Incorporating Themes

Usually, I’d say I’m not someone who works off themes when she’s writing. I consider my stories to be good adventure yarn, not something with too much depth. But sometimes, themes happen. For me, two happened with the latest book I finished - “Alex Dorsey” (out February 2020). The two underlying themes in the story are loss and duty.

It is, perhaps, not strange that these themes emerged in the wake of the changes to my real life since October 2017. Within seven months of each other, my best friend and soul-mate (in a non-erotic way) and my mother died. My father moved home and so did I. I became my father’s only immediate family nearby, taking the brunt of caring for him. He’s still quite fit, so it’s not a 24/7 job, but it did change my day severely.

The theme of loss which is in the novel (the first one I wrote knowing it wouldn’t be part of a series, it’s a standalone story) clearly came from the first two severe losses in my life I can remember (when my grandmother died, I was still too young to really understand what ‘dying’ meant). However, the losses in the novel are more severe and Alex has more active agency in them. Yet, they all strike close to home (without any spoilers) and Alex feels them very acutely.

The theme of duty is entwined with the theme of loss when it comes to Alex - with the loss of several family members, a duty she was never supposed to bear becomes hers. But there’s another level to it. Alex takes on the duties very much the way I did when it happened to me - taking them far more to heart than anybody else expected. Underestimating what I was really doing, how much I was really carrying, because it was just ‘what needed to be done.’

I doubt I could have written the novel at any other time - only within the year after my mother died and my world shifted, I was so acutely aware of those shifts that I could put them into writing. I’m proud of the novel, but I’m also sure that such strong themes will not come back to me in a hurry.

Another story which has a strong topic, if not theme, is “Heart of Ice,” the first story of “The Loki Files” (available in volume 1). I only realized after writing it that I had put down a severe case of depression in this one (which is why this story is the only darker one in the whole package - all other are more adventure yarn than anything else). I once suffered from the beginnings of a depression - something which is often called a ‘burn-out.’ It only came to me afterwards, about a year or so later, that the way I had described the changes in Loki after the supposed death of the love of his life that he’d slipped into a slightly magically-enhanced depression. Depression isn’t about being sad all the time. When you’re sad, you’re feeling something. Depression means that at some point you’re unable to feel anything. Your heart goes cold, your feelings die, you forget that there are ways you could feel about what happens around you. That is how Loki turns out after Sarah is supposedly killed and he is unable to save her. In his case, though, because he’s not a human, but a Jotun living in Asgard, there’s also a physical component and his heart is really wrapped in ice - hence the title.

One underlying theme in “Criminal Ventures” could be parenthood or family, if you want to keep it a little more open. It starts off, after all, with Jane in yet another abusive foster home and spends half the story with Jane growing up with an unusual, but caring parent. Jane and Steven need a while to realize they’re family, but it only makes them more dangerous for their enemies in the end.

Apart from that, I don’t think I’ve really written stories with themes. There might be underlying tendencies in some stories - “One for Sorrow” also has a bit of a family theme, but it’s a revenge story overall. “Secret Keepers” could be read as a clash of different ideas of feminism, Jane representing one type and the Morrigan the other, but I wasn’t thinking along those lines.

When I wrote “Alex Dorsey,” I was thinking about loss and duty and it influenced my writing. Currently, I’m continuing my work on “Grey Eminence” (which will, most likely, not keep this title), but can’t see a topic there. Jane will dip more into the underworld again, but that was already suggested in “Going Legal.” It’s just a logical development of her character - she simply isn’t made to stay completely on the legal side (and neither is Steven, truth be told). Sometimes, themes happen, as when I decided that “Criminal Ventures” should start with Jane and Steven meeting when Jane was ten (it’s all based off a remark of their personas as mastermind and right hand in “Crime Pays Sometimes”). With Jane being a kid then, there would be some kind of parenthood and family themes in there.

On the whole, I do not look for themes to incorporate in my writing. I take them when they happen, but I don’t go out of my way to find them. With “Alex Dorsey,” it happened. With many other stories, it did not.

I write to entertain, not to discuss the big questions of mankind. Don’t get me wrong - if you want to do that, go ahead. It’s just not what I write. I write adventure yarn, pulp stories. I write just so others can have a few hours of fun with my writing.

If you want to have themes in your stories, you should be careful not to pick too many at once. I’ve seen that with stories I’ve read which were overburdened with themes. Duty and loss fit together well for me and they entwined - the loss of her brothers and uncle shoving duties Alex’s way. If in doubt, though, I’d rather drop a theme than try to incorporate it with others it doesn’t work well with.