The revenant’s mark - Signing and Tid bits
The Revenant’s Mark was a hit during the Colorado book tour! I first want to thank everyone who purchased my book and all those who I received a chance to talk to in person about my creation. It was an experience for sure as this is the first few times that I have been in public talking about The Revenant’s Mark. I was happy to hear that many took an interest in The Revenant’s Mark. As we chatted and throughout the month of September, I got to know more about Jacob Hawthorne and his experience through The Revolutionary War while battling witches, the occult, and survival itself. I realized what I had really written is a story of Limbo - that place between life and death. I did not set out to tell the story that way when I first began. I found myself surprised by the idea and happy to tell the tale of a man who had lost his life, but found life in the afterlife. Jacob had become more than man.
Regarding the original prose of the book, I wanted to give a few more details about why the writing process of The Revenant’s Mark. I grew up reading Harry Potter and I fell in love with the use of magic and witches. However, I come from the Marines and I have a certain pride when it comes to American history and our ancestors struggles. I wanted to bring realism of America into the world. I relied on what I knew about the Puritan witch trails that we studied in school and the time period of burning witches, persecuting their religion, and the link between the occult world and migrants world. I researched that back in the day, we used the word “magick” spelled with a “K.” As I was writing a historical narrative, I wanted to maintain the original usage they used during the time of witches and occult in America.
Furthermore, I served American forces during the Global War on Terror and I know of many aspects of military warfare. However, I also studied in Britain for my Master of Science degree. I was coming back from Scotland and I even had written in British English. I felt like a migrant coming back to my home country. For those have read The Revenant’s Mark, you will know that Jacob is a British immigrant. Combined with my love for J.K. Rowling’s novels and my study abroad, I thought it fitting to tell the story from and English immigrant during The Revolutionary War. It was a time of rebellion from our ancestors. However, I did not want to tell the stories I learned in school, but my own of moving from British lands and literature into American land and literature. I could not find any story that told of rebellion during the time and it’s relation to witches, so I set out to tell that tale. I incorporated a tale of love to combine Jacob’s backstory with his present passion to fight for America and the land that he now lived. I can only imagine in immense pressure and commitment our ancestors took to fight for a cause of freedom during a time of persecution and lack of representation.
Lastly, I want to tell the process of incorporating witch mythology into The Revenant’s Mark. In Buddhist psychology and religion, there are planes of existence and separation of beings. One of these is the level of the Four Great Kings and the use of celestial musicians, forest spirits, and goblins. I decided to run with the myth of forest spirits that are not necessarily good or evil, but border on each side as a neutral party like humans. I researched Native American mythology and discovered Cernunnos, a Celtic god, who was represented with horns and antlers like a deer in the forest. As he is depicted as a god, I made his larger than life and with the myth came separation of beings. I made the idea that the afterlife does not always mean Heaven or Hell, but something in between, which is then how Limbo came to be. While one nation used the term Cernunnos, Jacob was fighting in America and I thought of the idea that American soil needed a “Horned One” like the Celts in the first century. The Rootfather felt like an appropriate combination that was rooted in Christianity with the Holy Trinity and the Father in Heaven, but as America was not yet cultivated and much of the New Land was forest and shrouded in darkness, I chose to link the two ideas. I will not spoil anything for you readers who want to bite your teeth into The Revenant’s Call, but least to say, Jacob and the Son of God have a pairing in life after death.
Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more information regarding Jacob Hawthorne, The Revenant’s Mark, and the sequel, The Rootfather’s Call!
Wesley C. Martin
