The Tempest

I think, if there is any literary work Seafear owes a debt to, it is William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Hell, the only literary work to have a bigger influence on my life is Harry Potter, and that might just only be because I grew up with Harry and discovered The Tempest as I neared adulthood.

In my junior year of high school, the theater department put on The Tempest; I auditioned for it, having acted in childhood and the year before in Our Town. I didn't really expect to get any amazing part -- I initially read for the role of Antonio, but then I got really attached to the part of Caliban. I read for Prospero twice -- once, when my friend volunteered me to go, and once when the director asked me to read for it.

I'm told that after auditions, the girl who was essentially queen of the theater department at my high school (deservedly; she is an extremely talented actress, who lights up the entire stage with her presence) told her parents that my audition for Caliban was the most impressive there. "Oh good," I thought, "maybe I'll get that part."

The day the cast list was posted, I went to list and checked under Caliban -- I wasn't the one cast in that part. I was a little disappointed, but I looked at the other male parts, and I saw my name listed after Prospero.

Biggest shock of my life. I flirted with the idea of being Prospero shortly before auditions, but decided that he would go to a senior (there were four senior guys in the cast that year). I was only a junior, I still had to work my way up to a lead role, I thought. Evidently I thought wrong, and so I began what is, to this day, the singular greatest experience of my life.

The whole cast of The Tempest did a damn fine job, and I feel like that play marked the end of my awkward years (or at least gave me a shield of confidence to hide my gawky, pimply self behind). The Tempest gave me a stepping stone on which to build a great senior year of high school, and, as my mother put it, was "my shining moment."

I never intended to have Seafear imprinted with The Tempest. But when I reread the novel, and look at where I plan to take the other two books, I can see the Bard's paws all over the thematic choices I've made. One of the biggest themes in my series is the consequence of choices, and the power of forgiveness. Before we started rehearsals for The Tempest, our director (one of the greatest men I know) had us write in our scripts "Love and forgiveness are more powerful than the darkest of evils."

I spent the second half of my freshman year in college in an English class that the teacher based around The Tempest. (To my credit, I didn't know this when I signed up for it, I just needed an Honors credit for the semester and took the only class that was open.) We discussed the role of colonization, and the role of the "savage native" as portrayed by Caliban. The Orident Federation has human rights concerns with its natives; this was the only conscious call to The Tempest that I made when writing the book.

When I think about literary characters that are important to me, Prospero is one of the most impressing on me, chiefly because I had to spend such an intense period of time in his head, trying to portray him. His character arch is probably the one that I can tell the best, and I think that's why Prospero and Jericho Monday have so much in common.

When I work on the sequels to Seafear, I'm going to more consciously draw back to The Tempest. I've already picked the epigrams for both of those books, and, unsurprisingly, they're both from The Tempest. I feel it is a sort of debt I owe that play, the show that changed my life. My (hopefully) professional writing career, essentially, would not be the same without that show.