Readers have been asking Tony Hilling -"WHERE DID YOU DIG UP THAT NAME “AEDISTAMEN” ANYWAY?"

Good question!

Where does such a name come from?

I suppose the same place that Narnia came from or Quidditch, or Silmarillion, or Tokay. “What’s in a name?” Shakespeare said. Most names in reality have some sort of provenance: Native American, Anglo-Saxon, Semitic, Celtic etc. Fantasy worlds are different. Aedistamen came from the same black hole that Dune came from, and has no other provenance except that it rhymes with Tutenkhamen! Amen, to that!

But the word, provenance, brings me to the connection between fantasy worlds and what we call reality. I’ve always had this conviction that fantasy worlds should at least doff their hats to the real world in respect of how it works. I realize I am being studiously vague, but what I‘m saying is that it’s great to have dwarves (or dwarfs, if you prefer) and dragons, but they’d better behave according to the rules. “What rules?”…you might ask. Well, the way things happen in our crazy domain, where “s--- happens”, as the bumper sticker declares, and good people sometimes get wasted without any apparent guiding moral hand. And isn’t that just the human condition? To play out your part without depending on the “dea ex machina” to rise up out of the ashes and sweep you into her protective arms. I remember when I was a little boy in Glasgow, I would visit my grandmother on Saturday afternoon. And we’d usually go past the Cinema (or the “picture house” as we called it) and about 11:00 A.M. or so, the matinee was playing which was usually about cowboys and their traditional opponents (I’m trying to be politically correct!) At that precise time, I always heard a resounding shout coming from the boys and girls in the cinema, signalling that the cavalry had finally arrived. We Scots are really into our happy endings.

In one of the paragraphs of my story, I have one of the characters say, “I would rather have some happiness before the endings!” Wouldn’t we all! I suppose what I’m trying to say is that the world I have created is authentic (in my view) in so far as it truthfully reflects the heart of our own world. Ergo, the rules! But I have a confession to make: I sometimes break them. Because in Aedistamen there is a “Deus”, and He doesn’t just rise out of the ashes. He’s there all the time, just like here. So, if you think our world is in a mess, don’t fret. The cavalry is a-comin’!


Tony (Anthony John) Hilling was born in Glasgow, Scotland of Scots/Irish parentage. He has spent time as a lawyer, priest, non-denominational pastor, and most recently as a writer. His first work, "The Voice of Aedistamen", tells the story of an enslaved people in a fantasy world who struggle for freedom. In their quest they rediscover an ancient faith in a forgotten God who calls forth a deliverer from among them. Tony is also working on another fantasy novel, "The Caves of the Kananaskis", and has written a biblical play called, "Imwas". He and his family now make their home in Western Canada.


Drop by Tony's Amazon Author Page:http://www.amazon.com/Tony-Hilling/e/B00Y3UFUFS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1438731967&sr=8-1