Accursed

Accursed... The beginning of it all - though technically that's not accurate. Back in the '90s, I started writing a book about reincarnation set in present day Australia - the only time I have written in the present day, I think, though by the time I finished it, it was in the past! It took me years to finish that book, which I titled Epilogue, and I was then left with the quandary of what to write about next.

A supporting character in Accursed, an old American spiritualist medium, provided the answer. One of the few likable characters in the story, his revelations about spirits and past lives proved a catalyst for the action. James Grey left the story early, heading back to America due to moral objections to the way the reincarnated characters were behaving in their new lives. It felt like there was unfinished business with him, and the part that interested me most was his talk of his time in France during WWII, where he met the Pagan Resistance and his wife.

These throwaway lines, maybe a paragraph or two, led to Accursed. There was enough there for me to build a story around. Ultimately a trilogy. Eventually a quadrilogy (huge gap between books three and four, though). Epilogue was shelved in time, and the files have since been corrupted so only segments survive and maybe the original A4 pad - I handwrote it all as I didn't have a PC when I began. I learnt my lesson there. While I would be interested to view Epilogue again (and it may still exist on an old desktop which I would need to resurrect), it's not something I would ever publish, certainly not in its current form. At the time I thought I had to detail every day of my characters' lives, which resulted in a lot of filler. There is an amorality to the central characters that I find unappealing too. I do like a lot of my flawed characters, but these two pushed it a bit too far.

This is about Accursed, not Epilogue, but there was one other character glimpsed in Epilogue that was vital to Accursed. In the 11th Century a witch named Aolfa performs a spell that sees the doomed lovers be reborn. Aolfa would change her name through the ages to become Laura Spencer, the love interest for James Grey in Occupied France. A neutral isolationist, Laura has the ability to make a big difference to the war effort but lacks the inclination. I'm going into synopsis mode here, you get the gist.

Accursed introduces Georges Steil, an old French mystic who leads the Pagan Resistance. Georges passes away in the book and I assumed he would be a one and done character. Instead, as with James, I found myself going back into his past in other books with Georges as the central character. Haven't introduced an old guy in Georges' books yet to delve into his past yet - I'm slipping.

The covers for Accursed, Underbelly and Eidolon were designed by the brilliant Douglas Mullen. I think they're excellent and am extremely grateful to Douglas for agreeing to design them for an unknown, self-published author. Am also grateful to my dad for helping me pay for them as I was working at an agency at the time and not exactly rolling in dough, shall we say.

Accursed has had other covers through the years...

The working title for Accursed was The Old World. There's a conversation late in the book between James and Laura about the new world the Nazis are trying to usher in - a little tricky for me to remember my exact mindset from so long ago, but I think my mindset was that James preferred to go back to the old world. Better to be a Luddite than a fascist.

Another title was Past Earthly Thought, taken from a line about Circe in The Odyssey. I do like that title and sometimes question if I should have stuck with it. I ended up using it as a chapter title in Revived. Laura is compared to Circe in Accursed by Isdel Delgado, and I do see parallels. There is a Medea substitute in Epilogue and may have intentionally carried the theme in this to cover the aunt. I do recall trying to create a Calypso style character for another project which never got beyond the planning stage, perhaps because, at least through my reading of her, Calypso didn't seem such an extreme character.

The massacre at the Tavern occurred in every draft, the victims never changing, The massacre in the town wasn't there in the first draft. Laura and the Pagan Resistance perform the spell to banish the Germans, the Germans leave, and the townspeople are free and have no problems until Inge shows up.

Germaine Cremont was not envisioned as a love interest in the original draft and never met James Grey. Her appearances consisted of being terrorised by Inge. Accursed ended with the suggestion that James and Laura might - and I stress might - make a go of things as a couple. Could it have worked out for them? Hmm, I suspect not, their differences are too great.

Day 17, James' dies horribilis didn't happen.

Quite a few additional characters were created in later drafts and slotted in - yes, that's why they're in the kitchen. Another character was created around the time of early drafts but never inserted as couldn't quite fit her in. Agathe Casey ended up in Fallen Idols instead, still the same character as envisioned and still a member of the Pagan Resistance, the tweaks very slight.