I know Terri Bruce as a fellow member of Broad Universe, a society that supports women authors of speculative fiction. As a comrade in literary arms, I was delighted to host Terri's blog tour for her new novel, Whereafter.
And be sure to scroll down to the giveaway!
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Making Believable Ghosts
by Terri Bruce
I’m so thrilled to be here today, celebrating the release of
my third novel, Whereafter (Afterlife #3). This is the third book in my
Afterlife series, which tells the story of a woman named Irene Dunphy who dies
and must learn to navigate the afterlife as a ghost.
I love mythology and the origins of myths, and one day while
driving to work, I started thinking about afterlife mythology. I wondered why
there were so many different and disparate descriptions of the afterlife if
they were all describing the same thing. I mean, realistically, if there is an
afterlife, we’re probably all going to the same place. So why is it described
so differently by different cultures? I started thinking maybe it was like “The
Blind Men and the Elephant”—that is, that all the stories were only describing
a part of it. So I tried to imagine what the afterlife would like if all the
afterlife stories were true. How would all these very different and sometimes
competing places exist together? When I read one myth that said the dead travel
to the afterlife via a tunnel of light but another that said it was via a
bridge, I tried to imagine a way in which that was possible. Well… maybe
different people saw different things—maybe it’s all based on perception. Maybe
they weren’t all crossing at the same place. After all, having lived on the
North Shore of Massachusetts for many years, I can tell you that sometimes I
traveled to work in Boston via a bridge (the Tobin Bridge) and sometimes by
tunnel (the Sumner and Callahan Tunnels). It depended on which road/route I was
traveling. It was also dependent on my mode of transportation—when I drove, I
took the bridge and when I took the bus/public transportation, we went through
the tunnel. So maybe that’s how it is for the dead.
When it came to reconciling the many different descriptions
of the physical landscape—especially the more strange/outlandish elements—I
realized that this could be explained as being different places within the same
world and also through the idea of higher planes of consciousness. This is
where I borrowed heavily from the Buddhist state of Bardo—an intermediate stage
between the physical realm and enlightenment where the person wrestles with
demons and visions that are a manifestation of the person’s subconscious. As
the person learns and becomes wiser/more enlightened, he/she is able to see
through the outward appearance of the demons to their true meaning. If we
thought of the afterlife as a place where people gain enlightenment, then
things might appear confusing or unexplainable at first. But as the person
gains more knowledge and insight—and ascends to a higher and higher planes of
being—then they can see more clearly. So, for instance, in the second book of
the series, Irene meets a cat that seems to be leading her through the
afterlife. To her, it looks like a cat, even though she’s pretty sure it’s not
an ordinary cat. Because she isn’t enlightened enough/ascended to a high enough
level, she can’t see its true form.
While I was trying to find a way to make all of the various
descriptions of the physical landscape work together, I also wanted to write a
world that was believable. I didn’t want it to be fantastical fantasy; I wanted
the mechanics—the physical rules of it—to be realistic, or, at least,
plausible. So I set out to also create realistic explanations for various
beliefs and folklore elements. If there really is an afterlife, why do people
travel to it through a tunnel of light? Why is it far away and not right here?
And why a tunnel of light? What is the function of the light in helping move
spirits from the physical realm to the afterlife? Or how about, why do some
ghosts see a tunnel, some seem to instantly be transported to the other side,
and some get stuck here and can’t cross over? What is the mechanics of that and
why it happens?
Another example: how is it that ghosts can walk through
walls and yet also move objects? To walk through walls they’d have to have no
mass and/or be pure energy. But if they move objects, they have to have mass,
right? So how can they both? At times, I began to feel like a physicist trying
to describe quantum mechanics (and honestly, after reading all the various
mythology, I’m starting to think it could all be plausible at a quantum
level!).
I’ve tried very hard to make sure that my world building is
realistic and consistent—this has often led to problems that were hard to
solve. If ghosts have mass (because they can move things) then how come we
can’t see them? But how come we can see them sometimes and other times they are
invisible? It’s been really difficult at times being consistent in the world
building when the stories are so inconsistent! But once I started thinking of
the afterlife as different planes/levels all stacked together and started
thinking in terms of different scales – the way that sub-atomic particles and
planets exist in the same space—then things began to make more sense… or, at
least, be more easily explained
Part of why I’ve loved writing this series is the
world-building challenge. Because I created these self-imposed rules (use ALL
of the stories and myths and make it all plausible) that I had to adhere to, it
really forced me to stretch and grow as a writer. It turns out, coming up with
realistic explanations for fantastical things requires MORE creativity than
just coming up with the fantastical things themselves. I always thought all of
the imagination and fun was in imagining new things, but then getting those
things to adhere to a set of rules requires a lot of ingenuity as well. And
it’s helped me to develop discipline as well. I could have given up on making
the world-building adhere to a strict set of rules (it certainly would have
been easier) but I don’t think the books would have been as good. Many readers
of the series like how the books feel like they could be real/how the
world-building is believable. So, developing that discipline has been a good
thing for both me and my readers.
For anyone that loves afterlife mythology or wants to learn
more about the Afterlife series, during the month of April I will be
participating in the “A to Z Blogging Challenge,” and every day, I will be
posting a video blog (at http://www.terribruce.net) in which I reveal all of
the hidden references to afterlife mythology and “Easter Eggs” in the series. I
encourage everyone to stop by each day and check out the videos! You can also
sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date with all my latest news. In
addition, I love interacting with readers, so please feel free to email me or
connect with me on Twitter!
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Excerpt from Whereafter:
Andras grunted,
the sound filled with suspicion. Irene bent down to tie her shoelace, as much
to avoid eye contact as anything. When she straightened up, something in the
distance caught her eye, shimmering like a mirage. She squinted, not sure she
was really seeing what she thought she saw.
“You know, now
might be a good time for you to tell me what it was like to live in a castle,”
she said.
Andras shook his
head, sadly, as if Irene had disappointed him. “You cling too much to the past.
Forget the trappings of life. Free your mind from these longings, and so, free
your soul. Only then will we be able to escape these shackles and enter Heaven
to rest at the side of God.”
Why did he always
have to argue about everything? “For God’s sake,” she said, exasperated, “just
answer the question!”
“Wherefore?”
Irene pointed to
the hulking structure in the distance. “Because,” she said as Andras whirled
around to see what she was pointing at, “correct me if I’m wrong, but that
looks like a castle.”
“Wow!” Irene said,
her eyes roving over the dark, crenellated structure hulking in the far
distance. It gleamed dully, the color of burnt blood in a fading afternoon sun.
“What the hell do you think that is?”
Andras grunted.
“As you said—Hell.”
Irene frowned at
him, but her lips quirked in amusement. “Why do you have to be so negative? It
could just as easily be Heaven. God is supposed to live in a palace, right—the
whole ‘my father’s house has many rooms’ thing? A castle is just a type of
palace.”
Andras gave her a
dry look. “Does that look like Heaven?”
Irene was on the
verge of agreeing that the castle did not in any way look how she imagined
Heaven when it shimmered, as if the fading sunlight had been redirected by
mirrors. Light rippled across the castle’s surface and the dull, dark,
burnt-blood color transformed into gleaming, bright, silver-white. Crisp white
pennants flapped from the corners as if whipped by wind. Irene thought she
could hear them snapping crisply.
Irene looked at
Andras, and he looked at her. His expression made it clear that he had seen the
same transformation she had. It was as if the building was trying to trick them
into coming closer.
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To escape, you'll need the
