Gods and Monsters: Terra Solaris follows a young girl living in a realm where gods, monsters, and humans coexist who discovers she has a powerful ability to alter reality. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The setup of the story was an exploration of the classic contradiction posed by Epicurus’ trilemma, “If God is unable to prevent evil, then he is not all-powerful. If God is not willing to prevent evil, then he is not all-good. If God is both willing and able to prevent evil, then why does evil exist?”

In Indo-European mythologies, it is a common trope for a god’s power to be embodied or represented by their wife. This dehumanizing portrayal of goddesses served as the setup for Terra’s existence as a source of great power that suffers from having her personhood submerged by the power-hungry gods around her who see her as a source of power and little else. This internalized dehumanization weighs heavily on the goddess’ mind and serves as a critique of the ancient objectification of women, both fictional and real.

Terra discovers that she possesses a remarkable power that can change the world, which prompts her to question her moral values and determine how she wants to utilize this power. What were the moral principles you aimed to convey through the development of your characters?

The moral principles I wanted to convey are best observed through the three men who at some point each wield Terra as a way to enforce their will. The god-king Zeus uses Terra to legitimize his regime and exploit the human race. The warrior-demon Typhon uses Terra’s power to conquer the entire Universe and plunge it into a never-ending age of bloodshed. The man of the people Hades wants to help the commoners but struggles with how exactly to do that while not using Terra as a tool.

With Terra as a central point, the other characters in her orbit exist as foils and alternate perspectives. Typhon, Zeus, and Hades, all know of Terra’s power and have rigid philosophies about how it should be applied. Each would wield Terra’s power in wildly different ways, each believing they best understand “good.” Terra either needs to decide whose will it is that she will surrender herself to… or finally regain the psychological fortitude required to take charge of her own life.

The story pretty obviously favors Hades’ approach and so morally condemns people who would use power selfishly like Zeus and Typhon: the monarch and the fascist. However, with Hades, a morally good character, he like Terra is stumped by how to most effectively use the power he has. Much of the story’s conflict is intertwined with the moral that using power responsibly is a difficult and complicated, yet nonetheless important problem that needs solving. 

I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from, and how did it change as you were writing?

The idea was to create a world that could wow modern audiences. The world of Greek mythology which inspired Graia was impressive to an ancient audience, but rather mundane to a modern one. Since that ancient era, humanity has understood that the Universe is much larger than just the Earth. The scale and power required to be impressive in modern cosmology are beyond anything the Greek gods were capable of. My idea then was to make a modern setting that could have the same “Wow” factor that the ancient myths of the Greeks had on them. Foreign lands have been swapped out for distant planets or galaxies. The power to move mountains has been escalated to the power to blow up a star. It’s all wonderfully ridiculous and more importantly hits on a major theme of the story: this is far too much power to be in anyone’s hands. Being able to blow up a world is a more tangible metaphor for the undue political power wielded by the dictators and kings that serve as the book’s villains.

Some changes involved the inspiration of real-world Anthropology. Most notably, after learning from and consulting with the incredible Professor John Colarusso I gained a great understanding of Greek myth and its origins as a daughter culture of the original Indo-Europeans. Things like the caste system of holy people, warrior kings, and common producers became the three main factions in competition for the rule of the world embodied by holy Zeus, warlike Typhon, and populist Hades.

Any time I researched the ancient world, whether or not I found an answer, the setting of Graia was updated to gain further depth and history to explain its evolution into the nightmare kleptocracy it became during the events of the book.
 
Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out, and what can your fans expect in the next story?

This is the first book in a series, one that will be between 3 and 5 books depending on how I pace things out. Each story builds on the last but also focuses on a different character to allow their adventures to be at least somewhat self-contained.

Book one has focussed on Terra as a Holy Goddess and questions of how a god should act. Fittingly it is called Terra Solaris.

Book Two will focus on Zeus as the king of Graia and how power corrupts. It will also examine the use of power with similar themes and messages to book one but from a more villainous perspective. Unlike Terra who agonizes over how to best use her power morally, this story enjoys all the comically evil ways Zeus abuses his and how it later comes back to bite him. Fittingly it will be called Zeus Almighty.

Gods and Monsters: Zeus Almighty will be sprinkling such things into the more conventional myths more people will recognize. While Book One was mostly made up of all new and original stories by me, Book Two will focus more on adaptations of classic myths such as: the Story of King Midas, the 12 Labors of Heracles, and the Gigantomachy.

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Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/03/26/wowing-modern-audiences/