Inspiration - Brothers Abroad

I spoke earlier about how the birth of my son was the event that made me pick up the pen to write Alorya, but inspiration comes in so many forms, at so many different times, that I'm going to write a few of the most inspiring things to happen which led to the creation of Alorya.  I want to set the tone for this post by saying that I am defining inspiration as an event that took place which made me run to my computer and start writing.  Of course my wife, my friends and family all inspire me to be the best that I can, but that's not what I'm talking about in this post.  Many of the events that take place in Alorya are taken from moments in my life to which I applied artistic interpretation.

Both of my brothers were serving their country in Iraq during the writing of Alorya.  Gabriel was in Iraq for three separate tours and Tim was away for one.  They were both stationed over seas when they were not in Iraq, so they were always away, but with different degrees of danger around them.  The main backdrop for Alorya was war.  I would think that if my brothers were hippies at Berkley during this time, the story would have been much different. 

Alorya contains three major characters which come from the warrior caste in a country called Bragar.  Whether they are members of an organized military or warriors in their tribe, my brothers were the inspiration behind their creation, as well as the main theme of the story.  I've had conversations about the use of bionics with my brother Gabriel so many times, that I thought it was a great idea to bring it into the story.  Gabe and I disagree on the use of bionics, so I was inspired to create a scenerio of bionic soldiers with both success and failure which is attributed to our conversation.  I also had numerous conversations with my brother Tim about the feeling of loss while you're away.  The friends, the family and the romance becomes so difficult to manage that it became tempting to just walk away.  I wrote about what I took from my conversations with both of my brothers about ultimate loss versus, something to look forward to when you return home.  Inspiration comes in so many forms that my brothers may not even know that the little 15 minute conversation we had on Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic in turn became an idea for my book.

The next post will be about inspiration which came from work.