Writing Meme

[bitterfic]

From bradygirl_12

Choose a story of mine and I'll talk a little about it: what inspired me to write it, what research I did for it, whatever comes to mind! :)

Comments

[bitterfic]

When I read The Black Jewels Trilogy the character of Kartane seemed tailor made to my interests. He is a victim of mother/son incest and the very slashy relationship with Daemon. Also as a victim of abuse who becomes an abuser he ties into one of the themes I am most drawn to- cycles of abuse and victimization.

Writing this story one of the biggest challenges I faced was bringing something new to the mix instead of simply rehashing what Anne Bishop has already written. In early versions "His Mother's Son" I tried to do this by making the subtextual relationship between Kartane and Daemon more explicit. One of the earliest versions of the story was a Kartane/Daemon hurt/comfort but I wasn't entirely happy with that. Later I came up with the framing device of having Kartane encounter a young Janelle in Brairwood. Like Kartane, Janelle is a victim of sexual abuse but unlike him, she is able to break free from the cycle. Kartane's story is revealed to her as a form of cautionary tale.

"His Mother's Son" when through extensive re-writes, more than most of my stories. Part of this was due to the encouragements of the beta-reader and part of it was because I very much wanted to get Kartane's story right.

A somewhat chilling side note, I reread the story when I was preparing this commentary and realized that I'd taken Dorthea's trick of covering her infant sons mouth and nose to silence his crying directly from real life. My ex-boyfriend had once told me he used to do that to his children to keep them quiet during church. One of the reasons I eventually broke up with him was that I considered him a bad father.