Reading Away Life: What Inspired Me to Write My Book by T.G. Ayer

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

What Inspired Me to Write My Book by T.G. Ayer

FIRE is a Young Adult novel steeped in a mythology that is arguably a living system of belief. Unlike Greek, Roman, Egyptian and even Norse mythology, the Hindu mythology is alive and well in all parts of the world. Today much of Hindu belief still holds true to its pantheon of gods and goddesses.

I wrote about Maya as a character because she was so certain she knew exactly what she believed. How often have we approached an idea of a philophy already one hundred percent sure we knew how it worked or what it was about. Maya knew the gods weren’t real, she knew it was all just mythology, just a way to makes sense of a religion that she believed not longer matters. Not to her at any rate.

But what if everything you ever believed was mere folklore suddenly turned out to be real? How do you handle everything turning upside down in your world? How do you go from total non-believer, or a skeptic, to a believer. That’s what happens to Maya – she not only has to accept the reality of something she always though was a fantasy but she becomes a key figure within a mythology she never ever believed was real.

How does that challenge a person? How do you accept such a turn of events? When you’re so sure it’s all a lie, what happens when you are suddenly staring truth in the face? How do you accept and deal with change.

Here I hope the reader recognises that change is not necessarily a bad thing, and neither is it a nad thing to have ones preconceived notions challenged.

The other facet of the story that drove its writing was prejudice. I’ve always believed that prejudice is a human function it is part of our nature, and is a protective measure – us against what we do not know or what we do not understand. Maya came to her own conclusions about the Kali believers. He didn’t take the opportinuty to learn about it and understand it. She just took what she’d heard and read and held herself away from belief in the goddess because of her negative preconceptions.

This prejudice can be applied to many walks of life from looks, to race, to gender, to economic differences. With this book I was hoping that readers would stop and think about whether they themselves are doing the very same thing Maya does, in whatever context that is applicable to their own lives.

If you do get the opportunity to read FIRE and wish to discuss any aspect of the novel please feel free to email me at tgayer@xtra.co.nz