Working Title - Djinni

Years ago I worked an event that left me mentally drained. To recover, I binged some programs on the old version of Hulu back when they were just starting out and had a lot of content that just wasn't found anywhere else. One of the things I binged was the old TV series, I Dream of Jeannie. It was definitely of its time. It's not bad, but women as portrayed in the 60s/70s were 2 dimensional and mostly doormats.

I got thinking, how could you make a story about the djinn without it falling into the pretty girl in harem dress as slave to her master, or the common horror trope (and general warnings) that djinn will grant your wishes in the most awful way possible. Also, what is the common lore around djinn? Not the Disneyified version, but more Scheherazade.

Yep. That meant research.

I bought a book on Arabic fairy tales, "Speak Bird, Speak Again", and an abridged copy of the Arabian Nights. Plus some deep dives into the internet. I found sites that talked about summoning djinn. Images of the different types of djinn. Also lore about where they can be found. There's a lot, and a lot of it is contradictory.

From all of this, I built my world. I established rules for my djinnis interaction with the human world. What the djinn realm would look like for a creature of "smokeless fire". I settled on having four types of djinn and the characteristics of each. Marid, the blue djinn, most powerful and most likely to interact somewhat fairly with humans. Silat, Yellow djinn, sometimes seen as a horse, powerful but tricky around humans. Jann, Green djinn, rarely interacts with humans and forms family groups to consolidate power. And finally, Afrits, Red djinn, self-centered and power hungry. They are the villains of most stories.

I wanted a female djinni that was both old and powerful, but I wanted her to have a curiosity about humans, maybe even a fondness. I gave her the name Rebekah. And I needed to have the person that was her "master" not try and take advantage. I also had a stray thought of Barbara Eden as Jeannie in rocket boots. That led to Todd and Eric "Mouse", brothers who find her bottle/portal to djinn realm and open it together. Making them both her master, but only when they are in alignment and allowing her plenty of room for interpretation.

The story opens with the boys unhappy that they've been moved to a new house for their mother's job. Their father has been missing for a year and their mother is barely present between her job and trying to find out what happened to her husband. Finding Rebekah gives them agency in what is happening around them, and they soon learn that everything might be connected.

Current Status - In Progress

I really just need to sit butt-in-chair and finish this. I know how it ends, but I've got a section to figure out to get there.

🔖Tags:draft work in progress Writing