Now that Grimms & Garms, Book #2 in the Rose Cross Academy series, has been published, it’s time to start talking about the first book in the series, Risers & Dreamers!  In this post, I’m going to explain the chapter titles for Risers & Dreamers, and why I chose them. Many have hidden meanings, while some are meant as a play on words, and all equate to the plot of their chapters in some form. But first a warning!

Spoilers for Risers & Dreamers abound, but I have blanked out spoilers for Grimms & Garms where I’ve needed to reference them if you have not yet read the book. In order to reveal the spoiler, highlight the text with your pointer.

Just [ like ] this.

Book Title Explained

Why Risers & Dreamers? The Risers and the Dreamers are the two classifications of students who attend the Rose Cross Academy. Risers exorcise demons and deal with ghostly hauntings that happen mostly in the day time (the early risers), whereas Dreamers take care of those which go bump in the night (while people are dreaming/sleeping). Dreamers are generally thought of to be stronger than Risers.

Here we follow the day-to-day lives of students of the Rose Cross Academy. That is, until the proverbial demon sh*t hits the fan.

 

Book Cover(s) Explained

The original cover (on the left) was that of one of the trees in Below, the white-barked, fissured-trunk trees used to denote the demon worlds. I developed this cover way back when I started as an indie author and had little clue about what to do when it came to the cover.

For the next iteration, I tried to come up with a theme I could use across all covers. The black covers worked for Grimms & Garms as well, but when it came to Book #3, Bane & Butterflies , the theme stopped working. Back to the drawing board.

Then came the white silhouette covers which are the standard now. The top silhouette represents Above, the human world, with the bottom silhouette representing Below, the demon world.

Author’s side note: I based the Rose Cross Academy off my own alma mater, SAIT. The silhouette of the school on the cover is a photo I took of the main campus building, Heritage Hall, which I then outlined in Photoshop.

Chapter Titles Explained

The Forest – as you will see in subsequent novels, the opening sequence is always a nightmare that kicks off the events of the novel in which it happens. In this case, a young boy Jeffrey is lost in a forest haunted by four demons that later serve to open the portal in Pleasantwood Elementary school that ultimately swallows June Bae into Below.

As well, trees are an important indicator of where you are in the many plains of the world of the novel. In The Forest, the trees start off as ‘normal’ trees we would see in our own back yard: oak, maple, mulberry. As Jeffrey’s nightmare progresses, the trees start turning into the skinny white-barked trees with black rot and fissures used to indicate the demon world of Below.

The trees of Below are modeled after the Trembling Aspen of the Canadian boreal forest. They have brilliant white bark that looks as if it’s being eaten away from the inside by black rot. First Nations believe the trees have eyes that watch you to make sure you’re respecting the forest, a notion I use later on in the novel.

 

Chapter 1: Demons and Dim Sum – June, Noel, and Stella wait out their demon target in a Chinese restaurant early in the morning. Most Chinese restaurants serve Dim Sum for breakfast; small dishes of steamed or fried savoury dumplings with various fillings.

 

Chapter 2: A Few Arms and a Leg – Upon finding out their target is a little larger than expected—the horse-sized centipede demon, the Scolopendra—June, Noel, and Stella of Dreamer Team Four proceed to take the demon apart by removing many of its appendages.

 

Chapter 3: Eat Your Problems for Breakfast – As a reward for completing their mission, Dreamer Team Four has a small victory breakfast at McDonalds. This also serves to highlight June’s many social problems, such as he’s lazy, doesn’t sleep much, and as a result is picked on by his teammates.

 

Chapter 4: School Daze – This is more a play on the fact that June didn’t get enough sleep last night and is in a daze as they head to school.

 

Chapter 5: Demonology 101 – This is the first class of the day, thus emphasizing the fact that that the Rose Cross Academy is not your typical high school.

 

Chapter 6: Elysium Blues – The main announcement hall of the campus is the Elysium Conservatory, in a similar fashion as many school gymnasiums double as their auditorium. The Elysium Conservatory is where the student body are given their en masse orders, such as Community Visits, which are arguably the most detested jobs of a Cross student. This news gives June ‘The Blues’ as his previous Community Visit did not instill the warm-and-fuzzies in him. In Grimms & Garms, we learn students do not like to venture off-campus [as the civilian population tends to greet them with scorn.]

In Greek mythology, the Elysium is a sacred plain at the ends of the earth where heroes went to enjoy their afterlife in paradise. Throughout the many retellings, the Elysium eventually became connected with Hades, the Underworld.

In Grimms & Garms, we learn the Elysium Conservatory [holds many school plays where the heroes (the Cross students) enjoy their downtown. It also houses the school’s dungeons deep underground; an allegory to Below.]

