Hey everyone!
Some exciting stuff is happening, including a new GraceandWitherbloom.com!
As part of the refresh, the Blogger blog will no longer be updated. Don't worry, all the content is now on the new site. But be sure to go directly to the site for the latest updates.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Story Behind The Story: The Forgotten Fair
Ah, and here we are. The final SBTS for the final book in the series of adventures of Grace & Witherbloom. As with all of these, if you haven't read The Forgotten Fair, not a lot of this is going to make sense and it's going to be very spoiler-filled. So beware!
Plenty of time to turn back (or go to Amazon and get The Forgotten Fair!)...
All right, for those of you who are left, it's time to talk about the final adventure in the series. This one was an odd one for me. You see, I had in my mind a general idea about what I wanted to happen in the final adventure. For one thing, I'd written the premonition (or vision of the future via Bradford's psychochronal projector) that Wilhelmina had years before, as part of writing The Girl Who Died Backwards. So I knew that had to happen.
I also knew I wanted a walloping great big machine for the finale. Maybe that's cliche, but it also just felt right. After all of Ashmore's devices, I wanted the final device to be his most ambitious and daring. In the years between writing the first book and the last book, a thought had begun to form in my mind that the final book should take place during a World's Fair. I liked the symmetry of it. The first book would take place during the Great Exhibition and the final book would take place at a World's Fair. Now, the next event of that type would have been the Exposition Universelle in Paris, France in 1855. Now, a good amount of time passes between the first book and the last book, but not that much time. I could have extended the time that Helen was lost in the Emperor's universe, but I didn't want to stretch that too far, to be honest. Plus, I have to admit... I wanted the finale to take place in New York. In the new world. It just felt right for Ashmore to make that sort of dramatic gesture.
But, the World's Fair didn't take place in New York until 1939. But, that's easy to remedy, really, when you have a time-changing anachroanarchist like Ashmore around, right? Oh, and you know anachroanarchist? That was a term I had thought about refering to Ashmore as in the book. It doesn't exactly slip off the tongue, does it though? I think it's best I didn't go through with that. :) Alternate titles for the series at one point, by the way included "The Anachronica" or "The Anachroanarchist Devices" all of which would have been a bit silly and wordy. But, maybe there's some alternate universe out there where these books are called that.
But, I digress. I knew that I wanted Ashmore to go to New York. I knew I wanted a World's Fair to be taking place. And, it seemed natural that the big device be at the center of the fair. Everything began to take shape, and with it so did Ashmore's grand plan. Now, I just had to get them there.
Originally, Helen was going to tell Josiah her "origin" on the ship ride over to America. It was actually a real problem figuring out where to put her story, actually. Once I thought of the opening with Josiah disguising his identity and confronting Ashmore face to face, I knew that's how the story had to open. And I didn't think opening the story with a bit of exposition from Helen would work. Originally, her origin would have been a separate short story (like Josiah's was planned to be, originally) that would have been bundled with "The Other Key." But, I didn't really think Helen's story could stand on it's own as a complete tale, to be honest. Not for lack of interest in what is going on, but just that it didn't have enough meat to it. I could have gone in and filled in a lot of detail there and made it more of a separate story... but I liked the idea of not filling in too many of the details. And I also didn't want to kill any of the momentum of the story by going into the sidebar of back story for Helen.
I also had the issue that I wanted Ashmore to tell Allisa about who he was, too. So, essentially, Ashmore and Helen had the same thing to tell two different people. I really liked the idea of interspersing their stories together, and originally there was MUCH more back and forth between Helen telling Josiah her story and Ashmore telling Alissa his story. But it just became too much of a confusing jumble. And I think it robbed both moments of their power. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It avoided being repetitive, and it gave both groups a quiet moment before the finale.
Of course, at this point we begin to really see who Ashmore is. There have been hints along the way that he isn't quite the villain we thought at first. And here we see the true measure of who he is. Arrogant, yes. But not unkind. Just very, very reckless. Which leads us to the major twist in the story. Hopefully, if people have been reading carefully this shouldn't be a complete surprise, or at least it hopefully doesn't come out of left field. Hints were certainly dropped, and Wilhelmina's actions will actually make more sense in previous books. It's no fun to explain a book, so I won't. But if you look back at how easily Wilhelmina (seemed) to adjust to G&W's life, you might find that suspicious now. And Wilhelmina being upset when Helen returned wasn't jealousy, really. She really thought she'd escaped her fate and her mission, which she didn't really want to do any more... and Helen's return changed all that. I really liked Wilhelmina. My friend Laura, who was a beta reader for me, hated her. And I can see that. She's the sort of character in a book that you can come to hate. She starts off so awkward and she's not a good adventurer and she's getting in-between the main duo. But I hope that a lot of readers liked her and felt as betrayed by her actions as G&W did. That was hard to write, her ending. Which, to me, meant it was the right thing.
And I hope people didn't find it TOO cut and dried. Because, in the end, putting aside Wilhelmina's religious motivations, she might have a point. Should anyone wield as much power over events as Helen, Josiah and Ashmore now do? I think it's a valid question, and one I hope the reader thinks about.
I'm not going to say a great deal about the end, because I'd like for it to stand on it's own, for the most part. All in all, I'm really proud of these books. Even months later after the final book was published, I remain happy that they were (hopefully) fun adventure books that also explored some important (to me) themes, if more in the background. The final moments of the book, and the final choices that the characters make are really important to me, not just in the book but in real life as well. It's always so hard to know, when you're writing something, how others will perceive your work. That's why I like to read the reviews people write about them. There are times I'm a bit perplexed by what people have said, but it's always interesting. And I'm so happy that thousands of people have given the book a chance. I hope we can pick up some more, too.
