The Great Sea - What is It

My concept of The Great Sea changed. Originally, it was a sheet of water hanging in space (the world really was flat). The worlds existed in "gravity wells", and each turned on an axis. It was kind of like a game a cousin of mine had called Bas-Ket. It was a table game in which the ball would roll around the board until it fell into an indentation. Levers on the side would be used to "shoot" the ball at the basket. I don't know if the game gave me the idea or not.

The concept changed when I was given a Christmas present back in '82 or '83. Spouse's brother and his wife, who were my Readers at the time, purchased a star from the International Star Registry (ISR). Before I opened it, they said everyone should have one.

Now what the ISR does is charge a fee for naming a star. (Back in '83 the price was $25. I think it's around $50 now.) Now this star naming was far from official. No scientist, astronomer or whoever would ever know about it. In fact, no one on the planet would know - unless I told them. It wasn't about being official. It was just kind of a cool idea. I know some people are quite upset about it (scientists, astronomers and people who think wasting money is one of the seven deadly sins), but I don't see any problem. People pay money to go swimming. There are two nice parks near here. They charge admission. My point is, we waste our money all the time. If you are happy with what you got, then the money was well spent. (And since I didn't spend the money, I'm happy. grin)

Anyway, I opened the gift and found a star in the constellation Perseus (right off the bow arm's elbow) had been named Madatar. Cool. I knew it wasn't really named Madatar, but that wasn't the point. It ignited creative thought. I did some investigation to find out how many light years away this star was from Earth. I think it was 54-million/billion, or something like that. I wrote a prologue, long ago abandoned, which went something like this (I'm not going to search the archives for the exact text): In the blackness of space a light shown forth. It crossed the silent void, passing other light with other history, until it fell upon a planet orbiting a yellow sun. And before the first human looked up to see the light and understand it, all of this happened.

Cool? Oh. Well, give me a break. It was almost thirty years ago. And it's not part of the book anymore. Heck, I've even forgotten where I put the star map and the certificate. I put it someplace where it would be protected (not the archives).

Anyway, the idea of The Great Sea being an actual place in space was a cool thought - to me. I changed it from a flat ocean to a donut ring. I know. A donut ring in space as as impossible as a flat piece of water. But that's in our space. Our reality. What about other dimensions? Huh? What about that, Mr. and Ms. Astronomer? You can't say, because you've never been there. You say I haven't either? You're sure about that, are you? I wouldn't place any money bets on that if I were you. I believe imagination is another dimension of reality.If so, I've been in lots of 'em. (After all, we're God's imagination.)

I drew a funky map using Microsoft Paint. (It's the only computer drawing tool I have.) Most of the names have remained in tact. Some have been changed - most notably Kensington's Pillars and the months of the year. Kensington's Pillars became part of the so-called High Festivals. All of the month names were changed. The Lords of the Sea references are to the Eternity Isles, which are not referenced in Book I at all, but become very important in Book III.

Now all the worlds orbited a sun (the Fire), wrapping around the donut ring as they moved, creating night and day. Currents, land mass and proximity to other worlds dictated each world's path. Some darted around the ring like super fast jet skis. Others lumbered along.

So that's The Great Sea. It continues to evolve. Every time I write something new I learn more. Probably my biggest jump in knowledge came through writing Tavaar's backstory. It's 500,000 words, and it taught me more about The Great Sea than anything else I've written. I would love to tell that story to the world, but 500,000 words? To reduce it to something publishable I would have to cut 80% away. Not only that, but her story won't end until Book VI or VIII or something. I could easily write a million words about Tavaar. (But then, with my wordiness, I can easily write a million words about anything on The Great Sea.)

So there you go. I hope this answered some questions.