 

Chapter 7: Show No Fear – June doesn’t like children, but the feeling is not mutual. Noel jokes with him that, just like demons, children can smell his fear. It’s for this reason why all the second graders are drawn to June during the cleansing of the classroom.

 

Chapter 8: God, Save the Children – since the Ghasts launch their attack in an elementary school, we’re left fearing for the safety of the children as the school goes into lockdown. Harm against children is an uncomfortable thought for much of the population.

 

Chapter 9: Below – This is the name humans have given the world of demons, where June now finds himself. This also serves to set up the Layered World trope of the RCA universe, establishing that the demon world exists ‘below’ our world. This concept is used to show human’s thought patterns in that we believe we are the most superior race on the planet and other races, such as demons, are ‘below’ us.

 

Chapter 10: This Little Piggy – There are many references to nursery rhymes, lullabies, and children’s games in the series. This chapter turns the ‘This Little Piggy’ rhyme—where parents playfully pinch the toes of their children—on its head. It’s a giant pig demon—the Sus Scrofa—that ends up pinching the toes (or just eating the whole damn leg) of school bully Jackson Keaton. The Sus Scrofa [is a reoccurring demon in the Rose Cross Academy series.]

Chapter 11: The Blood and the Bone – Nothing is more gruesome than traumatic injury, such as seeing what’s left of Jackson’s mangled leg after June saves him from being eaten by the the Sus Scrofa. Whereas we’re used to blood and guts in horror, there’s nothing quite so chill-inducing as the crunch of broken bones and the slow ooze of blood from a wound. The fear of mutilation is one of humankind’s five base fears.

 

Chapter 12: Ghost Box – A ghost box is a paranormal researcher device used to communicate with ghosts by turning white noise into words. As cell phone’s mysteriously work in Below, when June calls up Noel, Noel’s phone can be considered a ghost box as June is using it to communicate from another plain of existence.

Chapter 13: Under Glass – June and Jackson hide out in June’s protection Barrier in Below; several times June questions their safety within the Barrier since the pig demon, Sus Scrofa, easily ripped through Jackson’s Barrier when it attacked him. They’ve basically trapped themselves and thrown up a neon sign as to where they are; easy pickings if anything decides to come for them.

 

Chapter 14: Red – Refers to Petra’s anger, both internal and external—as in one ‘sees red’ when angered. This also refers to the colour of blood from the wound she gave turncoat professor Charles Nevin when she shot him.

The Professors at the Academy wear red-trimmed black suits; at this point in the events of Risers & Dreamers, the student body do not trust many of their professors since Charles Nevin turned rogue, kidnapped June, and put the lives of civilian children in danger. The man is also responsible for the death of one Cross student now and labeled a traitor, thus putting any red-trimmed, suit-wearing adult as a traitor.

Author’s Note: The chapter was influenced by Taylor Swift’s song ‘Red’, where she sings of how love is so swift and fleeting that the heartbreak it causes makes a person see red. It’s a perfect match to Petra’s heartbreak she feels after June was kidnapped and taken Below.

Chapter 15: . . . Is Through His Stomach – As in the phrase “the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. June hopes that by feeding Jackson that the school bully will stop picking on him. He also feels guilty for only watching while the Sus Scrofa tried to eat the man alive.

Food and water is also a pressing matter in Jackson’s situation and this idea feeds off our fear of death by starvation. Although they are not starving nor parched, but Jackson is under the care of Alchemy in order to keep him alive. Made popular by the anime Fullmetal Alchemist, the   Law of Equivalent Exchange) (based off the hermetic principle of Causality) requires that in order to gain something you must first give something in return. Without food and water, the Alchemy keeping Jackson alive is also eating him alive. It’s vital that he gets food and water to keep the Alchemy from killing him. Equivalent Exchange is kinda a dick that way.

Chapter 16: Growl – An emphasis of the growling of demons which Jackson believes to be Garms in the woods outside their Barrier. This is confirmed by red glowing eyes in the darkness of the forest. Garms, as he points out, are servants of the most feared of demons, Grimms—grim reapers. The relationship between these two types of demons lends to the title of Book #2 in the series, Grimms & Garms.

 

Chapter 17: Burn Your Fear – Many times in the novel, the characters have to overcome their fears to survive. Now it’s Petra’s turn. In order to save June, they must travel Below using the portal that originally sucked him up in the first place. This will inevitably drop them into the skies of Below in free-fall, and it’s here we learn Petra has a fear of heights. She must overcome this fear in order to save June.

The chapter also plays on our fears of the unknown and how we must often overcome our own fears in order to grow and progress in life.

