Book Four
The novel was a guilty pleasure to write and more fun than any that had come before. But the initial inspiration for writing it was born in a modest but heartfelt tragedy.
My cat, Schnozz, who had been with me since the early 80's when my roommate Gary wanted a more substantial pet than the fish and birds we already had, was that inspiration. After Gary asked, a quick request at work and there appeared this mottled little kitten in a cardboard box, who loved to crawl into and under things when we got her home. She had a prominent proboscis, so I named her Schnozz, and she never seemed to mind.
She had but one terror: thunderstorms, of which there were many in Colorado Springs, CO, in the 1980's. At the first thunderclap, she would slink, low at the belly, into the laundry room off the family room and hide behind the door until the cacophany passed. She loved the outdoors fearlessly, once chasing a German Shepherd from off the lawn. Assuming a defiant stance at the edge of the grass as he slunk away, puzzled at what he might have done wrong, Schnozz finally returned to my side as I painted the side of the house.
In Denver she would spend the brief remaining years of her life in four different apartments in the Park Humboldt complex with me. She survived being tossed against a wall by my abusive boyfriend, on whom I moved out after that turbulent night. Unbeknownst to me, she'd had a broken back as a result of that night but never let on. Fierce and independent, her indomitable spirit was finally broken by colon cancer. I was crushed when I had to have her put to sleep; but this particular novel arose as a result of her memory and her spirit, which I tried to honor faithfully.
WORLDS BENEATH US became a unique way for me to say goodbye, not only to her but to our life together in Colorado Springs after the move to Denver. After a brief series of renters lived in the house, it was time to let it go: the first new home I had ever owned. Several years later, when visiting my friend Roger for what would be a series of Thanksgivings together, he indulged me by driving by the ol' homestead and stopping in front. The new owners had painted it some hideous color of dark, grayish blue, and the poor old residence seemed embarrassed to be seen in public like that. The lone Ficus tree in the front yard stood gaunt and awkwardly, never having flourished where I had planted it. Literally, you cannot go home again.
It had been in that house into which I had moved in 1978, when I was accepted to teach at the Air Force Academy, where my military career began to unravel. My life had seemed to be progressing so very promisingly at that stage: I was a Captain who had earned a regular commission for my years at Minot, and I was now where I had wanted to be, doing a job I seemed destined to enjoy. I was still only 28 that first summer; but by the next summer, the career would be all but over, and my entire future was completely in doubt.
It was so difficult to say goodbye to that house, my cat, and all those memories because that was where I fully accepted that I was gay after being outed and discharged; and that was where I finally learned to live a life both out and proud, regardless of the consequences.
In WORLDS BENEATH US, I explored the full implications of the Rainbow Arc of Fire pagans and the Classical mythology that was a part of Greek pagan worship. Eventually after this novel, I could mine the entire Pantheon of Greek Mythology for my stories. After having taught history and humanities over the decade of the 80's, and also having absorbed a number of the ideas from THE POWER OF MYTH by the late Joseph Campbell, as well as books such as Edith Hamilton's MYTHOLOGY, I was ready for my characters to tackle the gods and goddesses of the ancient world on an equal footing.
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