First part of new jackalope book

Preview of the next book in the jackalope series:

It had to be repaired; there was no doubt about it. Broken things needed fixing. Nature did not fix things by itself; humans had to do it. That was the way of the world. And if nobody else saw the problem, then it was up to her to do it. All alone...but she had never been weak! She could fix this, she could repair everything. No problem was too big or small for her to solve! She just needed a bigger hammer; the one she was stuck with down here in the fuming darkness was not enough, not by a long shot...

"I accept this challenge, and will not turn back until I have finished my task! I swear it!!" she said to the nothingness all around her.

Something was moving in the shadows, something white and toothy. It thought that this newly arrived lady was very strange indeed.

It was the time of birth.

However, it was just the birth of a legend, not the true birth of things. The rabbit paradise that was Tymor heaved and panted, finally releasing The Silvercrowned One into the world. This being was the paradise of Tymor made manifest and set out to dig out the underworld with its claws and stomping feet. It had been a long time in the making, and a long time poking at cracks to succeed.


                      

---

Like so many other things it started with a party. Jane and Grey had been made guests of honor at one of The Silvercrowned One´s parties in the midst of the smiling moon. The both of them were trying to look at the audience while both trying to evaluate the number of medals their rivals had been given. Jane had more, although Grey´s were more valuable. The Silvercrowned one was standing near the greatest tree of the moon forest while giving a long speech to their bravery and compassion. It ended, quite surprisingly, with a promotion for the two of them.

And how to describe a party planned by The Silvercrowned One on the smiling moon? The casual drinks are had at Totte and Scriven´s palace at the very edge of the ravine that gives the moon its characteristic smiling shape. Then the guests are invited to jump down the swirling kaleidoscope to the depths of the magical moon. There is a great forest and mountains, and fresh air and burrows and everybody feasts and have a good time the whole night into the early hours of the morning. Some of the more hardy party-goers may then continue at the great tower of Centzon-Tototchin, backbone of The Silvercrowned One.

Adva and Alex had persuaded Jane to go and in hindsight it was obvious that they know about her promotion. John was there as well, awkwardly sitting beside The Silvercrowned One and Permeter who wanted to gossip about the other gods with somebody.

Some time after The Silvercrowned One looked proudly upon the canini standing beside as they both gulped down great breaths of air from the land of the living. It tasted a little more foul than The Silvercrowned One remembered it, but no matter. The Silvercrowned One fully admitted to being worried about the canini. He was growing older and ought to take up some kind of profession. However, all that little Barnum-Sees-Foolsgold wanted to do was keeping playing in the forests of the underworld. The Silvercrowned One loved a game just as the next deity, but not perpetual leisure!

Lady Permeter was currently above ground bringing spring to the planet so The Silvercrowned One had been obliged to have a little chat with young Barnum.

“Mother” the canini said.

“I told you my name is Barney!”

The Silvercrowned One sighed. Such youthful revolt, taking a human name.

Well!

The Silvercrowned One had after all been just the same as a young´un, running away while still being created.

“But this is what you want to do?” The Silvercrowned One asked eagerly.

“Yes, mother” Barney grinned eagerly.

While trying to have a chat about a job they had chanced upon a carnival. Barney had instantly forgotten all about it and whined to The Silvercrowned One about going. The Silvercrowned One had sighed heavily and agreed. After casting a spell to make them appear human they had entered the haunted house. It had been one of the most boring experiences in both of their lives.

After a couple of light curses Barney had swore to create a better horror theme park. And just like that, his career had been set. The Silvercrowned One had provided Barney with some money to start with and a aunt of his had given him a piece of forest in Spain. And thus the haunted exhibit of Heredia Forest of Andalusia was created, the great castle of Villa Tenebrosa its dark crown-jewel. The Silvercrowned One had left Barney to go visit Permeter and help her with her work. Both of them were in fact so delighted about their kid that they both felt they could stand to have a few more. They started to work on this project immediately and the happy whooping was heard all around the forest to the consternation of a group of commuters.

“And since my mother is the master of the underworld” Barney told a couple of his human investors.

“We can supply the park with REAL ghosts and hauntings. Just imagine the fierce edge we will have over the competition!”

The investors nodded eagerly. This guy was a little eccentric, sure, but he seemed to have some real neat and original ideas that would undoubtedly bring in the dosh. Twenty years later the biggest park in the world was opened to great success. The tourist industry of Spain boomed and many caninis came to live there to help out with the park (although many of them only came to live in the rivers and ponds and abduct young men and women to live with them forever in the forests of the underworld). The Silvercrowned One and Lady Permeter could not be more proud!

The king was absent-mindedly pulling at his whiskers while looking out at his city-state. It was full of decay and completely unregulated building and commerce, as it had for the last billion years. He sighed happily; at least he was safe. The Silvercrowned One was indeed great for making him eternal king and keeping him away from all danger forever, never to be dethroned.

Suddenly something made him jump. However, it was nothing more than a simple knock on the door. King Mortimer waved for his servants to open the door and letting the two visitors in. AHA!

Just another shade wanting King Mortimer to create a new dish/boat to tickle the whiskers and nose of The Silvercrowned One.

