Elei’s Chronicles: origins

By Chrystalla Thoma

A short essay on the world-building and origins of the series Elei's Chronicles (Rex Rising, Rex Cresting, Rex Equilibrium, Rex Aftermath). For readers who have already read at least book 1 in the series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chrystalla Thoma
• Release date: Oct 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301834433

Chrystalla Thoma

Greek Cypriot with a penchant for dark myths, good food, and a tendency to settle down anywhere but at home, Chrystalla likes to write about fantastical creatures, crazy adventures, and family bonds. She lives in Cyprus with her husband and her vast herds of books. Her stories can be found in Alienskin magazine, Lorelei Signal, the Shine Journal, Encounters Magazine, and Bards and Sages ezine i.a. She is also an author for MuseItUp Publishing where you can find her YA Urban Fantasy novella Dioscuri.Here is the link to Chrystalla’s writing blog where you can find short stories, samples and link to other longer works:Blog: http://chrystallathoma.wordpress.com

Book preview

Introduction

Over the years since the release of Rex Rising, book 1 of Elei’s Chronicles, I’ve often been asked by readers and bloggers about my inspiration for this world and story. How did you come up with this? they’d ask. The parasites, the seven islands, the all-women race, Elei?

I’ve always struggled to reply. How do you fit the creation of a world into a paragraph? How do you recall how each element was born and modified into its final form? In fact, how to follow all the transformations the story went through?

When asked, I usually recall how ten years ago or so I had this idea about a world built underwater, a gritty place with diseases and poverty, where a boy named Elei lives. I have always kept my explanation brief, and that was because I couldn’t quite recall everything about that time. It was right before my father passed away and that year is blurry and sort of nightmarish.

It was 2002. I was in Germany, doing my PhD in linguistics and translation. I had also started drawing manga (Japanese-style graphic novels, a pastime I abandoned after that year because it was so time-consuming) and writing stories, as always, to escape reality. Story-writing was something I’d been doing since I was little. I’d written a couple of novels in Greek, my native language, but this was my first real attempt at writing in English.

I was terrified of writing in another language. I thought I’d write too plainly, too simply, like a child first learning how to hold a pen.

Fitting, since I was still penning my stories on paper.

It was also my first attempt on science-fiction, and I had no idea that I was writing dystopian post-apocalyptic Young Adult fiction. Back then all I knew was that I had these characters whispering in my ears and I had to do something about it.

Enter a large red notebook...

I have stacks of notebooks, some really old – since I was ten years old, at least. I never throw my notes away. Which is a blessing. As I lived far from home for half of my life up to this point (I left home in Cyprus when I was 18 and returned 17 years later),