Max Willi Fischer, Y/A Author...
Engaging today's teens with
America's yesterday
Lover of history, yes, but even more so I appreciate mythological stories that stretch across civilizations that have been told for centuries. My story inspiration came from a love of Twilight, Beautiful Creatures, Dark Days trilogy, and the Red Queen series. For me, I’m swept off my feet most with a book that deals with hidden worlds within our own. I love the complex nature of unchartered territories, the trials, and struggles they must go through to keep their world a secret.
While I like to read books with dragons, some vampires (especially the good ones 😊), and shape-shifting creatures, I do enjoy tales from Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology like Clash of the Titans and Theseus and the Minotaur. However, the stories involving Helen of Troy and Atlantis have drawn me deeper into research more than any other legends. Some call this study pseudoarcheology because there are so many speculations and little facts to support the evidence. Some theorists believe Atlantis rested near Malta, situated in the dividing line between the eastern and western Mediterranean Sea. Robert Scranton, an American architect, believed Atlantis lied at the bottom of the Mediterranean within the Cyprus Basin.
There are so many speculations, but in cultivating my story world, I gravitated to Plato’s thinking. Over 2,000 years ago he described the powerful empire of Atlantis that ruled over several islands in the Aegean Sea, across Africa, and Europe. (There are several interpretations). The Critias dialogue described Atlanteans as a utopian civilization—peaceful people who kept to themselves until their shipping ports became popular. Once they saw the riches of other worlds, their power led them to seek further fortunes and they waged a war. Stories go on that Atlanteans were defeated by the Athenians with the help of the gods. Violent earthquakes and floods caused the island of Atlantis to disappear.
What if Atlantis did exist? But not along the line of academic theorist and archaeological hypothesis. What if Therans existed within the human world to serve and protect historical accounts that transcended time? And what if there are powerful relics that predate this world? What if time has hidden secrets that lay undisturbed for millennia? What if you were a teen who had to navigate this world and more? Could you survive a utopia’s dark side?
And that is where my story begins …