The Madness of Trees and Stars
I’ve started working on a story that’s been sitting in the back of my mind for a while now. It begins in 7th century Ireland with a king who goes mad at the sound of battle, but it doesn’t stay there. It follows him as he becomes something else entirely. A wanderer, a wild man, maybe something closer to a god, or maybe just a man who broke and kept going. The story moves through forests, across the ocean, and eventually into America, carrying that same fracture forward.
At its core, it’s about displacement. About what happens when the world you belong to disappears and you don’t. It touches on war, migration, and the slow shift from old ways of seeing the world into new ones. There’s Irish myth in it, some Appalachian feel, and a kind of quiet madness that doesn’t always look like madness until you sit with it long enough. I don’t have the whole thing mapped out, and I’m fine with that. Some stories are better followed than forced, and this one feels like it might be worth the time.
For my stories, I tend to jot down my ideas and then have AI help me organize it into a outline to work off of. As a old guys with a degree in history, I have a fondness for outlines as a method to "my" madness. I also use AI once I write a chapter to ensure I have not only crossed my t's and dotted my I's but that the beats I laid out in the outline are there and that that the trasnition from the previous to the next chapter, flow as I intended. It's a very useful tool. I know some people are against it and that is OK. I personally like reading stories that I find interesting and keep my attention, regardless of who or what wrote them. But that is just me.
I anticipate this novel will take a while. There is research I still need to do to really get the feel for 7th century Ireland and the folklore behind the foundation of this story.
I am looking forward to seeing what I can come up with.