Timestage Embassy

Timestage: the discovery of a title

When strung together, the words “historical fantasy fiction” typically evoke a befuddled stare from whoever I’m talking to. They’ll imagine something like Robert E. Lee riding into battle on a fire-breathing Confederate unicorn while fragging Yanks with his patronus; then they’ll ask me what the hell I’m blathering about. And for good reason! Anyone who has read or watched a handful of fantasy books or movies will tell you that the genre is obscenely entrenched in the chivalric European medieval era. To inject fantasy elements into other locations along the range of history could be seen as heresy among the purists, larpers, and Tolkien-clones of mainline fantasy. What you’ll find in my novels is a little off the beaten track…

I have discovered an alternate Earth, the human history of which dates back approximately three thousand years before the present age. Several vital variations differentiate this planet from our own; these include continent positioning, racial distribution, cultural folklore, and some components of human biology. Preliminary investigations have revealed that near the beginning of recorded history, this planet sustains a semi-cataclysmic supernatural worldwide event; through my novels, I seek to accurately extrapolate the compounding effects of this event on multiple cultures and continents over the course of several millenia. Hence, historical fantasy fiction, chronicling the long-term history of a fantasy world.

My novels originate amidst cultures equivalent to the culture represented here. This stylish gentleman could be one of my first narrators. (photo credit: Emilio Morenatti, AP, National Geographic)

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