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Hathor Legacy Worldbuilding – The Guardians
Believe it or not I came up with the idea for the Guardians from watching a PBS documentary on U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Well, there were a few twists and turns between the idea and the execution. After they went into the details of how FDR was infected by the virus that causes polio, I wondered what would happen if that disease was as prevalent in the US today?
From that thought, I got an idea about a virus that would fundamentally change the person who became infected. But instead of having the virus unleashed on Earth, I chose a settlement on another planet. A person who survived the infection would be left with PSI powers. Though not just the ability to read minds or predict the future, they’d also be capable of moving objects and sending out energy blasts.
In book two of the Hathor Legacy series, Hathor Legacy: Burn, I reveal the origin of the Guardians. They’re descendants of settlers who were infected by a virus unleashed after the planet was terraformed and prepared for human habitation.
Instead of being superheroes using their extraordinary powers to save the day, they’re corporate employees doing a job for Novacorp Intergalactic, Inc. Though the Guardians are also separated from the other humans on Hathor, they have their own culture and hierarchies within that culture.
They don’t get to choose their professions and they’re discouraged from having relationships with people outside of their group. Not only that, but once an individual develops abilities and becomes a Guardian, they’re forced to leave their family and give up their family name. Everything is done to strip them of who they were before so they can start a new life with a new identity.
Nadira (the heroine) has to fight convention when she decides to continue her relationship with Jonathan Keel (the hero). Some Guardians do push back in spite of the pressure to conform. As with any group, there will be outliers, but with the Guardians, if too many of them push back, it could destroy them and completely rip apart the fabric that holds the society together.
Novacorp needs them to hold on to their control, and yet the Guardians are strong enough to overpower them. At the heart of the story, conflict and tension exists between two groups that need each other for survival, yet don’t trust each other. And ultimately this conflict directly impacts the relationship between Nadira and Jonathan.
That’s how I got from FDR to the Guardians. Certainly not what I expected when I sat down to watch that program!
About the book
Book Two of the Hathor Legacy Series
On the planet, Hathor, an old threat re-emerges that may destroy the fragile alliance between the Guardians and Novacorp. When Nadira is called to investigate a rash of fires throughout the city, she discovers the Deshtu, another group with PSI powers who have been purposely kept in the shadows.
Working to uncover the source of the fires, Nadira learns the brutal truth about the origin of the Guardians. The Guardian Elders have plans to make Nadira more powerful, and she may be forced to sever her psychic connection to Jonathan Keel.
When an unexpected ally gives Jonathan information about the Deshtu that connects them to the fires, he becomes a convenient scapegoat for the opposing factions. Nadira puts her life on the line to solve the crime, while the Elders make their move to remove Jonathan from her life forever.
As time runs out, the Guardians prepare for a clash with Novacorp that could plunge the planet into chaos, and a final betrayal forces Nadira to risk everything to save herself and Hathor.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LW95G7K
As a little girl when Deborah A Bailey was watching Star Trek and Twilight Zone, she was writing and drawing her own superheroine comics. When she grew up, she continued to write and followed her love of technology into a career as a computer programmer and developer. But writing was never far away from her heart, so over the years she wrote and published stories set on other worlds and in Earth's future.
Ultimately she fulfilled a lifelong dream and completed her first novel in the Hathor Legacy universe, Hathor Legacy: Outcast. Her short stories have won awards from the Philadelphia Writers' Conference and her work has been published in US1 Magazine and the Sun. She's also the author of a short story collection, Electric Dreams: Seven Futuristic Tales.
Website: http://www.BrightStreetBooks.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AuthorDeborahB
2 comments:
How many books are going to be in the series? I'm bad about being faithful to series.
Hi Catherine,
I was planning for 3, but now I'm not so sure. :) Once you start creating a world, it's hard to leave it alone!
Deborah
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