A-to-Z Challenge: “G” is for Greed and Guilt

For the A-to-Z Challenge 2016, I am blogging info on my current work-in-progress, a YA fantasy/adventure mini-series tentatively titled “The Other World”.

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There are a number of themes in and around ‘The Other World’, and lots of different motivations among lots of different characters, but the two themes that really kick off the events of the story are Greed and Guilt.

Greed starts off the events of the past. Our antagonist, a young prince, discovers a book describing the magical power his ancestors once wielded. Through trial and error and an obsessive amount of research, the prince establishes that this power still exists in his family’s blood, and he quickly decides that he is willing to do anything to grow that power, to make himself stronger and stronger. But as his power grows, so does his greed. He begins to believe that he, as the heir to the throne, should be the only one to hold this power. His greed and lust for ultimate control lead him to become the monster of the story, and sets in motion the chain of events that lead us to the present.

The Guilt part comes from two separate sources: our protagonist, and a nurse who was present at the time of her birth. When we first meet our protagonist she is wracked with guilt over the deaths of her parents. She believes, due to the circumstances of the accident, that she is to blame for the loss of their lives, and that guilt is all but tearing her apart. Her life, as she knows it, has been at a standstill, stagnating, rotting away beneath her, and it will take a huge shove from outside forces to throw her into a situation that could force her to heal.

That shove comes from the nurse, who has been harboring a guilt in her heart for nearly two decades. Upon the event of our protagonist’s birth a special gift was left for the baby girl, but the nurse – who was the one entrusted with that gift – was unable to convince the parents to accept it. Though it was a simple thing, she spent the years that followed with an overwhelming sense of guilt, a sense that the child needed this gift, but unsure how to go about getting it to her. When she heard, through chance, that the girl’s parents had passed away, that old guilt kicked in again in full force. She retrieved the gift, steeled herself, and headed off to meet the girl who had been in the back of her mind for so many years. That decision is what sets our protagonist on  her path and kicks off the beginning of the first book.

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I hope you’re enjoying the A-to-Z Challenge and my little snippets of ‘The Other World’! If you’re interested in what else I’ve written, please be sure to check out ‘Nowhere to Hide‘, available on Amazon in both hard copy and e-book versions!