The shade undoubtedly wanted an offering to reach the paradise of Tymor! Personally, Mortimer could not understand sailing over the dangerous Dead Sea to reach paradise, capsizing meant eternally drowning down below! But as The Silvercrowned One demanded this of him in return for being the eternal king of the dead, he had no choice. Still, it would be nice if he did not have to do it anymore...

The other visitor was more intriguing. King Mortimer smiled at the proposal of the stranger. It all made sense to him. Unfortunately King Mortimer is a supremely selfish person (although he cooks very good food) so that sense may not apply to everybody...or indeed anybody else in the entire universe.

Rhosgobella waved at one of the little foxes still cheering over the cauldron. He was dressed in a little green dress made from leaves and branches. On his head he wore a little red hat. The dress covered his entire body except for his big feet and bushy tail. The face of the little fox was tiny, with a big nose and small beady eyes. The most extraordinary feature was his ears which were large and pointy even when compared to most of his kin. His eyes perked and his nose twitched as he heard Rhosgobella´s call for him.

“Hey Nils!” Rhosgobella called.

“Hi Hi Hi!” the little fox called back.

“Can I help you?”

“Indeed” Rhosgobella smiled.

“I have the latest report for you to give to Ray himself! Can you do it?”

“Gladly!” Nils cried back.

To help others AND to speak to Ray was his greatest delight. He grabbed the report and went into the walls of the pylon where the village of the smallfoxes were behind creaky walls and floorboards. Some of the houses were buried in ducts and vents nobody knew about except the gargoyles and Gullet, who were their leader. Some of the smallfoxes were up in the attic, some deep in the cellars. Smallfoxes can make themselves so small that they can pass between dimensions, and now Nils went (using the ancient secret words of Tjillevippen) into the kingdom of Ray.

It may now be prudent to explain a little more about the smallfoxes, their purpose and lifestyle. They were created by the fox-god Ray Firecrowned as a mirror-counterpart to his messengers. Ray´s messengers are divided in several tribes such as Wheels, Shields, Swords, Readers, Scribes, Watchers, Messengers and Chalices (although Ray could design a universe´s planets and celestial bodies to move in such a way as to create a note-sheet showing the celestial music of the soul which makes angels weep he was not very good with names).

They are powerful beings and listens to prayers of world peace and spiritual awakening. Smallpoxes on the other hand is for those small prayers when you just want to find your car-keys or something similar. They run around, tiny and unseen, until they find them and with great labor pushes them into your sight. That is why you always find them in an obvious spot after looking all over the house. Smallfoxes live in a family of siblings until they grow up.

When they are grown (which takes thousand of years) they grow into the size of normal souls and wander away to find a mate with someone from another tribe of smallfoxes. After giving birth to a new tribe they grow old and wise and become the tutor of the caninis, children of The Silvercrowned One and Permeter.

The kingdom of Ray, best friend of The Silvercrowned One, is quite vast and so Nils had to flew on a goose to make it from the Slough of Despond at the very border of the realm to the golden city of Ray. On the way he saw small ponds and markets, little temples and fields where the harvest was reap for picking. When he had arrived at at the crystal palace of Ray a messenger helped him ascend to the seventh heaven where Ray was.

“Lord, Lord!” Nils chirped happily.

“I have a report from the underworld, yes, the underworld, sir!”

“Nils” Ray said with the voice of the spring rain.

“Thank you, my dear friend”

Ray took the report and handed Nils a peach to eat. It was almost as big as Nils and he took out a peculiar tool (looking like a mix between a spade and a scythe) in order to carve out a piece to eat. While Nils feasted on the piece of peach he reflected on the fact that while Ray was one of the most benevolent and enlightened gods he did not look very pretty. He was short and covered in white cloth, almost like he was wrapped in a funeral shroud. His head was burnt with fire and his hands were bleeding from the time he had given his eyes to The Silvercrowned One.

His chest was wrapped open from being shot by evil hunters when he had gone into the world to lead mortals to the one true faith. But his tails...The tails of Ray were a million in numbers and radiated glory and power and warmth and love! Nils was being basked with it as he stood watching his god and creator read the report he had brought.

“You have all done very well” Ray finally said after reading the report.

Nils heart fluttered. Just a word from Ray was pure empowerment and joy. Hearing him saying that you did good was even more so. Ray had placed the best and most brave of his servants in the underworld to help those of Ray´s believers that were stuck there.

But in truth they helped everyone, for the followers of Ray (divided into Rayites, Firecrowners and Raywillers) were more often than not exactly the sort of people that would willingly help others and so make it out of the underworld together.

“Hmm” Ray pondered as he read the report.

Yinok, the scribe of Ray (and another member of Toth and Totte´s chessclub) sat at attention in case he had to write something down for his master. Yinok was an old man dressed in a toga and a long flowing beard. His hair was like molten wool circling his deep blue eyes. Ray was actually a bit jealous; Yinok looked a lot more “godly” than he did.

“Everything has been set right in the underworld after the barrier-crisis and all positions left has been filled up again...More and more people are joining the jackalope troops. Excellent!” Ray read slowly.

“;">Yet Tymor is still walking around, restless”

Often Ray would encounter a problem (political, scientific, religious or magical) that could not be solved by any means known to the gods. If these troubles coincided with one of The Silvercrowned One´s bout of restlessness they would go away together on long journeys into realms unknown to even the gods for a year or four and when they returned Ray would know the solution without fail and the restlessness of The Silvercrowned One would be lifted. During these times the kingdom of Ray was ruled by a stewardess called Denethune (who was a lady of the lake and a sister of Permeter) and the realm of The Silvercrowned One would be ruled by whoever The Silvercrowned One pulled out of a hat.

