After I finished my fictional series on childhood sexual abuse, I decided that I would try a few different genres of fiction to see what worked with my style of storytelling. I had always loved murder mysteries, Agatha Christie being one of my favorites. Last week I disclosed the plot of that particular story. However, there is another genre which I never thought I would attempt, fantasy.
So, my friend, Mike, and I talked about the book, and it probably ends up being a biblical fiction more than a fantasy, but some of the same elements apply. I started this story before writing my series, and I decided that I should finish it. And I completed my draft just a few months ago.
“The Shomer” is set in near the current area of Israel, but I never mention that in the actual story. The time frame is after the creation of Adam, but before the Flood. The main characters, the Shomer, are the offspring of angels and female humans, also known as the Nephilim in the Old Testament. The role is to protect the human race from demonic forces that are keeping the humans from worshipping Elohim. The humans believe that the demons are really angels because the demons are able to disguise themselves as beautiful creatures of light. Physical battles occur between the Shomer and the shedim (the race of demons), but also spiritual battles among the humans and the Shomer themselves. In the end, the story shows that Elohim is always in control, but humans certainly have a choice with whom they will worship.
The fun part of this story was being able to create the world in which these characters lived, using the small amount of biblical knowledge I have as a guide to the story. The challenge was that I wanted to distinguish the language of the Shomer from the language of humans and of the shedim. To do that, I decided that the Shomer would never speak using contractions. That was tough! Hopefully, I caught all of the instances where I missed contractions in the dialogue before it goes to Kindle!
Currently, my editor has the draft of the book, and I plan on publishing it sometime at the beginning of the year. Please let me know what you think after you read it. I never think of myself as a fantasy writer, but I’m certainly open to it if my readers believe I’m good at it.
Harry L. Estes 