Welcome to Mikada

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I am a fantasy author. For the longest time, I didn't even like Sci-fi because (a.) it usually involved aliens, and I had issues with them and (b.) I honestly believe Jesus will return before we get good and into space.

But then two things happened. First, I discovered Lewis's Space Trilogy and the wonderful non-alien sci-fi's that some of my lovely friends have written. And then my sister discovered Star Trek. Mom was actually trying to introduce me to the TV show, but, sigh, I just don't have to commitment for a TV series. But my sister, she does. (Although it did clear up my confusion of the fact that Captain Picard was not Kirk without hair. For some reason I thought they were the same person)

Now I'd been trying to get my sister to use her imagination again - she has a wonderful one, but she allowed a Polystoikhedron to get in it or something. And one day she proudly showed me a document she had started on the Win'95 laptop we shared at the time. About a girl crying in a garden. An alien princess crying in a garden. Whose name was Kathie (And that's why I call my sister by her initial, don't want to confuse her with her character.) and she was also the captain of a starship.

I was a bit skeptical, but - hey! - I was all for her using her imagination again so I encouraged her to keep writing. Which she did. She kept growing and develloping this world ... and she added in elvings ... which I was very skeptical of, since I had had inverted-sphere plans for them, but since, as she pointed out, the elvings were hers first (even though I did most of the meaty worldbuilding) I let her put it in that universe. The story kept growing and changing. I pointed out that since she had her best friend (more on this lovely person tomorrow) as Katie, Kathie's twin sister, she ought to have her bestest big sister in there somewhere as well. And, not to be outdone, I had to be a twin as well.

Now, I would have been content with being the librarian princesses at a planet that Katie and Kathie visited, but instead, she made me (us ... Elsie and Elyse ...) the elder half-sisters of Katie and Kathie, and the librarians of the Eagle (their ship). And since I wanted her to write me correctly, I started giving her tips for the development of their mother's people.

Now, I might have stayed content with letting my sister putter around writing these stories, if it weren't for Anne-Girl. She has this habit of posting plot ideas with no warning or explanation, and I misunderstood one and thought she was suggesting a contest. And so I started thinking about the second one, and how perfect it would be as a bit of Silivock history, and by the time she straightened me out about the fact that it wasn't a contest, I really didn't want to let this inspiration go. So I changed it up a bit, made it something of a reverse Princess and the Sage (Another of Anne-Girl's book), and Silivock born. Then we realized that Cayra was part of Mikada culture and then I came up with Sing, Aling. It was decided that Infiltration and its sequel would be better marketed as part of this series, and when all was said and done, I had five books! And then my NaNo last year ended up being part of this universe, and it was even better!

So, yeah, that's how I've morphed from pure fantasy to being partially sci-fi.

Since this post has gotten so long with this explanation, I'm going to give you a post about the culture of Mikada in another post. In the meantime, pop over to Abbey's blog, where you can read an interview with Elsie and Elyse, the twins version of myself, and then over to Miss Melody's to read about Lillillil, the princess that poor Rikkard is stuck teaching in Silivock.