“It seems...” Ray mused.

“Yes, it seems that we shall go on another journey quite soon. I must admit I have missed it!”

Ray did his best to pretend to find this a little saddening, but in truth he immensely enjoyed these little excursions into the unknown. The last time this had happened was when they were both young. At that time they had visited Hy-Brazil, Hell, The chambers of 32 doors in the Dream Cave, the kingdom of Tomake, where dwelt the master storyteller and reader Dust and a strange country where people had abnormal customs and a language that had the sound of juggling something hot in your mouth (this country was Denmark).

Eight years later, The Silvercrowned One and Ray had not yet returned, but no one was worried. The underworld was safer than ever before.

Adva was taking a shower. It felt pretty weird to do so with the other, larger jackalopes considering that she was not yet actually transformed.

She began to ponder the latest mission. Planting some flowers and tending to a broken fence did not seem like too much work, especially after guiding lost souls near the edge of a exploding volcano and chopping off the hand of her mentor after it had been possessed by demons after they had wandered to close to one of the portals near Hell. Finished and dripping wet Adva dried herself with a shower and watched some of her new jackalope friends shower. Gallinega the lizard was standing completely still under the flowing water. She then stepped out and in one fluid motion shook so that all water ran off her like a goose. 

Danielle Danirsdotter the jotun, however, was just sticking her feet into a pool, keeping the rest of her body outside the pylon to enjoy a nearby waterfall. Nobody said anything, but they all noticed the sudden chill that had entered the room. They all knew what it meant and covered up. Into the showers walked the overseer of the eight pylon and Adva's head supervisor. The icen archer fastened the bow to the back of some robes hanging on the wall and smiled. Nobody knew if this blueskinned and indigo-haired person was an extremely feminine man or a somewhat butch-looking woman. It was rumored among the jackalopes that not even The Silvercrowned One knew. 

The icen archer had this large private bathroom and went into both the ladies and the men's room with impunity. The hand of the archer was in a cast, Adva was still a bit guilty about that. Still, he had suffered for her mistake in securing the are from demons and had had to exorcise no less than fourteen of the little buggers from her body over four gruelling days. And yet not all the shades of the dead had been saved from the attack...some were still lost somewhere in the underworld.

"I need not remind you that repairing the wall that separates the caninis, the children of The Silvercrowned One and Lady Permeter, is a very important task." The icen archer proclaimed sternly.

"They are children, but they are the children of two gods and very powerful. They could kill even a jackalope when playing soldiers!"

"Then why do they not help us here in the underworld!?" a jackalope protested loudly. Adva recognized her, she was a new recruit just like her.

"Because they are just as likely to trample shades and demon alike underfoot while playing race. They are children!" The icen archer said irritable.

"And when they grow up into proper gods their power will diminish in the underworld just as it is for The Silvercrowned One. Seriously, this was in the handbook, you guys!"

Adva shuddered at the thought of all of the hard and dull test one of her instructors, Mrs Wild, had forced her and the other new recruits to take. She put on her clothes and watched Gallinega tie up her loincloth. Danielle, far above them as she had now stretched up to her full lenght outside the pylon, put on a suit of red rusty armor that must have weighed at least several hundred tons. Between Adva taking the lead, Gallinega scouting out the area and Danielle carrying the lumber and tools, they were ready.

---

Any and all of the secretary´s accomplices had been uprooted and thrown into Hell to save the souls therein who was still willing to repent and walk the long road to paradise. Jane had become the mistress of the fourteenth pylon, beyond the wall between the valley of scissors and the safe path through the underworld. It was said that Jane´s words as she was seated into office was was:

“I have made my way through the dark, I know thee well, and I know thy name, and I know the name of her who will devour and hold thee within. Lady of might I am, who trampleth on the red demons with the Benandanti, who keepeth the festival of Tymor on the day of the hearing of faults!”

But in reality what she had said as Totte, still fierce from the stealing of his book of magic, had appointed her was leader was;

“I have lived in the paradise of Tymor for four thousand years now or something similar. I do not remember. I have done nothing except being the right woman at the right time! Whether it is destiny or whether it is free will I do not know either. I do not care about any of those things. I will take this job although I am sure others deserve it better.”

As for the commentary about the Benandanti, the hounds of God, they were werewolves employed by the god of humans Iiezo Thorncrowned. It was common knowledge (at the time) that they were stationed at the fourteenth pylon and Jane was now the leader of them.

Read the first book here:
https://www.wattpad.com/126934443-jackalopes-the-paradise-of-tymor

Old article about jackalopes

In all stories of the afterlife there are always some unfortunate souls that never find peace. They are stuck in the underworld, limbo, purgatory or what have you. In jackalopes all souls must travel though the underworld to find peace. Some souls, however give up and stays in the underworld forever. They build little cities and settlements, the largest being the city of the dead by the dead sea. We do not visit it in the first book, but it is mentioned and will be quite important. A settlement we do visit is the small village of Oaohnan, between the first and second pylon of the underworld.

