Where did you come up with the idea for Other? I read one too many urban fantasy novels where nearly everybody in the story doesn’t have a clue about the pack of werewolves/coven of witches/secret vampire society living in their backyard. Except, of course, the protagonist, who is often special or magically gifted, even if they don’t know it at first. Well, what would happen if everybody did know about the paranormal people living among humans? And what if they have known for a long time now? Surely that would have interesting consequences on culture. That got me thinking about how different groups of people and minorities are viewed in America. In many cases, there’s a definite sense of “us” versus “them,” an idea that “we are normal” and “they are abnormal.” Or, to use another word, Other. Think of all the ways we like to sort people into neat little boxes with stereotypical labels to identify them by. Think of all the Others in reality. On a lighter note, I really wanted to write about paranormal creatures from around the world, not just the standard werewolves, vampires, and faeries from European lore.
What’s a pooka? A pooka (spelled pwca in Welsh) is a kind of shapeshifting spirit native to Wales and Ireland. Gwen, the protagonist of Other, has never met her biological father, but he’s apparently one of the more famous Welsh pookas. The most common animal form of a pooka is a pure black horse with glowing golden eyes. For more info, check out my “What is a pooka?” page.
- What’s a dryad? Gwen’s best friend, Chloe, is a tree-spirit from Greece. Traditionally, dryads are nymphs associated with oak trees, but Chloe isn’t picky about the trees she chooses to inhabit. In fact, some of her favorite trees are big-leaf maples, native to her new home in western Washington.
- Is Klikamuks, the town where Gwen lives in Other, real? If you look on a map, you won’t find Klikamuks anywhere. The name comes from the Chinook word for “blackberries.” I based Klikamuks on my hometown of Snohomish, Washington. The Snoqualmie River, which Gwen visits, does indeed exist.
What about the setting of Unseen? Always keen to rip off an interesting location, I did indeed base the college in Unseen off of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. A lot of what appears in this novel does in fact exist at Evergreen, though I did take many liberties with the descriptions. There aren’t any faeries at Evergreen, either… perhaps.
