Suzy asked me to write about what inspired my urban fantasy series, Caulborn.
A big piece of the Caulborns’ world is drawn from New England folklore. I’ve lived my whole life here, and there are a ton of urban legends and myths that many people have never heard of. Did you know that Massachusetts has sea serpents? Or that Rhode Island has some of the earliest evidence of actual vampire hunters? Connecticut has some hair-raising stories about the devil, and if you head up to Maine you’ll find ghost stories galore. Vermont has a reclusive pig-man, and New Hampshire claims one of the most famous alien abduction stories.
I got hooked on monster stories like these when I was a kid, but back then I only knew about the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, and Bigfoot’s snow loving cousin the Yeti. That’s probably for the best; given my overactive imagination, I’d probably have seen chupacabras around every corner. I wanted to build stories off of these legends. I figured there had to be some sort of secret agency that would either cover up or protect these creatures’ existence, and smooth things over with the normal population when they crossed paths with the paranormal. Thus the Caulborn were created.
Cauls are another thing I’ve always been interested in. It’s believed that children born with cauls will be lucky, beautiful, successful or psychic, depending on what culture you listen to. Some say that a person born with a caul can’t drown or is protected from the evil eye. Others see the caul as a curse, and that anyone born with a caul will rise as a type of vampire after they die. I decided to weave many of these traits into my world. In my series, cauls prevent people from being mentally dominated, compelled or hypnotized, which is a wonderful boon when dealing with malicious paranormals who can compel mortals.
The final piece of inspiration comes from Greek and Roman mythology. I loved reading myths when I was a kid, from the labors of Hercules to the story of the Golden Fleece. I thought I knew all the major gods until I got to college and took a mythology course, whereupon I learned there were approximately twelve billion different gods and goddesses in the Greek and Roman pantheons. What really struck me was that not all the Greek gods had Roman counterparts. Janus is the one who always stood out for me. He’s a god of doors who can see infinitely into the future and the past. I had to do something with him.
I wove those things together and IMPERIUM was the end result. It’s the first of the Caulborn books and focuses on Vincent Corinthos, son of Janus. Vincent’s a half-god and a Caulborn agent. The Dover Demon, another urban legend from Massachusetts, plays a significant part in his backstory. If you’d like to learn more about the Caulborn, swing by my site - www.nicholasolivo.com
Thanks for having me, Suzy!
A pleasure, Nicholas. I've always wanted to visit New England! I'm even more intrigued now...I've also got Imperium on my Kindle and I shall look forward to reading it!
Contact Nicholas at:
My website - www.nicholasolivo.com
My twitter - @NicholasOlivo
IMPERIUM can be bought from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Imperium-Caulborn-ebook/dp/B0058TTC0M
and also from smashwords - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/70480
I got hooked on monster stories like these when I was a kid, but back then I only knew about the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, and Bigfoot’s snow loving cousin the Yeti. That’s probably for the best; given my overactive imagination, I’d probably have seen chupacabras around every corner. I wanted to build stories off of these legends. I figured there had to be some sort of secret agency that would either cover up or protect these creatures’ existence, and smooth things over with the normal population when they crossed paths with the paranormal. Thus the Caulborn were created.
Cauls are another thing I’ve always been interested in. It’s believed that children born with cauls will be lucky, beautiful, successful or psychic, depending on what culture you listen to. Some say that a person born with a caul can’t drown or is protected from the evil eye. Others see the caul as a curse, and that anyone born with a caul will rise as a type of vampire after they die. I decided to weave many of these traits into my world. In my series, cauls prevent people from being mentally dominated, compelled or hypnotized, which is a wonderful boon when dealing with malicious paranormals who can compel mortals.
The final piece of inspiration comes from Greek and Roman mythology. I loved reading myths when I was a kid, from the labors of Hercules to the story of the Golden Fleece. I thought I knew all the major gods until I got to college and took a mythology course, whereupon I learned there were approximately twelve billion different gods and goddesses in the Greek and Roman pantheons. What really struck me was that not all the Greek gods had Roman counterparts. Janus is the one who always stood out for me. He’s a god of doors who can see infinitely into the future and the past. I had to do something with him.
I wove those things together and IMPERIUM was the end result. It’s the first of the Caulborn books and focuses on Vincent Corinthos, son of Janus. Vincent’s a half-god and a Caulborn agent. The Dover Demon, another urban legend from Massachusetts, plays a significant part in his backstory. If you’d like to learn more about the Caulborn, swing by my site - www.nicholasolivo.com
Thanks for having me, Suzy!
A pleasure, Nicholas. I've always wanted to visit New England! I'm even more intrigued now...I've also got Imperium on my Kindle and I shall look forward to reading it!
Contact Nicholas at:
My website - www.nicholasolivo.com
My twitter - @NicholasOlivo
IMPERIUM can be bought from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Imperium-Caulborn-ebook/dp/B0058TTC0M
and also from smashwords - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/70480
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