictionalised (and perhaps fantasised) his relationship with wild child of rock, Iggy Pop. Bowie’s on stage antics with his guitarist, Mick Ronson, made headlines and naturally he became another of my muses. I see in Bowie’s (then) on-stage personae the roots of Thiede: the trickster, the magician, the manipulator, a creature of many colours.
But long before Wraeththu came into being, I began a sequel to ‘Sun Incarnate’, called ‘Child of the Morning’, even though I’d never finished the first one. I just had a different story to tell, influenced by new inspirations, although set in the same world. Micythus was still in it, although this time as a secondary character to the main protagonist, Phrynis. ‘Child of the Morning’ was greatly influenced by such writers as Mary Renault and Jane Gaskell. It was the story of a beautiful boy taken into captivity and having to cope with life in a royal harem, beset by bitchery and betrayal. By this time, I’d read ‘The Persian Boy’ by Mary Renault, (but for the fact ‘Child’ had completely different characters, it was a kind of homage to ‘The Persian Boy’), and my interests in beautiful, androgynous creatures had truly coalesced. Also, my musical and aesthetical inspirations had moved on. I’d left school and had gone to the local art college. Round about this time, The New York Dolls – the epitome of proto Punk/Glam sleaze – released their first album. The minute I saw photographs of them in the music press, I knew they were my kind of band. And when I bought the album, I wasn’t disappointed. ‘Personality Crisis’ and ‘Jet Boy’ are still classics, and I don’t think anyone can deny that The Dolls were a huge influence on alternative music, especially early Punk. They were like something out of a science fiction movie. They belonged in a post holocaust world of sexbots and ravaged cities. There were reports in the music press of guys making out at the back of venues at their shows. The Dolls were another influence on my writing and their weird, almost comic book decadence went into the pot to help create Wraeththu. Round about this time I also discovered William Burroughs’ novel, ‘The Wild Boys’ (later to be immortalised by Duran Duran, though in rather censored form!). Blatantly homo-erotic, bizarrely magical, this book I think gave me the courage to write more honestly, and more confidently. Its narrative is hardly linear, and neither can you really engage with any of the characters, but the ideas, and some of the imagery, (especially the tribal stuff), totally captivated me.
Shortly after discovering The Dolls, it was time for The Ramones to make an appearance, and although this band were hardly beings of ambivalent sexuality and glam, the music was great. If anything, it was an extension of the Dolls’ dementia. ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement’ and ‘Beat on the Brat’, were two especial favourites of mine. I also developed a huge crush on Joey Ramone (sadly now dead), and he made it as physical inspiration into several of my stories in various guises.
It was during these years, from the last year of school and the short time I spent at art college that I wrote the first Wraeththu stories and poems, but I didn’t actually come up with the term ‘Wraeththu’ until a couple of years after that. This was when I had a dreary receptionist’s job at a building company, situated out in the middle of nowhere, far from the edge of town on an early industrial estate. We didn’t get many visitors. I used to spend my time, when my work for the day was done, writing stories and poems, drawing pictures and reading ancient dictionaries, full of antiquated words. I remember I used to draw pictures of my co-workers as cartoon animals, which for some reason were very popular, even if they weren’t always very flattering! When the company finally went into liquidation, I wrote a fantasy tale about the whole sad demise – really should try and dig that out, it had its amusing moments – and gave it to all my colleagues as a keepsake. But during that time, I found the word Wraeththu in an etymological dictionary and for some odd reason fell in love with it. It meant ‘wrath’ but also ‘rake’ as in the gardening or farming implement. However, it wasn’t the meaning of the word that snared me, just its shape and sound.
For a long while, I left the world of Wraeththu behind, as ‘real life’ concerns of a more demanding full time job, and a partner who actually resented me writing, came to the fore. But the siren call of that world was not to be denied. In the very early 80s I discovered my independence, ditched the controlling boyfriend and bought a house, several rooms of which I rented out to friends, including members of the band ‘The Closets of Emily Child’ whose guitarist became my new partner. This band had a cameo part in ‘The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit’, although none of the real people involved actually inspired any of the characters. They just wanted the band to be in the book! These were the days of early Goth, when New Romanticism metabolised into something darker yet in many ways more camp. I began writing my Wraeththu stories again, determined now to finish a novel, egged on and encouraged by the manager of the The Closets, who was there to be Mr Pushy for me when I was too shy and embarrassed to let people see my work. And happily, there was a new generation of musician pretty boys to inspire me. Bands like Gene Loves Jezebel, Getting the Fear/Into a Circle and Christian Death all had members who physically inspired the characters of ‘Enchantments’ and its sequels. Jay and Mike Aston from Gene Loves Jezebel certainly helped shape the characters of Cobweb and Terzian respectively. And looking at old pictures of them, it’s easy to see why.
