Timothy Deal
By Timothy Deal
April 5, 2013
If you’ve been exploring our new website (and if not, we certainly hope you will!), you may have read a bit about our philosophy and reason for creating Children of the Wells on our About Us page. The writer of that page — Nick Hayden, also author of The Select’s Bodyguard — eloquently describes the sort of stories we hope to share:
Not just fantastic and fantastical stories, but stories rooted in truth and goodness. Stories that are honest about how the world works, but written with the belief that stories are meant to make men better.
Nick also notes that there is a shortage of such stories being created on the Internet, but sadly, this could also be said of just about any current mass medium. The fantasy genre is as popular and diverse now as perhaps it’s ever been, yet much of it is steeped in darkness, cynicism, and debased desires. Characters who are perceived as too good are deemed unrealistic, established morals are meant to be questioned, and often the preferred protagonist is the antihero who makes up his own rules.
At Children of the Wells, we think differently. We recognize that the world is a dark place — after all, our setting is post-apocalyptic modern fantasy — but believe the world also contains Truth with a capital T. Character motivations may be ambiguous, but morality, in the end, is not.
And though we may put our protagonists through some extreme trials and perils in their journeys, we also aim for our stories to be ultimately hopeful. These are not stories where the main characters go through horrible situations and come out with no answers or sense of growth. We believe redemption is something to be highly valued.
Please don’t misunderstand: We don’t tell stories in order to preach. We tell stories in order to tell good stories. But as Nick said, we believe part of what makes a story good is inspiring an audience to be better. We love a courageous hero because he inspires us to be courageous. We love a selfless heroine because she inspires us to be selfless. Sometimes the best stories don’t merely show us the world as it is, but also how it ought to be.
With that said, we hope you continue to enjoy our first story of Bron (a courageous man, if stubbornly single-minded) and Calea (a brilliant woman, albeit far from selfless). As their story of destruction and survival unfolds over the months to come, please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and reactions in the comments sections. If you find the storytelling thrilling, inspiring, or challenging, we’d love to know. Or if you find it less than those things, we still want to know so we can make it better. Children of the Wells is not just about our characters’ stories; it’s also about sharing the experience of telling their stories. With your help, we’ll do our best to make each CotW story a great story.
Because after all, a great story is a powerful thing.
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