Whenever I meet someone who has read my book, Three Fugitives, I am almost invariably asked a version of the following question. “Where, Mr. Howler, did you get the inspiration for your ideas?” My dull and uninspiring answer is always, “It’s a long story.” To this, my readers reply, “oh,” before walking away unsatisfied. They deserve a better response, so here goes.
I was raised by two of the kindest, most loving people in the world. My father was a doctor and my mother a nurse. They could have stayed in the United Kingdom, pursuing lucrative careers, and living lives of privilege, but instead they chose to treat poor and disadvantaged folks in the Third World. They were always on the move from country to country dispensing medical care and going wherever they were needed most.
At the same time, however, they bestowed great love upon my sister Joyce and I, educated us, provided us with books and simple toys, adopted a young Mozambican refugee named Zetta, and even took in an abandoned puppy. All of this they did while living on a shoestring budget that depended entirely on donations.
Their lives were anything but easy. My father was from a poor background and his every achievement was a struggle. My mother’s partisan North Irish Catholic family cut her off completely because she married an “English enemy.” My parents threw themselves into their work, but there were always people they could not save, and conditions they were powerless to change. All of it took an emotional toll on them. My sister Joyce and I shared many of their experiences and mourned together with them when our beloved Zetta died in an accident.
We were sensitive children, and we responded to the suffering around us in different ways. Joyce became a Buddhist nun, and I retreated into a
fantasy world of my own. I read numerous fantasy and science fiction books, and made up my own stories. During my college years in America, I spent most of my spare time writing, but sharing what I wrote with nobody, because I did not have the self-confidence to imagine that anyone would be interested in my stories.
To cut a very long story short (My apologies for saying this, everyone.), I ended up living in Atlanta, working in a video store, and sharing a little house with my cousin Greta. It was she who introduced me to Phyllis, who would become my life partner.
Phyllis loved me for who I was, but she was troubled by the fact that I did not have any aspirations toward doing anything different with my life. I was, in her words, stuck in a “comfort zone,” and though it was not the most fulfilling existence, it was safe and secure. Then one day she saw some samples of my writing and showed them to Greta. Whenever those two put their heads together, they can be very persuasive, and that was how I discovered my destiny as a writer.
What about those who perpetrate evil? I have never myself come across a truly evil tyrant or criminal type, but I have seen the destruction that such individuals can wreak. Where do the Hitlers, Pol Pots, bin Ladens, and the men and women who follow them come from? I have endeavored to show the perspective of one such villain, while at the same time condemning what he does. By understanding evil, we should never excuse it; rather we should use our understanding of it to fight it at its roots. Above all, we should always remember that good and evil is a matter of our own personal choices.
I want my fantasy books to speak to all of us and for my readers to relate the quest for the gwellen, to their own lives. Above all, I want them to realize that the real gwellen are the ones each one of us has in his or her heart.
Nat Howler – Author of Three Fugitives and Everywhere Foes Lurk
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