Pellaz’s earliest physical inspiration was undoubtedly a strange meld of Mowgli of the Jungle Books and Johnny Thunders from the New York Dolls, but strangely, I never had a real life person who inspired the look of Cal. He was – and remains – an archetype, almost impossible to capture in a picture. The idea and shape of Vaysh came from Getting the Fear’s vocalist, Bee (later that band became Into a Circle). If you can find any pictures online of the later band’s EP covers, you will see why they were an influence for Wraeththu material. Seel was inspired partly by Christian Death’s David Glass, who in his youth was positively unearthly in appearance.
It’s interesting for me to wander back down the memories and recall how the ideas for my fictional characters came together. The living people whose public personae inspired many of the Wraeththu are now twenty or thirty years older, and the enigmatic beauty they once possessed has no doubt long gone. Most of the wild boys of those days have probably now settled down to a humdrum life with wives and children, have become drug burnouts, or are - at worst – dead (quite a few are, come to think of it). Happily, I discovered while res
earching some of these people online that several, such as Bee, David Glass and the Aston Brothers are still working in the music industry and thriving. I hope others are also continuing to be creative and successful. But whatever those shining boys might be doing now, or not, they are immortalised as they once were within the pages of the Wraeththu novels.
The people mentioned here were only physical inspirations, and sometimes more than one of them contributed to the creation of a character’s appearance. The personalities of the characters had nothing to do with real individuals; they were entirely made up. Perhaps the Jungle Boy Mowgli and the likes of Joey Ramone and Johnny Thunders are unlikely companions, but they were all part of the formula.
Storm Constantine
June 2010
About the Contributors
Storm Constantine
Storm is the creator of the Wraeththu Mythos, the first trilogy of which was published in the 1980s. However, the influences and inspirations for the Wraeththu world go much further back than that, and continue into the future as she plans more stories for it. Storm is the founder of Immanion Press, created initially to publish her out of print back catalogue, but which evolved into the thriving venture it is today. She has written over thirty books, including full length novels, novellas, short story collections and non-fiction titles. Her interests include magic and spirituality, Reiki, movies, music and MMOs. Among her many occupations, most of which are unpaid, she runs a Reiki school, the Lady of the Flame Iseum, which is a magical group affiliated to the Fellowship of Isis, and a guild called Equilibrium on the EU servers of World of Warcraft. She lives in the Midlands of the UK. Her website can be found at
http://www.stormconstantine.com
Wendy Darling
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, Wendy Darling is co-author of Breeding Discontent, published by Immanion Press in 2003 as the first Wraeththu Mythos novel. She has been involved in Wraeththu in many different capacities, including editor of the revised Wraeththu Chronicles, webmaster of the Inception and Forever Wraeththu fan web sites, and staff at several Wraeththu conventions. Her full-time job is as a web projects manager at Emory University, but she engages in many side projects and hobbies, including photography and writing. She has also forged relationships with Wraeththu fans around the world and has been fortunate to meet several authors whose work is included in this collection. At home she is ruled by two cats, cats she did not have in her life until she met and visited with Storm, who as usual had a strong influence on her. Wendy enjoys international travel and tries to visit Storm and her husband Jim as often as she can.
Andy Bigwood
Andy is an author, artist, draughtsman, bookbinder, cartographer and illustrator from West Wiltshire, UK, where he lives alone, only venturing out for disastrous foreign holidays and the occasional convention. Trained in technical illustration, in Bath (shortly before the evolution of computer aided art), Andy has provided artwork, cartography and cover designs for a variety of Fantasy, Horror, and Science fiction novels winning the British Science Fiction Association Award for best artwork for the anthologies ‘disLOCATIONS’ and ‘Subterfuge’. Specimen 16, is Andy’s first published short story.
Brad Carpenter
Brad’s introduction to the television industry began 15 years ago courtesy of Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi at Renaissance Pictures with their shows “Hercules: Legendary Journeys” and “Xena: Warrior Princess.” His training in the world of scripted episodic continued over several seasons of HBO’s much lauded, “Sex and the City,” and broadened into the unscripted world with 67 episodes of Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” After being fortunate enough to work on the first Emmy award-winning season of NBC’s “30 Rock,” Brad went on to Co-Produce “Life Is Wild,” a family drama for The CW Network shot on location in South Africa. Over the past two years, Brad has been alternating between Producer duties for Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” starring Edie Falco, and HBO’s “Bored To Death” starring Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakas. Brad is currently developing a television series based on “The Wraeththu Chronicles.”
