Yesterday (1.20.08) I went up to my parents house for the afternoon, and of course some home-cooked dinner. After a lovely meal consisting of salad, Soy Chicken patties and macaroni and cheese, I was talking to my parents about a book series I remembered.
It was the ‘Exitorn adventures’ by Peggy Downing, and the first fantasy series I’d ever read. It was a six book series, and I’d read the whole thing at least twice by the time I was ten. The heroes in the books, Brill and Segra, were very well fleshed out, and had good morals to glean from. The more I’d been thinking about them, the more I realized how much inspiration I’d drawn from that series. The world Exitorn never lost its fairy-tale feel for me. Sometimes, fantasy stories, the longer you read them, become not quite so ‘Long ago and Far Away’ feeling, but these never did.
The biggest component of the series that impacted me, however, was the authors use of gemstones. Many times in the series, they’d use gems from the dress of a princess, or a chest of diamonds they’d find to pay for their stay at the inn, or even to fund a private army. You’d read about Segra pulling a square emerald from a small pouch of gems, and handing it to the shop owner, who would stare in wonder. I don’t know why that connected with me as much as it did, but ever since I’ve always been fascinated with gemstones in literature. The way magic works in my fantasy stories is based on a gemstone system, and many other story ideas have ‘gems of power’ or some such thing. Can’t get enough of them. 
I was pretty sure I’d kept the book series. I wanted to get them out and read them again (for the first time in 15 years or so) to see if it was something amazing the author did to make the stories seem so alive to me, or if it was just my imagination making up the difference.
My Mom, being the helpful lady she is, went down in the garage with me, and we spent 40 minutes going through our book boxes, trying to locate the series. I found several boxes that I thought contained them, but it was to no avail. Sadly, I didn’t find them. There are some other places I can look however, and next week I’m going up again to search some more. I have to find them; ordering them is pretty much out of the question. I’d have to order from like 6 different used bookstores around the country to get them. Still, if I can’t locate them anywhere else, that might become an option. This six book series is one of the things I would be ok with hauling around in my travels. It’s earned the right.
Still, the 40 minutes of digging wasn’t a total loss. I found an old copy of ‘The Seven-Per-Cent Solution’, a followup to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ adventures. I have been meaning to get it from the library; I forgot we had a copy.
I also found my old army jacket! (M65 Field Jacket) Well, it’s actually my Dad’s, but he gave it to me when I was sixteen. Problem was, I worked at a computer store and got husky enough that it didn’t fit me for a while. Well, I’m happy to say it fits again, and once my Mom washes it for me (She offered!) then I’ll be wearing that around.
The jacket has a long history. It was bought for my Dad by his friend in the Army, back in ’76 from the Annex. So it’s over thirty years old. Is it frayed in areas? Yes, and that makes it more special.
Among the items I found was a small notebook that was my ‘Private Journal for 1998′. I barely did ten entries before I burned out, but it was still very interesting. Reading an entry from January 15th 1998, almost exactly ten years ago, was a neat experience. I think if I ever have a kid, I’ll force the little bugger to make a log entry somewhere once a month at least.
Anyway, I didn’t find what I was looking for, but found some neat things regardless. Hopefully this weekend I will be reunited with the books from my past.