Interesting or creepy? Why?
I love snakes! I think they’re pretty fascinating. Their scales are smooth and cool to the touch. They have a variety of different colors and patterns. Their movement is elegant and when provoked, they can be quite vicious. I especially love snakes with fangs because of how intimidating and fierce they can be.
I know, not everyone shares my view of snakes. I mean, you could just have that phobia, but when you really think about it, they get A LOT of bad rap. In books and movies and other stories, snakes are typically the bad guys. Just look at Nag and Nagaina from Rikki Tikki Tavi, the basilisk from Harry Potter, or even Medusa with her hair full of snakes. I think most of us can testify that growing up, we saw a lot of snakes or other reptiles being marked as the villains. For some of us, it could be because a serpent tempted Eve in the garden of Eden or maybe we grew up with Kaa from The Jungle Book, the Mara from Doctor Who, or video games where your fight a lot of reptiles: dragons, lizards, and snakes.
Long ago, when I was in middle school, I remember playing Baulder’s Gate, a video game, with my brother and we encountered this snake/lizard man who was requesting our help. Well, we help him and it ends up resulting in this snake-guy betraying us because he was in the service of the main villain the entire time. I was upset, because I thought I finally found a story were the reptile wasn’t a villain, but I was wrong. I was starting to think no one wanted snakes or reptiles of any kind to be the good guys.
Fast forward a couple years and I start writing my novel. If you’ve read my past posts, you know I’ve got elves, and centaurs, and fairies, and dwarves within it. Well, to not be a total Narnia knockoff, I included a few more species that have my own little twist to them, and, you betcha! I put reptilians, snake/lizard people, in my novel.
Now, you’re probably thinking: “oh, so you’re rewriting the twist on reptiles? You’re gonna make one of your snake people the good guy?” Let me put it this way: who’s good and who’s bad in my novel is entirely a matter of opinion. Yes. There is a protagonist and an antagonist like any good story. However, when it comes to every other character–snake people, centaurs, elves, and other–you have to decide for yourself where everyone falls on the spectrum of Light and Darkness. I mean, you could even decide that someone is right smack in the middle of the gray area. I could tell you how I view my characters, but I don’t want to sway your opinion.
I can’t tell you how often I wish for feedback on my novel and its mostly feedback I want on my characters. I love them to death and I hope everyone else loves them too. God willing, someday you’ll be able to go to the bookstore or go to the library and pull a book off the shelf with the author of Nikki Diekemper. I hope you read it, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you let me know what you think. Oh, and one last thing:
I hope you’re not afraid of snakes.
nikki diekemper 