Sense of Exclusion
Sister Bevenlee and Mother of Pox follows an eight-year-old peasant girl who is discovered to have the ability to see auras and is sent to the Tower to learn the skills of the Sisters. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
This story came as a result of two short stories about Mothers at the Tower (“Mother of Song” and “Mother of Grub,” both included in the second book of the series, Mothers of the Tower). I meant it to be a novella, to give the perspective of the Sisters forced to live and work at the Tower, but as the story took shape, I realized it needed a lot more information to be complete. Thus. it became the longest manuscript I’d written to that point.
The world you created in this novel is brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from, and how did it change as you wrote?
The original short story, “The Arch of Peresephalon,” was a simple one-off, an exercise to see if I could pen such a twisted tale. I never named the central character. (As this was in first-person POV, I got away with it.) Though I moved on to my next project, I kept circling back to the ideas in this one. “Mother of Grub” took shape soon after. Sister Bevenlee followed. That novel included another Mother (Mother of Draglins) with such a crazy tale, she deserved her own story. After I wrote “Mother of Draglins,” three more stories bloomed to life in my head, based on Mothers in the other stories. “Mother of Succor,” “Mother of Boots,” and “Mother of Stomp” joined “Mother of Song” and “Mother of Grub” as the stories collected in Mothers of the Tower. As I crafted each, I included elements of other stories, tying the series together across the many decades they take place. A short story, “Pulled” (available for free at the end of Sister Bevenlee if you sign up to receive my newsletter), carries the setting of Sephalon five centuries into the future.
I have thoughts of writing about the start of it all, with Mothers of Builder and Fetcher as the central characters, but no firm idea has taken shape yet.
Bevenlee struggles to fit in with the Sisters and find her identity after discovering her skills. What themes were important to explore in this book?
All Sisters end up at the Tower against their will, being pulled by the gods when they turn eight. It is a traumatic time, and some don’t survive the journey. As a military brat, I experienced that sense of uprooting and dislocation several times. When people ask where I grew up or where I’m from, I don’t really have an answer. (Bevenlee starts out not knowing the name of her home kingdom.)
Through no fault of her own, Bevenlee never experiences the pull, her fate as a Sister coming to light at the same time Sisters from the Tower arrive to fetch Princess Ukee, pregnant with a god (that pregnancy creates the aura Bevenlee sees at the start of the story). She rides in Fetcher’s carriage with Princess/Mother Ukee. For pledging to be Ukee’s friend, she receives a blue belt (and later a blue eyepatch) matching the color of Ukee’s clothing, both gifted to them by a god on their first night en route to the Tower. So from the start, Bevenlee’s set apart from the other Sisters at the Tower. Growing up as I did, I had no long-term friends and thought that sense of exclusion fit the story well.
As she’s stubborn, Bevenlee keeps on with herself and triumphs in the end. I feel I did well for myself despite my childhood experiences, and felt Bevenlee deserved a similarly bright future.
Will there be a follow-up novel for this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
With the way this story ends, it’s appropriately positioned as the final book in the series. As mentioned, I do offer a short story set five centuries after Sister Bevenlee, called “Pulled.” Readers familiar with the series will understand the meaning of that title. I may try a prequel focused on the first Mother, but that’s many projects away if it ever comes to fruition.
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Eight-year-old peasant girl Bevenlee sees an aura around fourteen-year-old Princess Ukee and within hours they’re en route to the Tower, where for five centuries one hundred Sisters have attended the precious Mothers who give birth to the gods that walk the land.…and eternally unforgiving.
As a Sister, Bevenlee learns new skills and makes new and loyal friends, but suffers torment and terrible injuries from Sisters and gods alike. When the birth of her child leaves Mother Ukee in a debilitating unresponsiveness, tensions within the Tower intensify.
For a terrifying pestilence threatens the Scattered Kingdoms at the same time the Horde—a relentless enemy army—invades with the intent to destroy the Tower and all in their path.
With growing suspicions that her dear friend’s mysterious child might be the cause of the deadly pox, young Bevenlee, her very sanity in question, must find a way to save herself, Mother Ukee, and all they know and love, or be condemned to everlasting damnation.
Return to The Tower of Sephalon for the final chapter of Charles Brass’s thrilling fantasy series! Each book is a stand-alone story set in the land of the Scattered Kingdoms, where Sisters devote their lives to the Mothers that birth the gods that walk the earth.
Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/04/06/sense-of-exclusion/
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