Cal: What can you tell us
about the new upcoming series, The Border Man?
SJ: The Border Man is a fantasy series. It’s primarily set in a limbo between the
third and fourth dimensions called Realm Perilous. As the name implies Realm Perilous is a
medieval kind of place, although its people do have access to and occasionally take
advantage of more advanced technology like electricity. There is also magic, but only a
few folks know how to wield it, the Bordermen being the largest bloc who do.
Cal: Who are the Bordermen?
SJ: Men and women who belong to an elite corp of marital and magic experts. Kind of like
the Marine Corps with fairy godmother wands.
Cal: Magic wands?
SJ: Well…no wands, but hopefully you get the idea. Anyway, it’s the
Bordermen’s duty to patrol the borders of Realm Perilous, rounding up people who
stray into the limbo from the third dimension and—very, very rarely—the fourth.
They also try to prevent people and creatures indigenous to Realm Perilous from leaving
the limbo. If one of the locals do manage to slip through their patrol, then a Borderman
or two will be dispatched to retrieve him, her, or it.
Cal: By "creature"
you mean monster?
SJ: Yes.
Cal: What kind of monsters
are you talking about?
SJ: Really too many to list now. One example, from issue one, is a nasty fellow called a
hybrid. This is a human who, when enraged, will change into a crossbreed human-animal and
stay that way until either its rage subside or, what usually happens, it slays a victim
and drinks the poor soul’s blood.
Cal: Basically a werewolf.
SJ: Werewolves are hybrids, but not all hybrids change into wolves. The hybrid in issue
one is half cobra. Actually many of the monsters from earth’s myths are in reality
Ragged Realm creatures who managed to escape to earth, just like many of our grand or
mythic heroes were the Bordermen sent to retrieve them. St. George and the Dragon could be
an example of this, or Siegfried and Fafnir. The world may never know for sure.
Cal: Do third dimensional
inhabitants ever slip through Realm Perilous into the fourth dimension, or vice versa?
SJ: It’s extremely rare and the results are usually disastrous. In
the former the man form the third dimension is never heard from again, and in the latter
something like the 1908 Tunguska Event can occur. It’s horrible either way. I
don’t like to think about it.
Cal: Who lives in the fourth
dimension?
SJ: Elder gods for the most part. Fortunately these gods don’t seem much interested
in third dimensional going-ons, at least so long as we leave them alone. They will make an
occasional appearance in Realm Perilous. For instance, two supporting characters, Urim and
Thummim, are the twin sons of a human mother and fourth-dimensional being. Urim takes
after his mother and Thummin his father. Thummin is humanoid, but we never see his face,
and we don’t want to. It ain’t a pretty sight.
Cal: Who are the main
characters?
SJ: The main character is Coney. Coney was found wandering alone in Realm Perilous when he
was twelve by a famous Borderman named Nisroch. The boy couldn’t remember anything
about his past, though it seemed likely his family was dead. Nisroch adopted the boy and
named him Coney because the kid runs and jumps and fights like a rabbit. Nisroch’s
family at the time consisted of a wife, Ramah, soon, Abriam, and daughter, Sarah. This all
happened about ten years ago and Ramah has died in the interim. Nisroch is now governor of
Caphar Salama, the capital of Realm Perilous. Abriam and Coney are both Bordermen, and
while Abriam is no slouch, Coney just might be the best Borderman ever, superior even to
Nisroch.
Cal: So the series
concentrates mainly on Coney and his family?
SJ: That and Coney’s Borderman adventures. But there are conflicts in
the family. Nisroch and Coney have a sort of David and Saul relationship. They love each
other. They would die for one another. But Coney has become extremely popular with the
people of Caphar Salama, who do not hide the fact that they are anxious to see Coney
succeed Nisroch as governor. Coney wants to be the next governor, too. No doubt about it.
This creates some tension between them, big surprise there. Abriam, meanwhile, is jealous
of Nisroch and Coney’s relationship. And Sarah loves Coney, and Coney loves Sarah.
They want to marry, which in some way pleases Nisroch and in others does not.
Cal: I can imagine.
SJ: Sarah and Coney’s relationship is not incestuouss. They are not blood relations.
He was adopted. But Nisroch, like any father in his position, is going to frown on
what’s happened, although, if he weren’t jealous of Coney, I don’t think he
would stand in their way. As it is, he just might.
Cal: It sounds like things
could get as bloody as a Greek tragedy.
SJ: Biblical, anyway. I think the story of David and Saul is fascinating, and The Border
Man is my chance to play around with some of its concepts. At the same time, I love
writing a fantasy with monsters and magic. It’s also exciting that The Border
Man’s premise allows me to carry its story to earth or any place in the third
dimension. Maybe even the fourth. And as far as the people straying into Realm Perilous,
they can be fictional as well as historical, and can come from any time period. A
Revolutionary minuteman, or Ming Dynasty Chinese prince, or Australian aborigine, or
Sherlock Holmes, or Paul Bunyon, or Gilgamesh. The possibilities, and the fun, are
limitless.
