We’re now up to 1996 in 19-Infinity with what was, in hindsight, my first 20th century historical fantasy. It came out in 2000 in Realms of Fantasy but there were reasons for setting it four years earlier.
The story began when I came up with the title. It was a small step from that to the opening line: “It never bodes well when an angel shows up at my office first thing before breakfast. Especially when the first word out of its mouth is— ‘Murder!'” Almost immediately the core concept formed: a hard-boiled detective who was really the Wandering Jew, cursed by Jesus for mocking him as he walked to Golgotha. Still pissed off — there were guys who kicked Jesus or flung poop at him, why single Ahasuerus out? — he works to balance the scales in a world where divine justice is often nowhere to be seen. Now an angel claims he’s marked for death, but who could possibly be behind it?
IIRC the story took on finished form fairly quickly. At the time there seemed little point to throwing in pop culture references of period touches for a setting just four years earlier. As 1996 is now almost 30 years in the rear-view mirror, I considered going back and adding some but decided not to. I did, however, rewrite the story to fit in with No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
The thing about the Wandering Jew is, even though he’s a Jew, he’s a Christian myth. Most probably the inspiration is Jesus declaration that some of those now living would see the Second Coming. While several other immortals are referenced in early Christian folklore for the same reason we don’t hear of the Wandering Jew until 1300 or so. However the legend is referenced as one everybody discussing it knew so it had clearly been around a while.
Ahasuerus, AKA Al Soares, PI, isn’t a particularly observant Jew but in No Good Deed Goes Unpunished he’s much more conscious of being a Jew. My original thought was that he’s gone back and forth, having a crisis of faith every hundred years or so, so his thoughts about Judaism in the 1930s and 1996 were distinctly different. In rewriting I decided instead to emphasize that much of the Christian stuff he’s dealing with, like eternal damnation, isn’t a thing in Jewish faith. I’m not quire sure how to reconcile the two faiths in the world of the story but then, neither is Al.
This is the most urban fantasy story I think I’ve ever written: hardboiled, snarky PI, a world of magic existing just outside people’s awareness … It could have been the start of an entire series, but it wasn’t. I’ve written nothing further but the prequel story and I don’t know if I’ll do another. I know series make sense but my creative side doesn’t want to write them. Still, this one’s fun even if it’s an (almost) stand-alone. I hope you agree.
#SFWApro. Cover by Kemp Ward rights to images remain with current holders. 19-Infinity is available on Amazon in paperback and ebook and also available as an ebook on other websites.
