Around March of 2012, author Mark Gerke, a friend of the Dozerfleet founder's, attempted to promote and publish his own fantasy novella. It had an article on the Dozerfleet Database on Fandom at that time, though the work is no longer being actively promoted by him.
HtraEartH: The Unseen Purity was illustrated by Mark's other friend of the time, Dirk Matthysse. It was released in hardcover and e-book formats, and published online via Amazon. It totaled 48 pages in length (40 in the Kindle version), and received an ISBN number of 978-0-615-59801-7. When its sales failed to impress Mark, however, he abandoned his plans for a sequel.
Plot synopsis
Htrae is a world generated by the creative powers of the cumulative human consciousness. An ancient mystical being named Gem forewarns all sentient life (the reader in particular) of the implications of Htrae's existence. He then proceeds to allow the story of a native of Htrae, Bodoran, be told.
It is revealed that Htrae is guarded by numerous magical beings named "Dreamweavers." The young Bodoran, a Dreamweaver of skill beyond his years, is alerted that the "Un" is wreaking havoc on his world. The Un is a parasite to all things, which will wither everything out of existence if it is not stopped. The life force of Htrae, called the Essence, is the Un's primary food source. It will take all Bodoran's magical abilities to find and stop it before it succeeds; but he must first find the source of its power.
Bodoran meets a new acquaintance along his quest; but is tricked by dark magical energies to cast a spell improperly at one point. This leads to his new acquaintance being transformed into a Darcrata ("Dark Creature.") The new-created Darcrata is but one of many similar beings, which the Dreamweavers do battle with regularly in their quest to keep Htrae safe. Bodoran learns that the horrible magic he has uncovered, which transformed his friend so tragically, is strung from the Darklord Nimjora, self-proclaimed "Darklord of the Darklands." Nimjora has had his eyes on killing Bodoran for a while, and seizes this moment of weakness as an opportunity to defeat his nemesis once and for all.
The events soon unfolding place Bodoran very near to his death bed, as his magical energy is hijacked to produce a horrifying new reality for Htrae. Bodoran realizes he must muster his strength in his darkest hour, when his own power has been turned against him to make all Hell break loose.
Characters
- Gem, a mystical being of old. He is able to go meta in ways other characters cannot. He sends a message to humanity in general, as an introduction (namely, to the reader,) and informs that the world of Htrae is a mirror of Earth that has been created by "the collective of all human imagination."
- Bodoran, member of a class of warriors who battle on the plains of the abstract every bit as often as the concrete. He is known as a "Dreamweaver," and has been sent to find the Un, and stop it from draining the Essence (a type of life force) from Htrae.
- Darklord Nimjora of the Darklands, who is determined to defeat Bodoran, and use the darkest aspects of Bodoran's subconscious to generate a new reality of horror.
- Darcratas ("Dark Creatures"), Nimjora's minions. They are created by Nimjora intercepting the abilities of Dreamweavers, and polluting their magic through dark shadows. At one point, Bodoran makes a new acquaintance - only to have a spell of his sabotaged by Nimjora; thus turning his new acquaintance into a Darcrata.
- The Un, a mysterious entity, one which is slowly draining away the Essence of Htrae. It must be stopped, and Bodoran is determined to stop it at its source - even at the expense of his own life.
Development
Mark first wrote the book with the intent to blend together themes from various different genres; including dream fantasy, horror, and realism. He first got his work published in March of 2012 through Ferris State University's services, as a final project to graduate. He and classmate Dirk collaborated on the project, with Dirk agreeing to be in charge of illustrations. Suspecting that Ferris binding the book in hardcover would limit its sales potential, Mark later resolved to publish through Amazon Digital Services. The book was made available for the Kindle Fire as of May of 2012, as a 103 KB download.
On February 12th and 13th of 2012, Mark alerted fans on his HtraEartH Facebook fan page that he suspected the book would be completed in April.[1] Construction of the book folds neared completion on February 18th, with some work being done in Adobe Illustrator on the front cover designs.
Mark discovered on March 5th that a printing press error had slightly aged the pages, giving the book an "old-timey" appearance that he felt ironically worked to the book's benefit. Also on March 5th, Mark and Dirk's front and back cover artwork compilation was uploaded without the titles and fine print to the official Facebook page. For the first time, curious visitors could see what the main character Bodoran looked like, as well as the nefarious Un.
On March 10th, Mark suggested that the version being released was only a first edition. He would not rule out revising the story to make it longer in the future. The book was announced "finished" off the presses on March 22nd of 2012, though Dirk complained that there was a slight flaw in the ink system that slowed down drying times. [2] The book's copyright notices were updated slightly on March 18th, to allow for future series installments. Finally on May 17th, the book was converted to e-book format and uploaded to Amazon.
A link to the Amazon download was added to the Facebook page around 4:17 PM EST on Thursday, May 17th of 2012. The following Saturday around 10:15 AM, Mark updated his Wordpress account to acknowledge the book's availability.[3]
Around February 12th, Mark announced that he intended to produce a sequel to ''Unseen Purity'', stating: "HtraEartH is a series that is continuing. As early as 2013, the next book will be out." He stated at the time that he had yet to decide on a subtitle for the upcoming sequel. However, those plans for a sequel never unfolded.
Connection to Dozerfleet
The book's author, Mark Gerke, is a friend of the Dozerfleet founder. They met through his wife Kat, whom the Dozerfleet founder met while at Ferris State and living in Bond Hall. Having expressed concerns about not having adequate marketing and fan base tools for promoting his new book, Mark addressed the founder. The founder responded in kind by allowing Mark to set up a new wiki on Wikia's services, which came to be dubbed "HtraEartHWiki."
In May of 2012, HtraEartHWiki began coming to form on its own. A lot of its templates were copy-pasted from the Dozerfleet Database of that time. A few of those templates were slightly modified to fit the new site's theme and needs more adequately.
References
- Gerke, Mark. "Work in Progress." (Facebook post). HtraEartH Fan Page. Facebook. Sunday, February 12th, 3:05 PM EST.
http://www.facebook.com/M.E.Gerke - Gerke, Mark. "Unfortunately, Dirk found a slight flaw." (Facebook post). HtraEartH Fan Page. Facebook. Thursday, March 22nd, 4:12 PM EST.
http://www.facebook.com/M.E.Gerke - 3. Gerke, Mark. "New Author to the Fantasy/Fiction World – M.E.Gerke." ''Wordpress''. May 19th, 2012.
http://megerke.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/new-author-to-the-fantasyfiction-world-m-e-gerke/
Links
- HtraeEarth: The Unseen Purity for Kindle at Amazon
- Mark's Facebook page
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