Voodoo

So if you've read Between Death and Heaven, or The Swamp is Full of Mystery or Child of Destiny or even Requiscant in Pace then you know that I weave a bit of voodoo in there. If you haven't well you can just cop TSIFOM right here on the site for free and get a taste. Now you might not know too much about the loa or Papa Legba and you might wonder if maybe I'm some godless pagan who believes in evil spirits.

I wouldn't call that an accurate description of me but I do firmly believe there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy people. The world is huge and so much exists; there is so much to learn and I like to learn it ALL! 

As with many of my favourite things, I first came across voodoo when I was young and impressionable, watching movies about slaves, and horror movies about people using voodoo dolls that I was probably too young to watch. Thankfully Parental Advisory wasn't such a thing then.

So my first brush with voodoo was a scary ass looking witch using a voodoo doll to kill some guy because he did...something to her. Can't remember what. I do remember that the concept of voodoo dolls being used to kill people kept me up at night. Why anyone could just, like, make a voodoo doll of me and kill me, dead!

Then of course there was +Anne Rice with her fixation on New Orleans which she infected me with. When I read Merrick and she introduced me to Papa Legba I had to go out and learn anything and everything I could about him. Turns out he's quite the character; the gatekeeper of the afterlife; some people equate him to St. Peter which was just fascinating to me. The way people intermingle religions. The belief originated in West Africa and I guess when the missionaries came, the practitioners just integrated this new knowledge into their own original beliefs.
So exciting.
My interest was exacerbated when the loa appeared in the most unexpected place; #SpoilerAlert Diana Gabaldon's Voyager which is like book three in the Outlander Series.And the loa enabled Claire and Jamie to communicate with their daughter Brianna who was in another time. It fascinated me because did it mean the loa not only communicate with the dead; but also with the not yet born?
So fun.
Yeah you caught me; I'm a geek.

Of course Papa Legba isn't the only loa out there. I just read a fan fiction where +Jared Padalecki was a voodoo priest and it introduced me to some new ones; Chango, Ezili as well as others I've encountered before; Ghede and Ogun both featured in Voyager I think.
I don't still really know what loas really are. Are they evil spirits or even spirits at all? The Ancestors, the Saints? It's on that long list I have of 'things to learn more about'.
When the concept of Mya came to me, she already came full with a voodoo history. I wonder sometimes which came first, was this character already fully fledged, waiting to be born? Or was there a girl in a small town who I dressed up as a voodoo priestess/witch because of my fascination with the subject? Will I even really ever know?

Mya

I know that putting the setting in the early nineties was a product of my nostalgia. Why is it that the nineties seem like this idyllic time? I don't really know.

However I've been thinking about doing more outtakes; backstories of random characters in the stories. Expanding the character while flexing my writing muscle before I go back full time to finishing Marcus Devereux. Hey if you have any requests feel free to contact me however is convenient for you and let me know.