The Far Dorocha

For those of you who have been following my blog from the beginning, you may remember that I did “7 Days of Halloween” back in October.  I wrote a post for seven days that had something in it that frightened me.  I wrote about my fear of pigs, the Tailypo, even getting haunted in Savannah.  I had about a dozen ideas, but only seven days to write about them.  One of the faeries on the list was the Far Dorocha or Fear Dorocha.  You know the Irish, they can spell things a dozen different ways and each time it’s completely unpronounceable!

At the same time I was writing this series of blog posts, I was contemplating whether I would have the balls enough to attempt NaNoWriMo.  Yes, I did have the balls, steel balls in fact.  What did I have to lose?  The answer was nothing.  Only problem: What the hell was I going to write about?

I glanced over my blog notebook.  (I keep a notebook for notes on my posts and idea for future posts.)  I kept rereading the name Far Dorocha.  I was going to write a story about him.  And he wasn’t going to be the villain in the story.  He was going to be the hero.    My novel, The Dark Man, was born.

You see, the Far Dorocha isn’t exactly a good guy.  In fact, you can argue he’s a horrible guy.  Far Dorocha means Dark Man.  (I know.   My novel’s name isn’t very clever.  I’m open to suggestions.)  Everyone who studies faerie lore knows that the faerie queen likes to kidnap mortals.  Well, the Far Dorocha does the dirty work for her.  He rides up on his black stead and carts folks back to Faerie for her.  He can compel people to obey without uttering a single word.  He acts as a sort of butler serving the queen her tea.  Oh and he also punishes folks with a big mouths.  What does he do?  He blinds and/or maims them.  Charming really.

The Far Dorocha had the potential to be a complex and interesting character.  How did he become the Far Dorocha?  Did he like his job?  What was his relationship with queen like?  What would he say if he talked?  Does he like red or white wine?  How do the other faeries treat him?  Do they let him join in their faerie games?  The questions are endless.

A few weeks after I started writing The Dark Man (which back then was called Enlightened), I read about Karen Marie Moning’s graphic novel, Fever Moon: The Fear Dorocha.  (If you haven’t checked out the Fever series I would recommend it.  I only read the first book because it was free on my Nook.  I love free books.  I really loved this book.) 

My heard plummeted to into my shoes.  If you haven’t experienced this feeling, you are lucky.  I believe I had a mini-panic attack.  How could I compete with KMM?  The answer was I couldn’t.  Her Fear Dorocha is different from my Far Dorocha.  He appears to be the villain in her story.  I don’t picture him a black suit and tall top hat like she does.  I have seen a few panels from the graphic novel and her Fear Dorocha looks very much like how I picture Ankou, the Breton portent of death.  There seems to be some relationship been the Fear Dorocha and Ankou.  Anyway, I put on my big girl panties and got over it.

If you’d like to check out my inspiration board on Pinterest for The Dark Man, you can check it out here.