I Blame The 90's.

For whatever it is worth I was born in the 80's and even as a child of that decade I have to concede the fact that while the 80's raised me, the 90's defined me. The first decade of my life was spent growing up in the 80's, but during the period of your youth that helps shape you into the person you will become I found myself passing through the 90's. It was an interesting time to be fair, and it obviously left its unique impression on me. Possibly in all manner of ways, some of them not readily apparent to me.

Well, maybe it was a product of my youth or maybe it had something to do with the fact that my wife recently played 'Guess this song,' with me using all manner of things we had grown up with. It might even be explainable by me listening to all manner of random 90's hits on Spotify or YouTube. (Hey, don't judge me those were some great times musically!) For whatever reason you care to blame it on I found myself with a concept for a story.

At first it was just a curious little idea that I wrote down a brief bit as it took shape. After a short bit of writing I was looking at a little introductory tease/hook if you will. I shared what I had with a dear friend and talented fellow scribe(and likewise child of the same era) who encouraged me to charge ahead and develop it further.

The following is the same sample I shared with him;

There exist certain people with the born ability to sense magic at will; we like to call those people SpellHounds. Traditionally, SpellHounds are only ever allowed to exist in the service of the Realm. With the potent talent to track and detect all uses of magic they make the ultimate investigators of all magical activity. But sometimes a SpellHound exists outside the service of the Realm. And sometimes, those SpellHounds are less than friendly about how they use their birthright.

My name is Nathanial Vaen, and I am a SpellHound. But despite what some might have you believe, I don’t work for the King, Queen or Country and I certainly don’t play for the morally ambiguous team. Life for a freelance SpellHound is anything but glamorous, but it is a life with some measure of freedom. And when someone’s neck is on the line, who would you really prefer to call? You want someone who can sniff out trouble and loyal enough to stick by you.

And that someone is me. At least as long as you got the coin for it. 

The central theme was the idea that what if people existed in a fantasy world who could actually sniff out sorcery. What if some gifted few could actually perceive the use of magic even more than just what those spells did after they were cast. Imagine if a man was murdered by a fireball from afar and someone was around able to follow the lingering trail of arcane energy to find the killer literally red handed with the same spell signature. Just think of it... It would be almost like Bloodhounds but for magic.

A fun vehicle to run with the notion I thought was something akin to a noir detective angle so I will admit that the hero is about as close to a private eye as he could be in such a setting. But in a world where such talents exist, it is only expected to find them pressed into service for king and country. Which means that for our hero, trying to go freelance may not be without its own trouble.

I have no real clue as to where this little avenue will take me, but I have to agree with my colleague that I should certainly allow it to develop further. So far it has been fun enough to make me set aside another work I had been planning to devote further attention to as my wrist/hand improved during my recovery. But even with my own lack of improvement I have been driven to peck out anything I can, even if it is in spurts.

Perhaps I'll share more of the story soon as it continues to evolve. Either way, I'd love to hear any thoughts on the matter. Does my little pitch peek your interest? Or does it find you with words like cliched coming to mind? I'm all ears, as always!