The Big Idea: CJ Hosack
Posted on March 21, 2024 Posted by John Scalzi 6 Comments
Where do we come from and where do we belong? These are knotty questions in the best of circumstances, and in this Big Idea for The Slayer’s Magic, author CJ Hosack adds another layer of complication for the story and characters.
CJ HOSACK:
Adoption is a curious thing. Even when an adopted child is wanted, loved, doted on, and spoiled, there still remains this disconnect. Somewhere deep inside, the knowledge that I don’t belong is there. It’s in the blood or even the bones; that somehow, I’m an outsider. I was told many times while growing up, how much I was wanted, but I knew I didn’t exactly belong. I wanted to write a story to encapsulate that feeling. It’s been a long and shaky road, but putting these feelings into another world helped me examine them in a new way.
What I really didn’t want for this story was to have a ‘chosen one’ orphan trope. I fought hard to have my main character be loved and wanted, but still feel like she didn’t belong. I had to find some way for her to discover a talent and a place where she belonged, without her becoming ‘the chosen one’. My solution was a world full of hereditary magic, that she couldn’t access without proof of her birth parents, and an archive type Library that offered her a way to develop a talent more powerful and useful than any magic–research! Perhaps spending hours chasing down materials in a darkly mysterious library doesn’t sound as exciting as throwing fireballs, but if the Library could have a presence of its own, I hoped I could make it work.
A rigorous revision process resulted in me throwing out all of my original manuscript. Starting over from scratch provided me with an interesting opportunity. In restructuring the entire story, my character’s need to know her ancestry led to places and actions she never would have considered before. Could she be more proactive, and defy her mother to study in the Library? Instead of her mother being an open book, could she be hiding secrets that could damage their relationship? What if there was more than one betrayal? The challenge was to make this journey, a twisty road without easy answers. The desire to know but not hurt anyone in the process, and a fear of rejection had to be woven into the new manuscript.
I put a lot of my own journey to discover where I belong into The Slayer’s Magic. A perusal of psychology websites affirms that adoptees often feel like they don’t belong in their families. Some say adoption is bad, that it destroys culture and family lines. Current feelings are on the practice are complex and can be unclear. I’ve been hearing lately that it’s commonplace to blame struggles and difficulties on the parents, and how the child was raised.
I have to say, yes, I’m messed up because I was left for adoption. I’ve always struggled with abandonment. On the positive side, I put a lot of effort into keeping my relationships alive, but abandonment is a weapon that can be used against me. Did my birth mother make the right choice? Absolutely! I’m grateful for every opportunity I’ve had, and the people in my life at any particular time. Since I found my birth family I have even more people to love.
As if adoption wasn’t curious enough, The Slayer’s Magic puts my story and who I am into a fantastic setting; a secondary world where magic is hereditary and documentation of your bloodlines to inherit the magic is mandatory. Ryn, a brave girl, adopted as an infant, thinks she can change that feeling of being an outsider in her family if she can only claim that hereditary magic as her own. With a drive to fit in, she must find a way into the enigmatic Ancestral Library where bloodlines are verified and ancient power resides. Somehow Ryn and I are going to find a way to belong.
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This is fascinating to know. My main character was dumped at a monastery as an infant, and over the course of four books inches up to finally learning his past.
I was concerned about getting the feelings right, so I talked with those who have an inside perspective like yours. It’s always hard to write “what ya don’t know” but I’m a big believer in reaching out to those who do. Congrats on the successful edit!
We do seem to expect to feel a deep bond with our physical relatives, though it often as not doesn’t exist. We just want it to, we want to feel that sense of connection, of recognition, a person like ourselves. I asked my mother more than once if I were adopted and she assured me that I wasn’t. My mother’s cousin felt no kinship (no shared values) with her closer relatives, but corresponded with me, since we had a little bit in common, and she could feel that blood-kin sense, or at least there was enough that her projection could fasten onto something. I think that’s what people are looking for in love, that recognition, that fitting together. Good story concept though, to provide situation conflict. I lean toward the psychological approach, heavily, so I try to stabilize myself, find my own center, and not be so needy. Never did find a soul mate. Well, you can’t always get what you want.
Yay! I can’t wait to read this!
My family was actually a hot mess, and I grew up hoping I’d been adopted! No such luck…
hmmm…
amongst many other high performing Americans who were adoptees:
Steve Jobs
Clark Kent
“A rigorous revision process resulted in me throwing out all of my original manuscript.” Oh yes. Been there…