7 things you didn't know about my Glyph Warrior series
When you write a novel there is always heaps of stuff that either doesn't fit or would just make the book boring if you had to squeeze it in. Here are some interesting tidbits from my Glyph Warrior series that you either didn't know or didn't notice.
1. Toa is American Samoan. Psst don't tell my brother in law. Toa though needs to come from American Samoa as it is a U.S Territory and even today the people of American Samoa work for the American government even in the military and yet their people have less rights than U.S citizens. You might be able to bleed for America but you can't vote. Toa is a symbol of how bigger countries take advantage of smaller entities. I think all the U.S Territories have awesome people who serve others well in many capacities yet the African Americans have more rights than them. Shucks even Native Americans have more rights.
2. Panacea is on the new east coast of the old US. I've changed the name of the river and of course the city. With the rise in sea levels the coast is drastically changed but the city is close to Boston and that area. I didn't pin it down so it is a bit like the Simpson's Springfield where they never really say which state it is in.
3. Misha was trained by a ex-Mu-sad. In the books I mention that Misha has been trained but his trainer was an old Mu-sad agent who left his country well before the wars started. He was fairly old when he met Misha. A bit like a Karate Kid dynamic. Misha's father didn't like the man as they had been on opposite sides of the war. Misha's father was a naval officer for the Russian government until he stole a submarine. Yes, a whole submarine.
4. Freedom the town of scientists mentioned in the flashbacks of Hero is a Man is in Texas. Already a hot place to stay before global warming it is almost uninhabited except for small communities. This makes it the perfect place for Elisha to hide.
5. Mexico won the war. The US in its fear of environmental refugees refused to take anyone. They eventually go to war with Canada and Mexico and other countries all around the world. Spread so thin they lose these wars and Mexico is able to claim a lot of territory before it to collapsed on itself. There is still a few states that make up the US and they are fighting more amongst themselves than others.
6. The glyphs are a mixture. I started with urdu but pretty much google translate is where I got most of the words. I'd put what the word meant into google translate until I could find a word that looked like what I thought it should look like. Most of them come from the Middle East but I bet anyone from the Middle East will fall over laughing if they saw what I've done with the glyphs.
7. Most of the men in Panacea are sterile. Any guy living in the area during the war would have been exposed by a chemical agent which was used in a scorched earth effort to keep Mexico from winning. The problem like agent orange it is highly toxic and the men became sterile. It is one of those unspoken secrets that everyone knows. It is why some of the women to get pregnant would hook up with outsiders in the hope to have a child and the men in their lives just looked the other way because they either didn't want to admit they were sterile or because they wanted kids too badly. There is a cure but no one really knows about it and only those with political power actually knows it exists at all let alone have access to it.