Here is how it and its most immediate surroundings is described in the text:

It was a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, but Scrivens told Jane that small settlements like this arose naturally as souls stopped to help each other on their long journey through the underworld. However, some souls gave up and stayed in the village forever. Jane took a closer look.

The middle building was shaped like a K, there was no other way to describe it.

It was like a tall black tower with two supporting pillars made from white oak built haphazardly around it. The rest of the houses were made out of stone and much wider than they were tall. It seemed like everyone lied down when indoors. Redélf had not returned ye, but his scribe gave Scrivens, Jane and Marvin two rooms to spend the night in.

The wood was a collection of trees, growing from thin air near the horizon. Actually it seemed like there was originally only one tree, but it had been broken into several pieces and now floated as a collection of hollow puzzle-pieces. Beyond the forest and the swamps a shadow was moving, seemingly blending into the surrounding fog.

Together, Jane and Scrivens left the rocky surroundings of the first pylon and entered a new part of the underworld. The terrain changed from cold and dark stone to green rocks and red skies. The second pylon was the closest to hell and well protected. Many jackalope guards were stationed on the side of the road and in some places deep trenches and walls were erected.

"The only dangerous part we will actually pass is the crystal caves, due to the acidic pools within. They are a melted form of the metal the valley of scissors up ahead is made out of and they can destroy the soul itself!" Scrivens explained.

Jane shivered. Her most vivid memory when traveling through the underworld for the first time was from the valley of scissors. One of the shades in her group had started to go mad, accusing the others of keeping it down and even selling it out to the demons. The shade had eventually left, and the next day they had found it all cut into tiny wriggling bloody pieces by the giant scissors of the valley.

While helping the village Jane inspires a priest to continue his travels through the underworld. He re-appears near the end in a cameo. Actually the priest is a cameo of Billiam, a minor character from my second and third book (Super Power and The Mushroom-shaped Giga Ship and The Book of Digging Forth Today, respectively). Actually, a lot of my old characters like Billiam, Reynald, Fred, Hermeline, Timothy, James and Angie appear as unnamed cameos (so I guess they all died?). Vincent Wolf makes his contractual cameo as well! The name of the village, Oahnan, is taken from the very first man who according to the bible performed a Coitus interruptus (also known as the pull-out method)! The reason I chose that name is I wanted a ancient sounding name that nevertheless allowed me to do masturbation-jokes about it.

I am classy like that.

Jackalopes chapter 14:

http://www.tymorthetrickster.com/Jchapter14.html

Jackalopes chapter 13

Despite this being an epic tale of fighting for souls lost in the underworld I also want to capture the everyday life of being a jackalope. The scene in one of my old blogposts detailing Jane´s little look into the kitchen of a pylon has already been mentioned. In both Harry Potter and Lord of the Ring we get to see, in between adventuring, the everyday life (such as it is) of our heroes. In The Lord of the Rings it is mainly trudging through dreary landscapes and recite poetry and in Harry Potter it is mostly about surviving bullies, casual racism, really unsafe lodgings and teachers who do not have to show any credentials whatsoever.

In jackalopes everyday life is mainly taken up with studying guarding and getting rid of dangerous creatures. The studying is somewhat based on my own workplace experience. I have the kind of job that you never really fully learn, you always have to stay curious! It is also important to use “dull” moments to bring forth the characters personalities by showing their reactions to the monotony. After a dangerous mission Jane feels simple guard duty to be quite calming, but after a week or so she begins to find it boring and so wanders of and stumbles into some kind of forbidden secret or conversation and finds out new things, like heroes (and heroines) are wont to do.

I want the first jackalope book to be along string of scenes that shows us all aspects of “life” in the underworld while still giving an overarching story. As for cleaning, the underworld is infested with parasites, beside the demons that eat the soul of the dead. One of them are the cirripedias. In one of my favourite scenes Jane and her two mentors cleans the wall of a pylon from an infestation of these large barnacle-like creatures. Jane is thought how to remove them alive and store up their juices. These are later send to the weapon-developer of the underworld (she has a short but sweet scene so I won´t spoil more here). Jane later gets a weapon of her own. It is the fabled Glambling, the pimped out sword of the west!

Link chapter 13:

http://www.tymorthetrickster.com/Jchapter13.html

Tymor performs the Kazotsky Kick!

After enjoying that you can find further ejoyment with the eleventh chapter of jackalopes!
http://www.tymorthetrickster.com/Jchapter11.html

Jackalopes chapter nine, the aftermath of becoming a jackalope!

I tried to put off Jane´s actual transformation into a jackalope for as long as possible. The reason for this is that I wanted to show Jane´s as capable without any help and avoid implying that everything is magically solved as long as you get super-powers. As stated several times now (but I feel it cannot be emphasized enough) I want this book to apply to both spiritual matters and “daily life”. And in daily life, people very rarely develop powers even if they want to help others. They just have to make do with their own strength!

The book of jackalopes spans about 350 pages and is divided into four chapters, with a short introduction and an anppendix. On the website the book will be divided into 15 chapters and three appendixes but the book will streamline it a bit. The chapters of the book is named after the four words the ancient Greeks had for love. These four loves is the affection of family and familiarity. The second is brotherly love and kinship, followed with the bodily and sexual love. The last love is the unconditional love which is unbound by circumstances. Early Christians (and C.S Lewis) identified this love with the love God feels towards humanity.