 

Chapter 18: Mr. Grimm – When June first ended up Below, he met a strange man in a hat and trench coat. This same man watches him from the forests as he and Jackson hide within the Barrier. Jackson believes this hat-and-cape man to be the one controlling the Garms, so therefore he must be a Grimm. The man is thus nicknamed Mr. Grimm, and the nickname unfortunately sticks.

Author’s Note: Mr. Grimm’s visuals are based off of T.O.P.’s depiction of a the domineering but misunderstood monster inside of men in Big Bang’s music video Monster.

 

Chapter 19: Hide and Go Die – A play on the children’s game, Hide and Go Seek. Mr. Grimm uses the shadows of the forest to hide while Noel and Johann try to keep him occupied long enough for the rest of the crew to rescue June and Jackson.

There is a lessser-known sinister version of this game called Hide and Go Clap, whereas the seeker wanders around blindfolded while the hider claps to lure them. This game is used many times in horror movies to announce the presence of a ghost or evil spirit, as the spirit will clap in place of the hider.

 

Chapter 20: Easy Act To Follow – Mr. Grimm /  Dehmion Faust follows June and his rescue party through the forests of Below to a Fraxinus tree—one of the great world-spanning trees that link all plains of existence. We get the feeling Dehmion has let the group take June in order to find these trees, thus making it an easy escape.

 

Chapter 21: Go Climb a Tree – How do our heroes get June out of Below? Why, they climb a tree, of course! This is actually the most common method of traversing the two worlds. The Fraxinus trees (scientific term for the Ash tree) root in Purgatory and grow through all plains of existence, thus linking Below and the Waking World to all other worlds in known existence. All one has to do to travel between them is to climb or descend a specific breed of tree.

If it is so easy to get into the human world, then why hasn’t Dehmion just climbed this tree before?

Fraxinus trees look like every other tree Below so they’re damned hard to spot. June can find them because he’s a Wayseer. However, Dehmion is not and thus cannot see the Ways nor distinguish the Fraxinus trees from the rest of the forest. In Grimms & Garms it is revealed that one can only see the Ways if you are either 1) a Wayseer, like June, or 2) [if you are bound to another plane of existence through unusual circumstances] .

Since Dehmion is a lord of Below, he is therefore bound to the lands of Eops in order to protect them. He can ‘travel down’ (he can travel easily from the Waking World to Below) but not vice versa. He is unable to see the Ways in Eops to ‘travel up’ [as he’s never meant to leave. He needs June for this.] Unless a nightmare causes a rift in the fabric between worlds, in order for Dehmion to get above he would have to literally climb every tree in the forest and hope to just chance upon a Fraxinus tree.

 

Chapter 22: To the Dawn, to the Hale Sky Above – Once our heroes climb their tree, they’re presented with dawn. The birth of a new day and the first light of morning is a classical signal of the end of the Hero’s Journey and the end of a perilous journey.

 

Chapter 23: Dark Shame – This is “that scene” in the novel—the one where Petra has her way with June while he’s unconscious and oblivious to her fondling him and kissing him. When she’s startled out of her quiet worship of his body, she’s ashamed she’s done such a thing to him.

Author’s Note: The scene came about from my frustration over the Orihime-breaks-into-Ichigo’s-bedroom-just-to-cry-on-his-face scene in Bleach. I’m sure I wasn’t the only hopeless romantic screaming “Damn it, just kiss him already!” at their television. Petra, however, follows through . . . and then some. *wink*.

Chapter 24: Hello, My Name Is You – When Mr. Grimm / Dehmion Faust appears in Noel’s dorm room, he does so in such a way that Noel believes himself to be haunted. The voices he hears (which are just Mr. Grimm trying to get his attention) are “all in his head”, so he can only fear himself. Sudden mental instability / dementia is another fear shared by much of the population.

 

Chapter 25: It’s Not the Weapon Nor The Skill – What beats the baddy? It’s not a weapon, it’s not your own skills, it’s the good ol’ fashioned Kill It With Fire trope. Not because it’s the end of the novel and we’re getting lazy, but because the only way to truly exorcise a demon is with fire. Cleansing fires are a common theme in many religions, and let’s not forget the horrors of burning people at the stake for witchcraft in order to cleanse their bodies for the afterlife.

 

Phew! And there you have it, all twenty-six (including the Prologue) chapter titles explained, and not too much spoiled if you haven’t read Grimms & Garms yet.

And remember to always lock your bedroom doors, folks, in case your obsessive crush decides to break into your bedroom just to watch you sleep. Because THAT’S not creepy.

Later!

– Rissa