My Big Bang

Crafting a universe is not easy. The bigger it gets the more variables there are to juggle. The more popular it gets the harder it becomes to refine.

My Strange Galaxy began as a horror story that is no longer a story of its canon. Its spooky "Silent Women" became cute girls loved for their prattle. Ironically, I originally intended to tell the tale of one world but it became a world of many worlds. The universe itself became more than a backdrop. Alas, my caterpillar became a butterfly.

I wrote a horror story and wanted to do more with what were essentially its science fiction "Silent Hill Nurses." The comely monsters were normal women corrupted by the spirit of a Living Darkness. The "Silent Women" were referred to as the "Concubines of the Great Shadow" because they were its kept women. The original sequel was an action story rather than horror. My "Silent Women" were boring as action baddies so I tried again, this time giving them dialog. No longer "Silent" they were merely "the Concubines." I made them "clones" when I realized most women are too small to be suitable foot soldiers. Besides: I have always found identical twins, triplets and quadruplets sexy. The idea of people being mass-produced to serve an agenda not their own is so poignant.

Focus makes energy stronger. Sunlight may give you a burn after awhile but sunlight focused by a magnifying lens can burn right into you! I focused my imagination by crafting a framework for any and every story I would care to write. The ordinary, not the extraordinary, sets the standard of reality... so I established the ordinary for my fictional reality. I was mindful to avoid anything that would overshadow everything else: such as an epic war or apocalyptic threat. There would be wars and crises but they would be extraordinary. I decided beforehand that no character would be bigger than the universe itself: No one would determine the fate of everyone else. No action would be the resolution of the grand scheme of things.

I was mindful of flow and balance as I established the physics and natural law of my fictional reality. Every action must have an equal and opposite reaction. A strength must be its own weakness. That all said, I did not want my universe boring so I kept it clean of reality's dysfunctions: There is no language barrier. Weapons of mass-destruction are obsolete. Disease is unheard of. There is always a way.

Strange Galaxy is a science fiction fantasy universe; which means every other genre has a place within it. Magic and technology would be together but I did not one being "better" than the other nor did I want them indistinguishable. Magically advanced would be technologically primitive. Technologically advanced would be magically primitive. To be a jack of both would mean not a master of either. Aliens and humans would be together and I wanted them equals but not the same. Humans would be small and weak but innovative and prolific. The alien "great races" would be big and uncanny but primal and few. Technology would be unrivaled in its powers of destruction and its machines would be stronger and faster than any creature. Magic would be natural thus prove inexhaustible and unmatched in its powers of warding, healing and divination.

I created a universe. It is not bound to any particular story or cast of characters. Like ourselves in reality, the inhabitants of Strange Galaxy are fish in a pond. Sometimes they are eaten by bigger fish. Sometimes they are the bigger fish. Alas, a pond is the world to the fish who live in it.