Stem mainly from my imagination, I guess; but I often wonder what subconscious thoughts operate in the background. In the case of Magesty and The Serpentine Labyrinth, my idea was to spin a Sci-Fi series of novels based loosely on the Cain & Abel story depicted in Genesis. But it’s Cain’s exodus rather than that of the Children of Israel; and it certainly wasn’t the promised land! You know how it goes, out of jealousy Cain murders his brother and is banished to the Land of Nod. In my tale, the Garden of Eden was located on the world where the Five Kingdoms of Magesty is based and from where Cain and his followers were subsequently exiled through a portal to Mesopotamia on planet earth.
The curse? Cain and his people had the genome of arcane magic stripped from their DNA.
And the mark? Instead of the customary 2 belly buttons, Cain’s descendants have only 1.
All is revealed in “Grey Matter”, the final volume in the series.
But perhaps it was from my subconscious (here I’m thinking about the wizard, Merlin) that odd, let us call them “coincidences”, have sprung up. Merlin, a character whose very name conjures up tales of magical feats deployed in an age of mystery and romance, is legendary. Although the legend tells us that Albion was divided into many kingdoms at that time, only the names of five appear to have relevance in the stories about the Knights of the Round Table: Camelot, Essetir, Odin, Caerleon, and Mercia. Might this have anything to do with my choice of the “Five Kingdoms” as the main setting for my books? If so, it was fortunate happenstance because the plot of Magesty is based around five rival Royal Houses in contention for the throne. “Wards in the Stones” sound familiar? Wards of course are manifestations of protective magic; and stones refer to the sapphires of a necklace where the spells of sorcery have been etched as dislocations within their crystal lattices. In truth the book title came to me later – originally it was simply Bethany.
Also, because of a supposed common ancestry, other strange coincidences occur across both worlds: Hekate (the serpentine labyrinth), Lilith, Şeytan and the 72 angels of the Shemhamphorasch to name but a few. As to snakes, I can’t help you; they appear everywhere. From Wards in the Stones, Bethany’s guardian angel and also her chosen instrument of revenge against her mother-in-law; from Blood Within the Stone, the ophidian incarnation of Saurin’s Mattaaspa whose lethal bite is lovingly referred to as the “Gift of Deribos” (the empty skin); and from At the Crossroad, the deadly venom of the Russel pit viper that will clot your blood in seconds! Maybe it’s because of the morbid dread I have of them! Of one thing I am certain, though: it’s got nothing to do with the Garden of Eden.
As far as I know, the secret codes which turn up in Dark Matta, At the Crossroad and also in Grey Matter are all unique to me. Go on, amaze yourself.