What's in a name?

People sometimes ask about Simon. So to fullfill my blogging responsibilities, here's a few things about how I came up with the character. Firstly, his name means to hearken, or to listen. And as the story progresses we see Simon is hearing voices. One of the most important themes of the story is Simon's quest to find out if he's hearing an evil voice or a good voice.

There are lots of Simons (Simonses?) in the Bible who I had in mind when I wrote Simon. Aside from Simon Peter (Saint Peter), I also thought of Simon Magus, who in Christian literature is considered to be the first heretic. There are stories of him challenging Saint Peter. The word Simony comes from the name Simon and means to pay for a position in the church. There were also gnostic sects that believed that Simon Magus was God in human form.

Simon of Cyrene would have been considered the first African Saint, Cyrene being an African city (though at the time it was a jewish community). He was the guy who helped Jesus carry his cross up the mountain.

Throughout the story, (Particularly in Etherlands: volume 2) Simon expresses all of these characteristics to some extent. He's a guy struggling with his place in the religious framework of his world.

Hopefully that would also answer the question I have heard as to why I didn't give the character a more exciting, fantasy-novel sounding name like, Xor the Great or Liktha'an The Impaler. I'll save those for another novel.

I'm not Simon!

So, the first person to read the book since it's been published was ironically, Simon Bourque. I know what you're thinking. This is some crazy publicity stunt, sinc the main character in the Twilight Alliance is named Simon. Not so! Apparently Simon (real Simon) was sick last week and the book comforted him while he got better.

Outrageous claim #1: Reading the Twilight Alliance cures you of the flu.

It's been interesting getting some feedback about the book. One thing is a lot of people don't like the main character of Simon. They say he's whiny and flaky. Simon Bourque actually said he was the John Kerry of the fantasy world.

That's all well and good. But following people expressing how much they don't like Simon, some people go on to then say, "He reminds me of you! When I read it I see your face."

I didn't really see that coming. In short, "I dislike Simon and Simon is like you C.S. Gregg." Oh well, what can you do. A quick disclaimer though, Simon isn't really just me in fantasy wizard form. I wrote him as a character to be critical of. He's pretty naive, self-righteous... And other things. Clearly I'm none of those things. Anyway, I reiterate, I am not Simon!