I get asked three questions by people when I explain that my book series is called “Books of Loukas“.
The first question is: who is Loukas? People assume that Loukas is a person. I dispose of that one by explaining that Loukas is a place.
The next most common question is: What is/Where is Loukas?
The third (less common) question is: Is this book series like the Bible? You know, with related books written about deities, Bad Stuff and Weird Stuff?
So, in collaboration with my podcast, this is an attempt to answer questions 2 and 3.
What is/Where is Loukas?
Loukas is a small town, originally a fishing village, but now mostly a tourist town, located on the South Coast of a large Greek island whose name begins with C and ends in e.
No, Loukas does not really exist. Books of Loukas is a work of fiction, so Loukas is a fictional town. It might bear some resemblance to other towns on the South Coast of that Greek Island…but I could not possibly comment any further.
Loukas nestles on the coast of the Libyan Sea, in a bay with a headland at each end, and under the steep slopes of mountains rising to the North. In the winter, there are frequent storms, but in the Summer, there is a 3-4 month period of fine sunny, and hot weather, which attracts tourists from all over Europe, and sometimes from further afield.
A lot of things happen in Loukas. Some are quite normal. Some are not normal. And some are very…different.
Since Loukas is an imaginary town, you (the reader) and I (the author) have to understand how it is laid out, where the book series characters live, and where the major features and landmarks are. So Loukas had to be documented in a map.
This is a sneak peek at the town map, drawn late at night by the bar woman in the Blue Sea bar off Karperi, next to the Inner Harbor, as she explains Loukas to the main character in the books, who has just arrived in the town for an extended Summer vacation.
(NOTE – Right click on the map and select “open image in new tab” for a larger view)
As part of my writing activities, I have lived in Loukas, I have walked the streets, I have dropped into the various locales and businesses, I have met the people, I have watched them going about their daily business, and I have recorded the activities.
Is this book series like the Bible?
Well…there is a resemblance in that there will be 6 books which follow the adventures of a number of people. Currently 3 books are in various stages of completion, 3 books are sketched. In the grand Hollywood style, there is also a prequel.
There are no deities in Books of Loukas, but there is the presence of a mythical deity from many hundreds of years in the past, which influences the behavior and activities of many of the characters in Books of Loukas.
There are no floods, famine, pestilence or plagues (unless you count drunken tourists), no murders of first-born, and no miracles, parting of seas, wandering in the wilderness or destruction of cities. There are no prophets, no immaculate conceptions, and no acts of unspeakable violence. There are, however, a lot of ethereal, aquatic and carnal goings-on. Some people undergo what could loosely be defined as “religious experiences”, but not the kind one usually sees or hears in a church or other location of Christian worship.
UPDATE – I was reminded of another project that led to the creation of a fake archipelago today, in the form of the famous Guardian newspaper April Fool’s joke article in 1977 on the country of San Serriffe. To this day, it remains one of the best April Fool jokes ever. When I initially started reading it, it took me until the point where I noticed that the place names were all based on typography terms before I realized that this was an April Fool. The clincher was the image of General Pica, the ruler, with his row of fake Latin American caudillo medals. I even bought the t-shirt of General Pica and wore it for a long time, until, like all t-shirts, it became too old and ratty to wear any more.