In other news, I am working on a new series called Tymor ruins Half-Life. People following me from the beginning may remember that I had a series called Tymor ruins Team Fortress 2. Unfortunately my interest in TF2 has taken a backseat lately and thus my interest in continuing the series has weaned. Furthermore, the newer updates and maps are not compatible with Garry's Mod which is what I am using to create this series. However, I have recently played both Half-Life and Portal and I am going to continue the parody series from there. It is a good thing Valve games are so easy to mod and that I am currently learning the Hammer tool (which is Valve´s base map creation tool).

Chapter 9 of jackalopes:

http://www.wattpad.com/140237123-jackalopes-chapter-9 

Chapter 2 illustration of jackalopes

Denna bild visar hur Jane mäter Scrivens, som mer eller mindre är kaninernas frälsare utanför den första pelargången i underjorden. Det är ett möte av öde och vördnad, något som kommer att påverka Jane för alltid. Jag gillar hur tecknaren ordnat bakgrunden, precis som att hela världen plötsligt blivit extremt sjösjuk.

     

Det här, för att ta ett exempel, ser ju exceptionellt obehagligt ut.

Konst gjord av:

https://instagram.com/camishak.art/

Och nytt kapitel av jackalopes:

http://www.wattpad.com/138222865-jackalopes-chapter-8

The map of the underworld

By http://www.grimoeuvre.com/

This is the first part of the underworld, the place where the first jackalope.book takes place in. Dead souls appear in the valley of the shadow of death to the very south of the map and most follow the marked road through the pylons to the wall in the north-east part of the map. From there, they can contain into the city of the dead (not pictured). Furthermore, to the north-west are the mighty mountains that the gods used to mine for the minerals they used in their magic. Now, only the wight lady lives there, looking for the largest ruby in the world. Finally, to the south-west, lies the cursed tower, which even the jackalopes knows nothing about.

I really like how old and dirty the map looks! The safe road is in the middle of Hell (to the left) and the great forest (to the right) where a lot of terrifyng creatures live. Our story have now taken us to page 140 and the second pylon after a little detour to both the left (using "the eye") and right (to defeat a kitsune) of the map. In the following chapter, we will witness Jane´s long overdue transformation into a jackalope:  

http://www.wattpad.com/136057568-jackalopes-chapter-7

Jackalope chapter 3

http://camishakelley.deviantart.com/

Most of the action in jackalopes takes place in the underworld. The underworld of this story is a very dangerous place that all dead souls must pass on their way to paradise. In my design document I noted that the it should be based on equal measures of Mayan (the monsters and traps), Greek (general dreariness) and particularly Egyptian (the knowledge of protective spells and the one safe path) view of the afterlife. Egyptian mythology is very fascinating to me and the focus on knowing about the one true path is somewhat similar to the Christian view of Jesus as the one true path. As I wrote in the blog-post before this one, I want the main idea of the story (jackalopes leaving paradise to help dead souls to safety) to be relatable to all kind of people. Guarding the soul of the dead can be like being a security guard or police-officer, for example.

As I write in the last post Jackalopes is in essence, a story about giving up or temporarily leave a privileged position. I do not necessarily mean that in the religious sense, either. I also meant this story to be applicable to for example rescue-workers or similar. Even office workers fit into the story as Jane has to go through quite a lot of paperwork, induction and training before becoming a jackalope.

But what of the underworld itself? The first and foremost feeling I want to convey when designing the underworld is confusion. Not only for the shades being stuck in a strange and dangerous place with no hope of returning to life but also for the jackalopes sent to protect them. The main two ways I have used in my writing in order to make the underworld confusion is firstly to make the transition of time and space somewhat dreamlike. Characters and places can move around with no rhyme or reason. For example a character the main heroine met can be sent away on a faraway mission and then reappear quite suddenly from a nearby room without anyone noticing anything weird. Time is also vague, and it is always uncertain how fast the days go by since the underworld is always dark, and characters are always surprised when talking about what time it is.

The second way I have made the underworld confusing is by adding elements from different mythologies, myths and surreal things that simply do not make any sense (exactly what I mean by that you have to read the story to find out). I wanted to imply that people have built cities, towns and temple all over the underworld for times immemorial and as they left everything just crumbled or was reused by people coming after leaving a mix-maxed world of strange architecture and machines that a few, but not all shades know what they are for. The underworld itself has had many rulers leaving their mark on it, its borders changing constantly (the underworld has two neighbouring countries, so to speak, Hell and the borderworld of Xibalba).

Even for the jackalope lot of it is very mystical and weird. The only constant though the underworld is the safe path!

I do plan on making a series of jackalope books (although very slowly since I have several other ideas I wish to explore in-between books) and in this first one we explore just the first third of the underworld. We explore the outer darkness (a term lifted from the bible) the borderworld of Xibalba (lifted from Mayan mythology, Sami dream shamanism and er, Half-Life). Lastly, and most importantly, we explore thirteen of the twenty-three pylons and are dotted along the safe path through the underworld. These pylons are the main base of the jackalopes and there the heroine of the story, Jane, will meet several different friends, mentors and other denizens of the underworld. This story was very interesting to write because the main villain changed three times during me writing this. All three characters are still in the book.

Can YOU guess who were originally the main villain?

