“Knock Three Times” in Chimerical Remembrance
“Knock Three Times” is one of the longer stories in my Chimerical Remembrance collection. It was inspired by a YouTube video about weird history, some interesting images, and a song I love.
The YouTube video was about the history of Pheasant Island, which is an uninhabited island in the Bidasoa River between France and Spain that changes administration every six months, thanks to a treaty signed at the end of the Thirty Years War. This immediately reminded me of some legends of the fae that involve rulership switching between two courts, the Seelie and Unseelie, every six months. The interesting images made their way into the story in the form of “furniture” and a door that looked like they could have been carved out of trees using normal tools in addition to fire or lightning. And the song title became the title of the story.
After I had these elements, I did a little research into Basque mythology and came across the Basajaun/basandre, which is known for protecting livestock, agriculture, and ironworking. That made this creature a perfect antagonist to the fae. And as the fae were the antagonists in my story, the basandre thus became an ally to my human characters. I also wound up going down a rabbit hole as I tried to figure out what my human characters might have on them that contained iron, which was a lot of fun.
“Knock Three Times” is (currently) only available in Chimerical Remembrance, which is in ebook format and contains other contemporary fantasy stories like it!
Comments