The Beginning

The story of VerGann has been twenty-three years in the making. What started out as a short story written as a pleasant diversion from an unexciting and, oftentimes, stressful job soon grew into an epic tale of one man's unconventional life.

My inspiration for this story came from the traditional fairy tale, the old-fashioned boy-likes-girl with the inevitable multitude of unforeseen and often unkind circumstances preventing their love from ever fully being realized. Yet against all odds, love always finds a way. These true-love tales hold a special place in so many hearts; nothing beats an innocent love story filled with adventure, uncertainty, trials and triumphs. And who doesn't love castles, princes, princesses, and otherworldly creatures all coming together in one story?

In his earliest beginnings, the character of VerGann was simply a man; the text in Book One even makes humorous reference to this. As a friendly, respectful and, not to mention, unusually handsome young man, VerGann was an interesting character - a loyal sidekick to a down-on-her-luck girl living on the streets. From his quick-witted humor to his protective nature, VerGann was a likable character from start to finish. But that story has been written a million times before. In those early writings, VerGann frequently overshadowed every other character in the scene. No matter how I tried, the focus always returned to VerGann. It was not long until I realized the whole story needed a shift.

And so, I started over.

VerGann needed to be special - that guy that people are inexplicably drawn to, but a certain mysterious aloofness keeps them at bay. A man with a story, a history so rich that it defies belief. A man set apart from the masses of men walking the streets of Draven. He needed to be able to navigate the highs and lows of love and loss, of fear and wanting. He needed to struggle with the consequences of wrong decisions while combating the flood of confusing thoughts that led to those decisions in the first place. Yes, VerGann needed to be human.

Human, with a little something extra.

That something extra came in the creation of the delpin race. VerGann was a delpin, an otherworldly being from the mysterious EliSann Forest. Magical beings or creatures often serve as adversaries to the main character in fantasy fiction, actively working against the title hero's end goal. In other works, they are mere sidekicks, a way to inject magic into the rich world the author has created. With the addition of his extraordinary, yet never fully defined, powers, VerGann's interest as a character grew tenfold. He was now the main character.

As a delpin, VerGann could walk that fine line between the magical and human world as needed. He fit in both. It was important from the start to give him limits, though. Although he possessed powers that defied reason, VerGann was not a super-hero, a caped avenger of everything that was wrong in the world. He was grounded in loyalty to those closest to him, not plagued by a god complex that never allowed the reader to understand or even like him. He could be hurt, physically and emotionally. VerGann had to be friend, confidant, leader, adversary, protector and mysterious being from the EliSann Forest all in one, yet have that vulnerability that surfaced from time to time to draw the reader to him. This was a man with feelings, experiencing the ups and downs of normal relationships while balancing rather extra-ordinary expectations and responsibilities back home in EliSann.

The creation of a completely new otherworldly race dropped right in the middle of the human world was exciting - but was VerGann the only being of his kind? It seemed fitting that others existed. The EliSann community could use a little boost to bring it to life. A whole forest of VerGanns was too much; he would no longer be special. A small group of delpins living among other forest folk sounded much more plausible. They would be part of the community, yet unique in the role they played there, with an unyielding bond to their fellow delpins first and foremost.

And so the formation of the brotherhood of the delpins was created. They would all be male so as to emphasize that unwavering brotherly bond. They would struggle with VerGann's absence while trying their hardest to support him amidst the new experiences and feelings he faced in the human world that were so foreign to their kind. And most importantly, the delpins would anchor VerGann to the EliSann community - provide that unwavering bond that would make it near impossible for him to walk away from EliSann for good.

Conflict and difficult decisions are great additions to any story. With an interesting main character, the world of EliSann and VerGann's experiences apart from it were wide open to explore. I did not know at that time where the story would take me, but I was excited to begin the journey. And so began the writing of The Delpine Diaries.