I guess I should provide a little of the text or otherwise provide a favourite scenario of mine. Since the whole book will be provided for free on my website I think I will just discuss some of my two favourite scenes. Actually, the two scenes are related. The first is Jane stumbling upon the kitchen of a pylon and conversing with one of the chefs. I wanted to show that work to save others is not all about heroics but also providing for them and feeding them. The hustle and bustle of the kitchen with people running to and fro and small imps pushing down ingredients into the cauldrons and pans below is quite vivid and a scene I am very happy with. The other one is Jane camping with a couple of other jackalopes and a emissary from the religion of Ray, the fox god. It is a nice little example of ecumenism and understanding between religions as Jane and the emissary compares notes between what their gods are like.

Chapter 3:
http://www.tymorthetrickster.com/Jchapter3.html

Excerpt from Jackalopes

The following passage from my story Jackalopes takes place after the heroine, Jane, has entered the city of memories in order to find out just how she died and got into the underworld...
It has not yet been edited. As such, there may be spelling/grammar and continuity mistakes. Enjoy!

Jane was taken back many years, thousands of years to moments just before her death. Her eyes closed just before seeing the scene, a park in a busy city. Behind her was some sort of elevated look-out platform, no stairs in sight. From the other side her manager came running, panicked as usual. This was her last living memory...

It took Jane a good while to realize that she was indeed sentient again. For a the last hour she had simply listened to the noise coming from above her, but now she realized that the noise was speech and that they were talking about her.

“And now, we open up the path to the underground road…” somebody said.

“May her path be easy and may it lead to Tymor!”

The next thing Jane realized was that she could not move. She was locked in the darkness and could not move a finger. She tried to scream for help, but the blackness engulfing her was pushing against every fiber of her body. Just as it felt like she was suffocating and drifting away into nothingness, Jane felt the ground rumble and give away. She was swirling down a vortex of rushing sounds, tossed like a ragdoll in the fierce wind. Suddenly, all was still and Jane found herself lying down on something soft and velvety.

Jane was sleeping in darkness for many years. The air around her was empty but cold and refreshing, and she did not have to think or feel about anything in particular. The only thing that bothered her was some sort of insistent buzzing that kept appearing more and more frequently. Finally Jane felt that she had to wake up and get rid of that stupid bug or whatever it was that kept bothering her.

Jane fumbled in the darkness and found a wooden door. Opening it Jane found herself standing in a long dark hallway which curved into a sidewalk at an impossible angle. The corridor was mostly empty, but Jane could not help noticing rusty beams and chains smeared with dried blood. These things were always located near some sort of window, but they were bolted down and impossible to open. How had Jane arrived at this strange place!? No matter how hard she thought about it, she could not remember anything except practicing for the high-jump contest and then walking in the nearby park…

“Hello, is there anybody there!?” she called out.

“I was wondering...if anybody...could, maybe”

Jane was not only becoming afraid, but also close to panicking. There was no natural explanation for her to be here or indeed, for the corridor to bend that way. Jane tried to go back to where she had come from, but the corridor ended with a brick wall. The wooden door she had previously simply lead into some kind of dark labyrinth with dark an terrifying shadows. They seemed to be moving and whatever was inside them was chanting ominously with a tiny oppressive voice.

On the wall was painted a giant mask an unnaturally wide grin, which Jane was afraid to get close to. When the mask began to chuckle, Jane turned and ran the other way. Near the corner where the corridor began to curve Jane saw several weird things.

This was her memories of being dead...

First and foremost, there was a crack in the ceiling, exposing the outside of the corridor. Jane tried to get a good look, but all she could she was a vast expense of white, which blinded her in the dark corridor in which she was trapped. There was also a mirror closed to the crack, but a red piece of cloth was obscuring Jane´s face. Just outside the crack was a great red eye, under which rested a single white tooth. Recoiling in fear when Jane realized what she saw, Jane took some time to understand what this being was telling her.

“Are you going to linger here forever?” it said to her.

The voice was harsh and shrieking, without pity or mercy. Jane trembled, her heart beating faster and faster and filling up to the brim with a great dread, but finally managed to ask where she was.

“This is nowhere, quite simply.” the being said.

“And I am no one, and nothing.”

“No one and nothing...” Jane repeated for lack of anything better to do.

“No one and nothing...”

Jane did not understand. However, the cloth fell of the mirror and Jane immediately saw why the corridor had appeared so crooked to her. Her neck was bent to the side, hanging limply of the side of her head.

This totally destroyed Jane, who broke down on the ground and began to cry fiercely.

All the while, the being on the other side of tried to gnaw through the crack with its single tooth. Jane got on her feet and ran as the wall crumbled and the corridor was filled with light. There were nowhere to run, and the tooth gnawed at her neck…

Jane awoke with a great pain in her neck. An old woman wearing a cloak was bent over her, cradling her head in her hands. Her head seemed to be on all right now, but it still hurt a lot.

“Stop turning your head; it needs time to heal!” the woman said sternly.

“Thank you” Jane said, relieved at seeing another living (?) person in this strange place.

“Where am I?”

“You are in the borderworld of Xibalba, between the world of the living and the dead. This is the dream cave, where all dreams are made. It is here that shamans and prophets journey to find out more about their deities and their realms...It is here they meet.”

