Odessa Silver is a fantasy author from the UK who is inspired by her love of Japan, the natural world, and the human mind. Always a dreamer, Odessa pulls ideas from the many thoughts which dominate her awake or sleeping mind. She has been writing since she was a young child, needing to get down the stories crafted in hours of daydreaming and has always written under the fantasy genre, finding it most freeing and able to explore each idea to its fullest. Odessa lives with her Bengal cat Phoebe, who tries her hardest to steal her attention from writing when possible.
Author Links:
Website: odessasilver.com
Book Links: books2read.com/talesofyamato
Facebook: @OdessaSilverAuthor
Instagram: @odessa_silver
Bluesky: @odessasilver.bsky.social
We’re here to chat about Tales of Yamato, your anthology. What drew you to writing Historical Fantasy based on Japanese mythology and folklore?
I love Japanese media, I watch their tv shows (including anime), stageplays, play games, and read Japanese translated books too. This inspiration led to my first historical fantasy short story which I tied in with mythology because I was writing about the moon. From there, the tie just grew greater and greater, and I got to mix my writing with my love for mythology in general.
What are the main themes in Tales of Yamato and did these evolve organically through the writing process, or were they deliberate choices?
The themes in Tales of Yamato mostly grew organically, partially due to Japanese culture where we see themes such as duty and also to a degree, faith as well. I’m a discovery writer so I just let my subconscious do the rest and as each story built up, I just made sure to incorporate themes that had already come up, if it fit well. Such as the theme of love. I don’t just explore romantic love, but also familial love and also friendship love too. Each character makes deep connections and it’s all about how each of them fit in the wider world, no matter if they are human, god, or yokai.
What attracts you to the short story form, and why choose to write in this format, rather than a longer prose format?
I’ve never been able to write long form (I say this, and yet a long form novel struck me out of nowhere for the first time ever…). Short stories have always been my go to as I love seeing these snippets in time of a characters life. For Tales of Yamato, it has worked well because one of my influences was reading books on mythology as a kid. And in them are a bunch of short stories. Another reason why short stories worked well is that I can freely hop between multiple characters and we can get an overview of the whole land of Yamato, rather than sticking with one or two main characters. I can dip in and out of different gods’ and then yokai (especially as they are all so different) then back to familiar human minds.
How did you choose the order of the 14 tales in the anthology, and do the tales weave into a larger narrative (if so, what?) as well as standalone?
In the 14 tales there are 3 arcs. We have the god Susanoo’s (which has 3 stories), Hotaka’s (which is over 4 stories) and Hirotoshi (who has two stories). The story Broken Waves felt like a good introduction to me, so I placed his arc first, then added in some standalone stories, one which was lighthearted, and one which is heavy.
Then I added in Hirotoshi’s two stories, went back to a lighthearted story, then heavy. Finally, I placed the last arc and ended with a standalone which has a really fun (for me!) ending which I knew HAD to end it. I was really torn as the words from the story before make a pretty perfect ending, but the next story just was that bit more delicious for me as an author.
I tried my hardest to get a good balance in theme so the reader isn’t weighed down by heavy story after heavy story, and can have a break with standalone stories, and those I consider an arc. However, all of them do weave into a larger narrative, as each character is one piece of this working world. You’ll also see how things like duty strike true to deities as well as humans. Or love. And even the yokai can’t escape that too. In the end, although the type of characters are different, at their core, they’re all the same.
Are there any recurring characters in the stories, or do all the stories feature different characters? If characters do recur, introduce us to them!
Yes! Despite there being 14 different stories, I couldn’t help but write more than one on a few characters.
The good Susanoo needed more than one story (and some time passing) to really tell his tale (and meanwhile I wanted to show how he effected the world around him over time too). I always planned for him to have more than one, so it was no shock to me, however…
My two favourite characters have more than one story as well. Some of it is pure selfishness, some of it is needing to know more about them.
For one, Hirotoshi, a young boy spotted by a goddess, I finished his first story and I couldn’t stop wondering what happened afterwards. And so eventually I caved and wrote more about him. I’m possibly not even done with him (teehee).
Hotaka, on the other hand, I gave him a sequel right at the beginning, even before Tales of Yamato became a full idea. I had an itch and needed to keep writing about his world, and so I kept on his journey to see where he’d go. Problem was, even after I decided to write other stories and label them under Tales of Yamato, I still had an itch. I needed to know what happened both next, and right at the beginning of his journey.
And so I ended up writing a prequel to my original story (Beneath Tsukuyomi), and a sequel to end his arc. Writing that was tough, as it was right near the end of all the stories I planned for Tales of Yamato, so I ended up saying goodbye to Hotaka and Yamato in one swoop.
Will you be revisiting any of these stories, themes or characters in later works?
I have some ideas for a second book, similar to Tales of Yamato. In those plans I do have ideas to revisit a few familiar human and yokai faces. Definitely the gods though, as I have only chosen a handful to write about, as to not overwhelm readers with both difficult deity names, but also all their baggage. As for themes, I haven’t picked out any intentionally yet, I’ll discover those as I go along.
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