Bear Mother, Bird Mother

Ok, so more on this prehistorical idea.  It’s not a classic cave man adventure story, that’s for certain.  Expect a similar feeling that exists in most of my other works, that same word play, prose poetry and surrealism.  I plan on using a secondary world for this, for a few reasons. First, even though I plan on doing a lot (ALOT) of research on this, I also want the ability to kind of mix and match a lot of different prehistorical societies.  I also don’t want to be bound by the current knowledge we have of this nebulous time.  I don’t want to end up with Clan of the Cave Bear syndrome, where I take a known fact at the time (Neanderthals not having speech capabilities), plan a majority of my novel around it (like, having them use sign language) and then have five years later absolute proof come and show I was 100% wrong.

This area of the past contains much of the same land mines as fictionalizing the future- you going in with incomplete knowledge, into a landscape where knowledge is evolving and we’re learning and relearning everything.  You have the risk (a very high one) of being just as wrong about most stuff as you are right.  A secondary world side steps this issue elegantly.

Anyway, I’m taking a thematic cue from the actual history/time period when Neanderthals and humans coexisted as well as thematic cues from Nordic mythology.  I plan on the focus of this story being the rocky friendship between the Odin character (human modern) and the Loki character (Jotun, AKA Neanderthal Man).  The two of them will both be trixter style characters, and their friendship is based not on trust as much as it is on mutual respect.  They both undermine each other, constantly outwitting each other and starting a war between the two societies.

This interplay (the friendship, the betrayals, and then the war at the ending) will be the main thrust of the narrative, with other stuff moving between the two.  Philosophical ideas will be poised, questioned.  Two religions challenged.  The Jotuns worship a giant bear the size of a mountain, who they have in captivity and control.  Their goddess is a slave to their whims.  The humans worship an abstract goddess known as the bird goddess, who only exists symbolically.

Magic will exist, as will monsters and all sorts of strange stuff.  Including a Valley of the Ancients, where those who lived before Man and Jotun dwelled, before they died off and turned into stone.  This valley will contain the essence of magic and all knowledge.  As you can see, there is going to be a lot of strange, cool ass stuff going on in this book.  It’s going to be epic, and brutal. Probably one of the more intense things I’ll write, with each piece of the narrative hooking under the skin, pulling you deeper and deeper into this strange, prehistorical parallel world.