“Does that mean there is a small chance of me becoming alive again?” Jane asked the crouched figure.

“None whatsoever.” the figure said simply.

“And the sooner you accept this, the easier it will be for you. You should not be here; most souls awake in the underworld and not the borderlands...No matter, these things happen and I will get you to your appointment with eternity in a moment...then you can begin your long walk...”

“Wait, you haven´t told me your name!” Jane said, scared of being left alone again.

“I am one of the two who are dreaming” the person who had healed her said.

“Now, let us go...”

The dream cave was full of pictures, some nice but most of them quite eerie. Short dark figures wearing cloaks scuttled in and out of the chambers thirty-two doors, and stairs where leading up and down to places unknown. Nobody reacted to Jane, and she was told to wait. They were carrying boxes and urns labeled with strange symbols. Desperately trying to keep her mind occupied, she looked at the etchings covering the walls, floors and ceilings. Jane particularly remembered a series of picture with a group of rabbits on a field crying, their face being stretched unnaturally by their sorrow. The second picture was destroyed, but the last picture showed the field again, empty. However, the grey picture had been painted with several streaks of blood.

Finally someone came for her. At first Jane thought it was the same woman who had tended to her neck, but this one looked a bit older.

“We will take you to the underworld now” the old woman simply said.

“The fastest road is through the canals of the dream snake, from where all resources needed to produce dreams are formed. Let us go now...”

The elders strongly urged her not to look out and continue on her way, but Jane´s curiosity was piqued. But one of the twin sisters took her to the top of the dream cave and bade her look out of the window, the only window to the outside world found in the cavern of dreams. First Jane thought that the window was simply dirty, but on closer inspection she found it to be images in a storm. They were tumbling and blowing around so hard that the dirty dead ground had several holes and even valleys dug up in it. In the middle of everything a great rainbow dug through the borderworld and the images of dreams. The rainbow had eyes, and a forked tongue...These images, which dreams were made of and perfected in the delirious fumes under the cave of dreams ranged from undermined rowboats to mincemeat nutrition, overkills, innovations, noontide and chemosynthesis. It continued showing all the things that this world and the imagination of humanity contains, such as reproduced benzene all the way expresso, transcendent cousins, synthesis shops, graters, Thor, submarine, scrawls, firehouses, pacifier, honeyed comeback, nightless contradictions, misfeasance expressively swaggering, buffalos and insufferable plasmodium (among other things).

Jane could see some of the elders collect things to make dreams out of, things such as compilations all the way to nonexistentialism, dog cocks, overlanders, nonsatiation, pylons, autonomic approved stockings, water dispensors, giant letters in the shape of the word yeah, ordained declared spectators, cinematographic flies and turgid robots. Somethings appeared from far away, things like excessive Fredericksburgs to frothy whippersnappersl liquids, palaeoclimatologist, reputations, overelegance dripping with bodily fluids and flamboyant dehydrogenated killing syringe scissor-boots.

Some things were disappearing from out of sight, things that were very strange indeed, things such as abnormal caninis made out of diarrhea. There were also things like angelic loincloths, muticous forgetfulness, chivalrously dancing dolls, foregone fire and all sorts of other things like that. Naming them all would be impossible and great waste of time, so let us stop for now and return to the important things Jane saw.

Jane was standing in front of a door that opened to a black void. About a kilometer down there was some sort of greenish-yellow energy field.

“Hit that and you will be in the underworld” one of the sisters said.

“Make sure you do not miss it, because if you do you will fall into the void forever!” the other warned.

“Geez, girls, you make it sound so easy...” Jane muttered, more to herself than anybody else.

“I really don´t have a choice though, have I?”

“No” the two sisters said in unison.

“Now jump!” the younger sister said, and that was that.

Before jumping into the outer darkness and proceeding to the first pylon of Tymor, Jane could not help but notice two other cave entrances going downwards. Asking where these two roads led, as she wanted to put off the jump as long as possible, she was told that they housed two great treasures.

“These two treasures, the shield and armlets are what allow us to shape dreams and protect us from the nightmares The Goon weaves.” the elder sister explained.

“It was made eons ago by a great blacksmith called Prometheus, a man of great foresight and mastery of the metals and the earth.”

Jane was once again very surprised. Her father had many times told her about The Goon, a sort of rabbit boogeyman that would eat naughty rabbit children if they did not behave. Of course, her father had never pretended that it was nothing but a story, but it appeared to be real, which sent shivers down her spine. And above it all Jane could just make out the warped form of the…thing that had chased her in the corridor of darkness just after her death. It was just floating all over the sky, from horizon to horizon.

The big difference was that this time it had its horrible black maw open, sucking the images into it (explaining why the dreams in one era is not the same as in other one). The mouth of the beast had rows and rows of teeth, each one set in a smaller and smaller circle in the mouth of the beast itself. Jane fell back and wished that she had not looked.

“What in the world IS that terrible creature!?” she asked the elder.

“That is Az, the one in-between planes of existences.” The elder responded.

“Only a few can see all of it without losing their minds, and it is a punishment more severe than Hell to be eaten by it. This punishment was forbidden by the gods as the laws were given in the beginning of time itself, as opening portals to it allowed a bit of its essence to slip through. Eventually it would eat everything...”

