A Game of Fate - Scarlett St. Clair Page 0,123

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AUTHOR’S NOTE

A Game of Fate is a book for my readers. When I started writing A Touch of Darkness, I knew I was writing Persephone’s story and it could not be any other way. In truth, I thought that Hades’ POV would be too difficult to explore—he was not talkative, and he often gave one-word replies when questioned. It sounds insane, but this is how I write. I tell the story I’m told. As I sat with this idea of writing ATOD from Hades POV and read more about how the Olympians came to power, I began to understand something about our beloved God of the Dead: he was born into a ten-year war. For some reason, this knowledge really hit home for me. I started to understand why Hades felt so dark, why he was so quiet, why he was so impatient and eager for control and eventually, I made my way through A Game of Fate.

So thank you so much, readers—without you, this book would not exist!

As with all my books, I pulled from a variety of myths and I want to go into those details now.

Of course, the major myth I play upon in this book is that of Sisyphus (de Ephyra in my book, which just means of Ephyra, another name for Corinth), the King of Corinth who cheated death twice. There are a few variations of this myth, but the main points are that the first time Sisyphus cheated death, he tricked Thanatos into chains (which his so ridiculous but this is an absurd story so stick with me) and escaped from the Underworld (see where I got the chain idea?). As a result, no one died because Thanatos was not free to reap souls—and guess who got mad? Ares. So, Ares freed Thanatos. So, Sisyphus lived a little while and died again and this time, made a plea to Persephone—could he return to the living and instruct his wife on how to properly bury him? See, prior to his death, Sisyphus had advised his wife NOT to bury him. This guy just did not want to die. Of course, compassionate Persephone agrees. After this, Sisyphus lived to be quite old (because…apparently Hades…no one...really cared that he had escaped the Underworld???), and when he died again, he was sentenced to roll a boulder up a hill only to have it roll back down once he reached the top which doesn’t seem like that horrible of a punishment. I mean, literally other people get their livers eaten out by vultures on the daily. But, it’s very fitting for Sisyphus because he has, essentially, been sentence to struggle for eternity—to obtain success only to watch it unravel before his very eyes. If you think about it long enough (don’t), you’ll see that Hades journey mirrors this same fate…except with a positive outcome.

A few other things to note about Sisyphus: He was known for violating Zeus’s Law of Xenia, which was basically showing hospitality to guests (how nice and ironic that this is Zeus’s SACRED law). Sisyphus would do the opposite and kill his guests because he’s a man and wanted to show his ruthlessness as a king. I also talk about how Sisyphus helped protect Poseidon’s granddaughter from Zeus. This is a play on a similar myth where Sisyphus tells the river god, Asopus where Zeus had taken his daughter, Aegina after he kidnapped her. In some myths, Asopus is the son of Poseidon. In the first instance, Sisyphus incurred the anger of Zeus. As for the second, Zeus ordered Thanatos to chain Sisyphus in Tartarus…and we all know what happened next.

You will also notice the introduction of Helios, God of the Sun. I reference several myths with him. One was the death of his son, Phaethon, who asked to drive Helios’ chariot, lost control, and had to be killed by Zeus before he set the whole world on fire. The other myth I reference is Helios’ sacred cattle. They pop up a few times in mythology—once when they were stolen by the giant Alcyoneus and when they were slain by Odysseus’ men. Both times, Helios took revenge but something I noticed is that he always takes his revenge through other people. For instance, in the case of Alcyoneus, Hercules is the one who defeated the giant and in the case of Odysseus, Zeus helped Helios by sinking the king’s ship, so when it came to Helios being angry with Hades, he goes to Zeus for help first. While I do not directly reference this, in my mind, Helios also told Demeter when Hades was in bed with Persephone. I think there’s irony to the fact that Helios has consistently NOT shown his power—the worst he’s done is threaten to take the sun to the Underworld (in mythology) and plunge the world into darkness (in my book).

Next, Adonis. In Mythology, Adonis was a handsome mortal Aphrodite found as a child. The Goddess of Love asks Persephone to raise him. Aphrodite returns when Adonis is grown but Persephone refuses to give him back as she has fallen in love with him. Now, I like to think that maybe Aphrodite was romantically in love and Persephone saw Adonis as a son, but the myth suggests they are both romantically in love with Adonis (eww). Either way, Zeus got involved and declared that Adonis had to spend a third of the year with Persephone, then with Aphrodite, and for the remaining third, he got to choose (idk why Zeus is all about solving these custody settlements by dividing up the year but whatever). Anyway, Adonis chooses to spend the remaining third with Aphrodite. In the end, Adonis was killed by a wild boar (who knows, maybe Sephy sent it). As he died in Aphrodite’s arms, her tears mixed with his blood, creating the anemone flower. Of course, in my books, I could not accept that Persephone would love anyone else but Hades, so I wanted Adonis to be a villain of sorts—and we know how that turned out.

I will not go into too many details on Aphrodite and Hephaestus, as they will have their own book once the Hades x Persephone Saga is finished, but I just have to say that I think Hephaestus is an intriguing god—I mean, he has created some really powerful weapons and a HUMAN (Pandora). I had a lot of fun imagining how he/his interests would evolve with the modern world and I cannot wait until he and Aphrodite have their own book!

Finally, I just want to say a word about Hermes. I was so excited to play upon his title as God of Thieves. In case you don’t know, Hermes’ title comes from the fact that he stole Apollo’s sacred cattle (I know, he and Helios BOTH have sacred cattle but it’s likely because these two gods are sometimes thought to be one and the same). Anyways, did I mention that Hermes is a BABY when he does this? He was literally born and then the next day he steals this cattle BECAUSE HE IS HUNGRY. Apollo is, obviously, not happy and confronts Baby Hermes. The two end up reconciling (because Zeus) and Hermes gives Apollo a lyre and Apollo gives Hermes his golden staff. The end.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk! I hope you all enjoyed A Game of Fate. I’m so appreciative of your support. It means the world to me. Don’t forget to leave a review and tell all your friends how awesome I am so we can have a Netflix series one day!

Love,

Scarlett

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scarlett St. Clair lives in Oklahoma with her husband. She has a Master’s degree in Library Science and Information Studies. She is obsessed with Greek Mythology, murder mysteries, love, and the afterlife. If you are obsessed with these things, then you’ll like her books.

For information on books, tour dates, and content, please visit www.ScarlettStClair.com