Stories intertwine, just like in real life. But at the same time, no one in the story is ever completely in control of their own fate. There are choices made there are consequences.
Is our fate predetermined and, if not, how much control over it do we really have? From the start of Heartless , anyone familiar with Alice in Wonderland will have a sense of where Catherine's ultimate destiny leads, but I wanted to write the story in a way that suggests it isn't inevitable. Catherine loses a lot by the end of the book, and so her losses feature most prominently in the story-is she better off having loved? Who can say for sure? But there is also a great deal of loss for the Hatter, the King, Mary Ann, the Cheshire Cat, even the story's main villain (who I won't name here… spoilers!) So, is it better to have loved and lost for all of them, or does the question remain unanswered?Īnd then there is the issue of destiny, something that features prominently in a lot of fiction, perhaps because it's something many of us question at various points in our lives. But is it better, truly? Heartless explores that question and, I think, reaches different conclusions for different characters, and I imagine probably for different readers as well. Almost every character's path, and certainly that of my main character, Catherine, in some way deals with these concepts.įor love and loss, there is that famous quote from Lord Tennyson: “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” It is a statement that I think many of us accept easily, without giving much serious consideration.
When I did finally stop to ponder the themes that had risen up through the story of Heartless , in which I attempt to tell the origin story of Alice in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts, two themes became apparent: the relationship between love and loss, and the question of destiny.
But of course, you also want the story to resonate with readers on a deeper level, too, if at all possible, and that tends to be the work of the themes that are woven in between all that kissing and monster-slaying. My goal is to tell a story that will enthrall and entertain the reader first and foremost. Sometimes I don't stop to give serious consideration to the themes -the message, the moral, the underlying meaning- until I'm nearly done revising the work.
Certainly it never comes into my thoughts in the first draft, and rarely even the second. As a writer, I rarely stop to think about the themes in my books until well into the writing process.
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