Jane recognized the word Az. It was an ancient rabbit word meaning void, but this true translation had difficulty conveying the fear and dread inherit in the word. Jane´s grandmother had told her that when the gods were born, space was full of noise and goodness, but now Az had been eating most of it before being sealed away between dimensions. Jane wondered if this was true…Realizing that it was now or never, Jane took a deep breathand jumped into the void. She screamed as loud as she could, but the whistling air drowned it out. The green took her mind and body for its own and she was dead, taken by the underworld... 

Read Jackalopes here:
https://www.wattpad.com/126934443-jackalopes-the-paradise-of-tymor
Read my main blog (including my other projects):
http://atspela.blogspot.com/

Jackalopes almost finished!

The first jackalope is almost finished! Well I say finished, but there are still quite a bit of artwork and editing to do, but the three hundred pages I am aiming for are more or less done. You may wonder how this is possible, with only five chapter on this webpage? Well, that is because I recently figured out a new plot-twist, vastly better than the one I originally had planned. This means that much of the old chapters have to be rewritten. But do not worry, for the entire thing will eventually be available free of charge on my website, just as promised.

After writing jackalopes for so long the word "pylon" has almost ceased to lose all meaning, so I thought it would be good for both you and me to relearn about the Egyptian mythology that inspired me to write this story. My initial aim was two-fold; to create a story with almost only female characters (or at least females in the majority) and to create an afterlife that was as depressing as possible. Not that the Egyptian afterlife is that depressing, but it DOES feature a walk among the untold dangers of chaos (and that is before you even get to the final judgment). If you had not memorized (or better yet, were buried with) the proper steps and spells to make it through the underworld you were pretty much fucked. The worst to an ancient Egyptian was the cessation of existence, even the bleak underworld or eternal torture were preferable to that. A central image were the pylons of the underworld which in my story are reimagined as safe havens for wayward souls.

An Egyptian pylon, with two main columns and a central entrance. Notice the road of pillars that precede it. 

A layout of an Egyptian tempel, the small collections of rooms in the upper part of the picture was said to house the god of the temple and was used for various rituals. The big room down below was like an antechamber of sorts, and the only part accessable to people that were not priests.

The inside of one of the inner temple rooms. What at first glance appears to a bench in the back of the room is actually used for some kind of offering.

 While writing this story I also wanted to insert some Christian elements. It is my intention that the jackalopes, souls that return to the underworld from heaven to help the shades reach paradise, is a symbol for those that are already saved and work diligently to preach the gospel! What then, does rabbits have to do with this. Why Jackalopes? Well actually, although not many people know it. Egyptians did have a desert hare goddess called Wenet, who was the goddess of the life-force and an assistant of Thoth, the god of writing. Rabbits, although in most medieval writings being portrayed as evil or cowardly has also been a symbol of the holy trinity!

One example is this symbol with three hares sharing Three ears, is found mainly in Southern Great Britain.

The symbol of rabbits as the small and helpless being a strong multitude is very alluring to me. And naturally, the idea of animal-people works quite well with Egyptian gods, and prevents the controversy the use of humans may cause.      

As for only trying to wrote female characters, I decided to do it because I am a social justice warrior, to create something original, so it is purely for "selfish reasons". It has gone better than I could ever anticipate, with only three out of about fifteen reoccurring characters being males. Main character Jane has grown from a somewhat bland viewpoint character to a person with her own set of skills and desires. As for other characters, at present Urminora and Jessica, along with Martha and Scrivens, seems to be the most popular. Least popular seems to be Gallinega and The Wright Lady.

Urminora I am very happy about, as she is my try at writing a stereotypical Russian characters in the same vein as Heavy Weapons Guy or Soda Popinski, only female. Jessica started out as a Captain America deconstruction, and an assistant to Urminora without that much to do. She, like Jane, has grown into her own character in a very dynamic way. She was the one that changed the most from my initial interpretation of the character. Martha and Scrivens are likewise characters close to my heart. Martha is actually recycled from an old comic-script of mine and Scrivens is from my last book, Digging Forth Today.

Finally, Gallinega and The Wright Lady were cool concepts, but did not see much use. Gallinega was my try at creating a mute character who fought with primitive weapons and were essentially a cavewoman. Perhaps I did not see much use for her in the story. Finally, The Wright Lady was sort of be a Moomin-style Hobgoblin (the rather hilariously bad translation for the character originally called Trollkarlen in Swedish) out of context character that pretty much clashes with everything else in the book. She was meant for a small role anyway, but as it is now she is nothing more than a cameo.

A rabbit (or more accurately, a desert hare) hieroglyph

The Ankh is another ancient Egyptian symbol that wanted to incorporate. In my story it is reinterpated (somewhat) as a set of keys which also ties into the Christian St Peter symbolism. Since the ankh symbol was somewhat preserved into the Coptic cross (although to my research this is somewhat debatle) it feels very appropriate.  The biggest change is a whole new chapter that takes place in the rabbit paradise of Tymor, before Jane becomes a jackalopes, in order to properly get a feel for what Jane is giving up for the sake of others and to make a parallel between the underworld and paradise. The paradise in jackalopes shouldn´t be mistaken for the Christian concept of heaven, being more like an earthly paradise mentioned in several religions.

                                       

A rabbit spirit in the underworld, holding scissors. Picture is from a funeral payrus