After five straight years of NaNoWriMo-ing, the fifth installment in the ‘Horror Vs. Fantasy’ series is finally out for the world to see! Every other book in this shared-universe series has been set in a post-apocalyptic future Earth, but this one was set in modern day Toronto and New York. I figured a clash on this scale would be a globe-wrecking event in itself!

I also took a different approach with this one, beginning the focus on two ordinary best friends before all the chaos starts. I wanted to look at how this conflict impacts the average person, not just the wizards and aliens themselves.

I also had to be picky about what kinds of aliens and wizards I wanted to write. There are different kinds of each.

For the wizards, I wanted to go the direction of all out; eccentric; reality bending – the kind of wizards that would normally only be mentioned in old legends and that don’t exist in-world anymore because if they did they would be too powerful and it would break the story because the writers wouldn’t be able to figure out how to balance it. Then I wanted to come up with aliens powerful enough to balance them. (Yes, I wanted a challenge. Lol.)

For that very reason though, it was hard to find present examples of this in film or literature. It was easy to find good inspiration for quirky powers, items, and creatures, but most examples of direct magic battles amounted to little more than shooting sparks at each other until one of you turns out to have better sparks.

I was looking for examples of wizard combat that actually involved what wizards are known to do, like bizarre conjurations, environmental manipulation, reality-bending abilities.

The best source of inspiration for environmental manipulation was Avatar: The Last Airbender – the classic kids cartoon all about manipulating the elements. As far as how all of that would actually play out in a battle between masters, no other examples in fiction have ever come close.

For the aliens, I had to think very carefully about what kind of aliens to make them. They had to be at just the right scale in order to be on par with the wizards, keeping in mind that I knew I’d be writing approximately 7 wizard characters whereas the aliens have an entire army at their disposal.

A helpful tool to get started was the Kardashev Scale. Kardashev had determined a scaling system for determining a kind of technological power-level of a civilization by determining how much of its own environment it can control, and it largely involves the use of resources. Scale 1 is complete control over one’s own planet. Human civilization currently stands at Scale 0.75 or something, because we haven’t quite mastered proper utilization of Earth’s resources yet.

Scale 2 is complete control over a solar system, including the sun itself, harnessing its energy using a Dyson Sphere or Dyson Swarm and using that to power technology. I knew somewhere between Scale 2 and Scale 3 is where I wanted these aliens to land, because I wanted them capable of interstellar travel – being a conquering force spreading gradually across the Milky Way Galaxy – so somewhere early in Scale 2 made the most sense to me.

This book served as my opportunity to right my own version of a system-conquering nomadic alien species. I wanted to tap into what makes aliens scary, what the popular iterations of aliens are known for, and put my own spin on things. The species in this book is the result of that research and reflection.

I don’t want to say too much about them outside of the book, because one key component of aliens is that they are, by definition, other than. They are strange and unfamiliar, yet should share some commonalities with other organic life. I took all of these things into consideration when considering their design.

Another aspect though, specific to this type of alien civilization, is the event of the alien invasion. Unlike in other books I’ve done in this series, which normally shows significant amounts of both groups before getting into the big action pieces, I made the decision to not show the aliens until the invasion actually begins. The story goes on without them for some time. That way, when they do show up, prepared for war, it actually feels like an invasion.

The question has been raised, where do I go from here?

Book 5 essentially marks the completion of Phase 1 of this novel series. But I have many more ideas I’d like to flesh out.

This is going to be an expirimental year for me. I’m planning to try out a more chill version of NaNoWriMo this Spring, giving myself more leniency on the time limit as long as the wordcount-per-day is consistent. If I do it and it goes well, I may continue that tradition, while still doing NaNoWriMo in some form or other in the Fall as well. I did experience a degree of burnout after this past November, so I know now that I gotta watch my mental health. Writing isn’t the only thing I’m doing anymore. My most followed creative medium these days is my YouTube channel.

So I’m gonna try out some things and see what works. There’s definitely more I want to do with this series if I can manage the time to do it.

Thank you for reading, and for your interest in my stories!

You can find Aliens Vs. Wizards on Amazon at this link.

You can also check out other books in the series by taking a look at my Books by Benjamin T. Collier page.