Foretelling

For my story Cassandra, published last week by eXtasy Books, I needed prophecies. Cassandra, as those of you familiar with the ancient Greek stories may know, was given the gift of prophecy, along with the curse that no one would believe her.  The title character in my story starts with the same predicament, but eventually gets to where people will believe her interpretations of what she says.  This being an extremely erotic story, her prophecies are sharper after sex.  Especially after group sex. 

For the words of her prophecies, I went to The Lyrical Dramas of  Aeschylus, as translated into English verse by John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895), a translation that is in the public domain. I was careful to acknowledge this in the foreword to the story. There's a long passage called Cassandra's rant.  When I came to a point where Cassandra needed to make a prophecy, I pulled a few words from Mr. Blackie's translation of this passage and had her recite them in a screechy voice, generally after fucking.  Then I'd have her interpret the prophecy in a way that moved the story along. This was surprisingly easy, and a fun way to send the story line in directions I hadn't anticipated.

But sometimes I needed a more directly phrased prophecy.  So I had her receive them on an iPhone, in calls from a number that translates in alphanumeric code to the name Apollo.  Prophecies from this source are short and direct. Often enough, they command her to fuck whoever she's with.  She always complies, energetically, and then interesting things happen.