Hermes is the herald of the Gods. He is the protector of human heralds and travellers. The title operates on many levels with several messengers in the different epochs and of course, the sea creatures are sacred in Hermes world. Using the turtles in the story came from my love of Scuba Diving and the more general ecological message but they play back into the legend of Hermes and Hermes is also a trickster which resonates in the narrative on two levels.
I wanted to start by asking if you had the title before you started writing this one?
I did and what is odd about the choice, like so many elements of the book, is the synchronicity of the story and why it is called Hermes became more persuasive.
What is the theme of Hermes?
Oh dear, there are so many, but the central one is we make our way into the heavens to a place that has always known humanity; intimately. They already have a view of us.
In Hermes, you explore the essence of what it is to be human. Do you think human beings are ready psychologically and socially to be led (by a greater intelligence) away from their “dark ending?”
As the years go by, I become more and more certain we are not. I wrote this book in 2022 and the reality of it, the type of person who would sponsor a mission and that would set out for another world, humanity’s inability to speak with a single voice, state-sponsored industrial espionage, has only increased, life is imitating art.
Are you gloomy or optimistic about the future in terms of the way we’re learning, or not, from past mistakes? Do you think we’re hardwired to self-destruct? Do you think it’s time to pause?
Pause and soon
Are there any experiences that shaped or informed the writing of this book?
In each epoch, there are particular ones.
Living In New Zealand and learning about the culture, inspired me to begin the story in a location on the Northwest Coast of the South Island among ancient man and their beliefs so nobly expressed in the Polynesian Tribal leader Nikau.
My love of the history of Anglo-Saxon and Tudor England which I studied at GCSE A levels, a long time ago.
Living in Abu Dhabi has made me intimately aware of the vision of the Sheiks which is beginning to emerge in a vision for a Cultural District, where I live, and extraordinary museums like the Louvre Abu Dhabi which is a location in my book. The hard-working ex-pat communities particularly the Indian one, which is reflected in the opening pages of Movement Three with the death of Elizabetha Chandrika’s father who hails from Kerala.
The empty quarter of the Liwa Desert where Space City is located.
Tell us a little about your writing process.
I write very fast, the spine of the stories of my books are written in about six weeks. I do all my research first and then dip into it for clarification as I go through it. Once the spine of the story is written I polish and rewrite and polish endlessly. Hermes’s first draft was finished in six weeks, but I have spent two years bringing it to the standard it is at today. During that period, I use a reading group some of whom do line-by-line analysis others more general feedback and one in particular proofreads. My location is very important. All of my books have been written in Abu Dhabi and the polishing in Lombok and The Forest of Bowland. What characterises all three locations is I have no distractions.
When it comes to this sort of writing, who are you influenced by?
I am a very cinematic writer, indeed my writing emerged out of frustrations with certain films. Hermes was influenced by 2001 A Space Odyssey. I wanted to have that relationship with an enigmatic intelligence but tell the story in fine historical detail. So, when an author said to me it reminded them of 2001 but goes much further, I was very satisfied. I see my books as page-turners, so my love of early Wilbur Smith is in there or Dan Brown. I love Hardy, Haggard, Rooney, Fleming but I am not sure they get into my books. I think the film Lion In Winter gets into Hermes.
A real love of music underscores the pages of the book. How is music important to you? What music meant the most to you growing up?
Music is the soundtrack to my life it’s with me all the time. When I sit down for supper when I am sat under the stars, I play music throughout the day at home in Abu Dhabi. It is a constant oral embrace. Growing up I was a post-Beatles fan so all the music which embraced Jazz, Classical Folk was important to me. The band that took me from pop music to Bartok, Sibelius, Stravinsky the Guitar work of Bream and the Choral music of Byrd was Yes, the hugely successful progressive rock band of the seventies. I still love Fairport Convention for their storytelling and English Tradition, that flavour of Englishness fascinates me
Can you tell us anything about what’s next for Emily Chance?
The follow-through novel to Hermes is written, called Angelia. It needs a little bit of proofing, but it was written in 2023 in response to the excitement of Foreshore agreeing to publish Hermes. Like Hermes, it is prescient, horribly so, written before the October 2023 attack on Israel and its tragic aftermath. I am currently writing “Isosceles.” It was inspired by the opening scene of a movie directed by Ridley Scott in 2012, Prometheus.
About the author:
Emily Chance has been writing her highly regarded blog about her great passion, music, a theme which underscores Hermes, for almost two decades. The publication of this, her epic first novel, signals the beginning of her journey as an author, with a follow-up story, Angelia, already written. Emily is a very keen hiker. So, when she is not writing at her home in the Middle East, she can be found at various points in the year in the Alps of Switzerland, the mountains of New Zealand and the South Island of Japan, reminding herself of how precious and unique our homeworld is.
