Denizens of Distant Realms: Stormbringer
cjohnson7 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnson7/1460568819/) CC-by-2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
My short story, “Stormbringer,” which is available in Denizens of Distant Realms, started out with several very strong visuals. I pictured an orchard at harvest time, a dark-haired man in a white suit, and a rainy night on a farmhouse porch. I pieced those together with a bit of created mythology I wanted to play with–the idea that a person would be known as the Stormbringer because of some action they had taken (the name Stormbringer came from a character I play in an MMORPG). In the end, the Stormbringers became a matrilineal title for women who had a deal that was renewed by each generation with someone who styled himself as a demon and had some control over the weather.
I knew from the beginning that this story and “Catch” were set in the same world, though “Stormbringer” took place many generations before “Catch” and in a different region. I wrote “Catch” first, almost three years before I finished “Stormbringer,” but I had the link in mind the whole time. I haven’t really fleshed out their connection in other stories, but I included them both in Denizens of Distant Realms because of that link. Perhaps someday I’ll flesh out the in-between parts (or even earlier history than “Stormbringer”) with another story or two!
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