Christopher Coyle
Born, died, and reborn again within moments of being first brought screaming into this world, Christopher grew up in a military family. With constantly moving and always being the new kid around, he chose to immerse himself in creating worlds within his mind. From even an early age, he knew he wanted to be a writer, to continue to share those worlds with others. From having worked as a designer and art editor for a game company founded by Margaret Weis, working on such projects as Dragonlance and Sovereign Stone, he jumped at the chance to work with another of his childhood idols when he decided to move to the United Kingdom once more, involving himself with the Wraeththu world. Now, years later, Christopher is ecstatic at once more being able to involve himself with the Wraeththu Mythos, while he is working once more on developing his own new worlds, and going back to college in order to finish his degree in Graphic Design. He likes to stay busy, that Christopher!
Suzanne Gabriel
Born in the USA to nomadic Canadian parents, Suzanne grew up in Canada, the UK, and USA. She is a wife and mother of three children (more if you count the ‘fur kids’). She completed a Master of Science degree in Food Science and Nutrition and spent several years working in the food industry doing quality control, new product development, and marketing/PR and sales. Suzanne currently works full-time at a University where her job includes managing her Faculty’s social media endeavours, web site administration, and other duties as assigned. Suzanne is fascinated by old cookbooks, old etiquette books, and antiquities museums. Even when there isn’t any music Suzanne is likely to be dancing and she will go out of her way to hug a tree. She adores animals, travel, history, archaeology, science, hiking, laughter, yoga, and photography. Recently she has become involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism – ‘going mediaeval’ on people has become a way of life! She has come to realize that she has way too many hobbies and interests but she wouldn’t dream of giving any of them up. In fact she plans to add more to the list.
Gwyn Harper
Gwyn has always had one foot in the mundane world and another in the land of Faerie. She wrote her first novel at the tender age of ten, but when adults informed her that few people make a living writing fiction, she relegated her scribbling to the back-burner, and instead pursued an interest in ancient civilizations, which turned out to be almost as poorly compensated. She earned advanced degrees in anthropology and archaeology and has worked as an editor, researcher, educator, and exhibit designer. In recent years, Gwyn has returned to her love of word-smithery, pursuing academics by day and hunting muses with her elf friends at night. She writes in various genres including historical fiction, fantasy, and sci fi. Her avatar enjoys exploring the lively cyber realm of fanfiction and playing with gender-bending concepts. Gwyn lives in a mountainous desert where she is kept busy by her family, a slew of imaginary characters, and a sultan reincarnated in the form of a very demanding cat.
Fiona Lane
Fiona born and brought up near Glasgow during the Time Of The Flared Trouser and Unfeasibly High Platform Shoes. By the time we all came to our senses, she had relocated to Aberdeen, and spent several years waiting for a number six bus, in a horrible collision involving the nature of time and the Aberdeen weather. During the eighties, while she was waiting for the Internet to be invented, she acquired a husband and a couple of replacement units, and they all now live in a field full of sheep in Aberdeenshire, along with the odd cat or two and Fiona’s posse of obsolete computers, many of which she has single-handedly restored to a completely non-functioning condition. She once kept chickens, but they were messy and she couldn’t use them to buy vintage shoes from Ebay. The eggs were good though. She likes gin and hats, and dislikes the oppression of the proletariat. Her hobbies include cooking, gardening, and staring into the abyss.
Maria J. Leel
Originally from the fenlands of Peterbo
rough, Maria J. Leel now lives in the infinitely hillier Shropshire and has thigh muscles that recognise the difference. She manages a half acre garden with the assistance of her husband, Malcolm, two cats and four chickens. Trained originally as an ecologist and teacher she made the logical career progression to First Aid trainer for St John Ambulance. She wrote her first play at the age of ten and has been writing dramatic pieces and short stories ever since. One of these days she really will have to sit down and write that first novel. Maria spent a year travelling the world volunteering on various environmental projects and lived for a while on a kibbutz in Israel. As a result she has an abiding interesting in alternative lifestyles and communal living. She is a member of the dark and mysterious world of Morris dancing, plays guitar and is a member of the local rowing club – so those thigh muscles are really getting a pasting.
Kristi Lee
An award-winning fanfiction author since 2003, Kristi is known throughout her various fan communities as Thevina. She’s had an obsession with redheads and things of a Celtic nature since a very young age, which has only increased in adulthood. Her real life and fan life have crossed as she’s an independent academic. She’s been a professional singer, a prospect analyst, a graphic designer, an award-winning costumer, coordinated seating for an opera company, nude modelled, and in 2009, had a total fangirl moment when she was able to meet in person her all-time favourite living composer, Phillip Glass. She was only introduced to Wraeththu in December of 2007, but says another lifetime highlight was meeting Storm in person in 2008. As of April, 2010, she’s begun writing original fiction for the first time and is very excited by the prospect of having fans of her own who might wish to write fanfiction some day. Since Wraeththu hermaphrodites sadly don’t exist out in the world for her to fawn over, instead she continues to feed a perhaps unhealthy fascination for men in kilts.
Paragenesis: Stories of the Dawn of Wraeththu Page 40