As of this blog going live, I have two short stories and a novella published in the Heaven’s Apocalypse Series. These include “Bull Headed” in the Coffin Bell Journal, “The Wise Look for all the stories” in the Flame Tree press anthology Medusa, and my recent ebook novella, Arrows and Ambrosia. I am also working on a novel-length work in this same world.
I started writing Greek mythology retellings in 2014, and at the time, the year 2012 was still fresh in my mind. In 2012, there were a dozen raptures on the calendar, at least one Ragnarok and the Mayan calendar ended. These things all happened in rapid succession that fall, and people were either truly terrified, or greatly amused by the events.
In the end, of course, nothing happened.
Or Did it?
In my series, the idea is that heaven – all of the heavens – had an apocalypse in 2012. Which requires me as an author to asks what happens to immortal beings when their world ends.
Generally speaking, each world is reborn in its own way. Some mythologies have a protocol already in place for these reboots. For example, Norse myth tells us what happens during and after the Ragnarok. However, because Olympus is eternal and immortal, there is no such extant text for Greek myth.
My concept of Olympus.
In order to bring the Greek gods into the modern era, I needed the 2012 apocalypse to be a substantial reboot. I needed most of the gods to have forgotten their stories, and for the vast majority of them to have to choose which stories and actions they would step into this time around.
In the books and stories, we call these multiple “times around” the “cycles.” There are multiple cycles, as heaven has been rebooted more than once via different kinds of events, storytelling, and beliefs changing here on earth.
The only gods who remember previous cycles are the ones that are eternal: Love and Death. Everyone else is flailing around a bit trying to figure out their role in this new world.
Persephone loves blue jeans. Eros haunts sex toy shops. And everyone has decisions to make about who they really are and what they want to be.
It’s ALL the Heavens
This series has so many possibilities. It’s really only limited by my own time and effort that I can dedicate to it. I have a Norse version in drafts. I have more Greek versions underway. I would love to investigate some of the heavens and hells that perhaps no longer have active worshipers – like Sumerian myth. How would those rules change?
In all cases it’s the stories that create and sustain the lives of the gods. And it’s the stories they must choose between. I believe as long as we’re telling stories about them, they will continue on and on and on.