Louise Cusack – Foldworld

Developing the Series: Introducing Marcus and the Medici

I thought it might be interesting to let you in on the process of developing of my new series. For most of 2003, when I wasn’t editing or publicising “Glimmer in the Maelstrom”, I was researching and preparing to write the “Foldworld” series of novels, which will open with a trilogy.

The premise is one that I never tire of (Alice in Wonderland having been my favourite book as a child): a person from our world stepping into another world – one that is completely alien to them, and alien to us.

The main character is Marcus Bane, a young Australian soldier, exhausted at the end of a four day joint training exercise in Arizona. He steps through a fold, thinking it's a hallucination, and finds himself on Foldworld at the centre of a huge trade empire ruled by a renegade branch of Medici family who fled Italy four hundred years earlier using a machine they stole from DaVinci. The dauphin, Luc de Medici, takes a liking to Marcus and offers him many pleasures amid the opulence of his court where obscene wealth has bought every comfort and technological advance available in the known universe.

At first Marcus is flattered, but later he sees how the other expat Terrans are treated and he plots with them to close down the folds and isolate the decadent Medici on Foldworld. Matters are complicated by the fact that closing the folds will isolate hundreds of worlds, many of which are no longer self-sufficient. Marcus’s opposing loyalties, his infatuation with Gilt, the mysterious Ambassador of Rhocer, and the danger posed by a saboteur who will stop at nothing to destroy the dauphin, all combine to make the climax of this first novel explosive and entirely unpredictable.

I can’t wait to write it!

Research: During the past few months I have been delving into the history of the Italian Renaissance, the Medici, the Borgia and Leonardo DaVinci, as well as exercising my imagination in the area of technological advances and human physiology. Marcus, you see, is no ordinarily trained soldier. He was involved in a secret military training program, and the results of that program are the wildcard that will either make or break the Medici.
Of particular interest to me have been the Codex, Leonardo’s legacies. The more I read of DaVinci, the more I am in awe of his ability to see the mundane with completely fresh eyes. While writing the Shadow through Time trilogy, I came to see my own world through Pagan’s eyes – the eyes of a stranger, an alien. The experience changed me forever. Still, sometimes I’ll look at the sky before a storm and say, “Can you believe how green the trees look against those dark clouds? That can’t be real. It’s too green.” I don’t seem able to look over things the way I did before. I notice more.

When I read the Codex I wonder what process DaVinci used to make himself so incredibly observant, not just of the sky but of everything: water, birds, wind - things we take for granted, things we ignore because we’re so busy getting on with life. But these things are life. They’re our life: the wind in our face, the feel of the sun on our skin, the taste of refrigerated water on a disgustingly hot day. I am always amazed at how little of life I paid attention to in the past, and how much I see now. And I am no DaVinci! His mind must have been so full, his delight so rich, his life so satisfying. I would love to write books about DaVinci himself, and maybe I will one day. But for now it’s Marcus who’s waking me up at 4am, eager to get on with his adventure. And I’m just as eager to see how he gets on – to push him into danger and watch him struggle back out. Some days I'm busy so I just leave him dangling, which I know is entirely unfair, but I have a life too.

I think he understands.

Note: This project was shelved in October 2004 to make way for the "Modern Fairytales" series.  I don't feel sad about that because I believe it will benefit the story to give it more 'percolation' time.  We'll see...