The Idea Behind Nectar and Ambrosia

by E.M. Hamill

Nectar and Ambrosia is a bar and hotel that straddles dimensions, a threshold between our world and the dimension from which the Amaranthine originate. The (alas) fictional pub is located in my hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, smack in the middle of downtown in the popular Power and Light District.

The idea for this story actually came from a dream I had. There was a guy behind the bar that everyone knew was the “go-to” guy if you needed something from the gods: blessings, favors, interventions. People would go and talk to him and he would be the one to decide whether or not you’d get to go upstairs or in the back room and talk to the gods personally.

I was compelled to write about this man immediately after the dream, and although he ended up a very different person in Nectar and Ambrosia,  Florian became the main character of a really bad short story, pieces of which  ultimately ended up in a couple of different chapters of the book. One scene I did not use involved Florian reminding Hades and Satan his back room was a non-smoking section.

The ideas behind organized religion, mythology, and celebrity are admittedly cynical and snarky, but I had a good time rewriting the origins of my favorite mythological characters to reflect the alternate reality I was building. Having all these different pantheons, legends and philosophies in one place was challenging and not only required research, but a careful dash of creative license. I’ve tried to remain respectful while still putting all of them behind the same sarcastic filter.

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