Setting the stage for a story is vitally important. After all, it’s hard to make things happen if you don’t know when or where they’re happening. You’re just stumbling around like Dr. Who, not knowing where you’re going next. For my legend of the Sword Bearer, I had to set things up properly, thus the prologue at the beginning was necessary. There’s even more backstory that I’ll get into at another time.
In a very early draft of the Legend, Bran lived in a low-rent flat in London. I scrapped that, mostly because it was terrible, and it didn’t make much sense, given how the story unfolded later. The main part of Book 1 takes place in the fictional village of West Thorndyke, UK. West Thorndyke is located in West Country, which is the peninsula that juts out underneath Wales (please refer to the map). I chose West Country, mostly because it’s unfamiliar to most Americans. It has an air of mystery to it, and I loved the sound of the West Country accent. Additionally, West Country was once an important center of Celtic Culture. Cornwall, which is on the outermost part of West Country, loomed large in King Arthur stories. Standing stones, ancient gravesites, faeries; you name it, you can find it in West Country. The SHERLOCK episode “The Hounds of Baskerville” was shot on location in West Country. After I saw that episode, I knew I’d picked the right place for sure. I grew up in small country towns, and I imagine they’re very much alike across the English speaking world. They all have they’re little quirks. They have their own culture, and way of speaking and doing things. They all have their town characters. West Thorndyke is no exception. The people are your average farming folk. Many of them, like Daphne, work at the electrical plant. Daphne and Bran are some of the only people of the town who aren’t from there. I know how that feels. Living in a military family, I wasn’t born in the towns where I grew up, and neither were my parents. Sometimes we were treated almost like foreigners. That’s just the culture of some small towns; it can take a long time to get people to accept you. When the story begins, Bran has lived in West Thorndyke long enough that the people there have accepted him, and he’s now become a fixture of the village.
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AuthorI'm Ian Wilson; an eccentric comic artist, just telling a story.
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