elise_rasha | Throwback Thursday - Homelessness and The Sons of Thor

Really, I have nothing for the throwback Thursday portions, and real life has been somewhat hectic and . . . crushing since last week.

So, to flash back . . .

One year ago today, I had finally achieved a dream I'd had since October 2002: moving to Philadelphia. I arrived in the city around this time by plane. It was my first flight ever . . . and my first time truly discovering what it was like to be on the streets amongst the down and out. I didn't sleep in cardboard boxes. The Outreach people tended to round up those sleeping in alleys and on park benches to take to emergency shelters, but it was my first time dealing with the actual discrimination of society as a whole against those who were down and out on their luck.

I don't regret moving to Philadelphia. A part of me will always walk the streets, wander in Love Park and hang out on the Ben Franklin Parkway. A part of me will always live on there and will never forget the kindness I found amongst many of the people there. I won't forget the greed and negativity I saw there, either, nor the foolishness of others, but I was there. I lived, I enjoyed, and I survived.

While living in Philadelphia (seeking work and a place to live), I worked as much as I could on The Sons of Thor. Not always an easy task - emergency shelters are not designed for the mental and physical well-being of those staying within their walls - but I certainly tried. I managed to get a bit of it done and more so when I returned to Michigan and got a job at Burger King.

In truth, Arc of Fantasy wasn't even going to be Arc of Fantasy but a slightly disconnected series originally consisting of the novella of Portal to Gaming, a couple of short stories featuring the twins thriving in their new surroundings while Fen languished and a novel to round out the whole tale. I never intended for certain Nordic and Greek influences to take over and completely change the dynamic. I hadn't even intended to write Ravensrealm with Alethea Light and her best friend, Jordan Taylor. Daniel and Wolfgang certainly didn’t care about Fen as much as they did before the Nordic and Greek influences took over. Portal to Gaming also was originally slated to be an open-ended short story for the Writers of the Future contest. The changes that came, well, obviously took the story into a different direction and created the Arc of Fantasy series. If not for the Greek and Nordic influences, I’d still be struggling with a completely different series.