One of the main themes of the book is the concept of time as a spiral. When the thought came to me (independent of the book) all those years ago, I really loved the idea. I doubt it's very scientific. But, the spiral is everywhere in our universe. And there was something so romantically appealing about even the end of everything not really being the end. I'd heard of the theory that the beginning and end of the universe might be the same moment. But a loop sounded so boring. But a spiral, where even time itself can evolve, where the sequence of our lives can grow, and possibly even get better... well, it appealed to me, anyway.
So, is this the end? Perhaps. Or maybe it's the beginning.
Plenty of time to turn back (or go to Amazon and get The Forgotten Fair!)...
All right, for those of you who are left, it's time to talk about the final adventure in the series. This one was an odd one for me. You see, I had in my mind a general idea about what I wanted to happen in the final adventure. For one thing, I'd written the premonition (or vision of the future via Bradford's psychochronal projector) that Wilhelmina had years before, as part of writing The Girl Who Died Backwards. So I knew that had to happen.
I also knew I wanted a walloping great big machine for the finale. Maybe that's cliche, but it also just felt right. After all of Ashmore's devices, I wanted the final device to be his most ambitious and daring. In the years between writing the first book and the last book, a thought had begun to form in my mind that the final book should take place during a World's Fair. I liked the symmetry of it. The first book would take place during the Great Exhibition and the final book would take place at a World's Fair. Now, the next event of that type would have been the Exposition Universelle in Paris, France in 1855. Now, a good amount of time passes between the first book and the last book, but not that much time. I could have extended the time that Helen was lost in the Emperor's universe, but I didn't want to stretch that too far, to be honest. Plus, I have to admit... I wanted the finale to take place in New York. In the new world. It just felt right for Ashmore to make that sort of dramatic gesture.
But, the World's Fair didn't take place in New York until 1939. But, that's easy to remedy, really, when you have a time-changing anachroanarchist like Ashmore around, right? Oh, and you know anachroanarchist? That was a term I had thought about refering to Ashmore as in the book. It doesn't exactly slip off the tongue, does it though? I think it's best I didn't go through with that. :) Alternate titles for the series at one point, by the way included "The Anachronica" or "The Anachroanarchist Devices" all of which would have been a bit silly and wordy. But, maybe there's some alternate universe out there where these books are called that.
But, I digress. I knew that I wanted Ashmore to go to New York. I knew I wanted a World's Fair to be taking place. And, it seemed natural that the big device be at the center of the fair. Everything began to take shape, and with it so did Ashmore's grand plan. Now, I just had to get them there.
Originally, Helen was going to tell Josiah her "origin" on the ship ride over to America. It was actually a real problem figuring out where to put her story, actually. Once I thought of the opening with Josiah disguising his identity and confronting Ashmore face to face, I knew that's how the story had to open. And I didn't think opening the story with a bit of exposition from Helen would work. Originally, her origin would have been a separate short story (like Josiah's was planned to be, originally) that would have been bundled with "The Other Key." But, I didn't really think Helen's story could stand on it's own as a complete tale, to be honest. Not for lack of interest in what is going on, but just that it didn't have enough meat to it. I could have gone in and filled in a lot of detail there and made it more of a separate story... but I liked the idea of not filling in too many of the details. And I also didn't want to kill any of the momentum of the story by going into the sidebar of back story for Helen.
I also had the issue that I wanted Ashmore to tell Allisa about who he was, too. So, essentially, Ashmore and Helen had the same thing to tell two different people. I really liked the idea of interspersing their stories together, and originally there was MUCH more back and forth between Helen telling Josiah her story and Ashmore telling Alissa his story. But it just became too much of a confusing jumble. And I think it robbed both moments of their power. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. It avoided being repetitive, and it gave both groups a quiet moment before the finale.
Of course, at this point we begin to really see who Ashmore is. There have been hints along the way that he isn't quite the villain we thought at first. And here we see the true measure of who he is. Arrogant, yes. But not unkind. Just very, very reckless. Which leads us to the major twist in the story. Hopefully, if people have been reading carefully this shouldn't be a complete surprise, or at least it hopefully doesn't come out of left field. Hints were certainly dropped, and Wilhelmina's actions will actually make more sense in previous books. It's no fun to explain a book, so I won't. But if you look back at how easily Wilhelmina (seemed) to adjust to G&W's life, you might find that suspicious now. And Wilhelmina being upset when Helen returned wasn't jealousy, really. She really thought she'd escaped her fate and her mission, which she didn't really want to do any more... and Helen's return changed all that. I really liked Wilhelmina. My friend Laura, who was a beta reader for me, hated her. And I can see that. She's the sort of character in a book that you can come to hate. She starts off so awkward and she's not a good adventurer and she's getting in-between the main duo. But I hope that a lot of readers liked her and felt as betrayed by her actions as G&W did. That was hard to write, her ending. Which, to me, meant it was the right thing.
And I hope people didn't find it TOO cut and dried. Because, in the end, putting aside Wilhelmina's religious motivations, she might have a point. Should anyone wield as much power over events as Helen, Josiah and Ashmore now do? I think it's a valid question, and one I hope the reader thinks about.
I'm not going to say a great deal about the end, because I'd like for it to stand on it's own, for the most part. All in all, I'm really proud of these books. Even months later after the final book was published, I remain happy that they were (hopefully) fun adventure books that also explored some important (to me) themes, if more in the background. The final moments of the book, and the final choices that the characters make are really important to me, not just in the book but in real life as well. It's always so hard to know, when you're writing something, how others will perceive your work. That's why I like to read the reviews people write about them. There are times I'm a bit perplexed by what people have said, but it's always interesting. And I'm so happy that thousands of people have given the book a chance. I hope we can pick up some more, too.
One of the main themes of the book is the concept of time as a spiral. When the thought came to me (independent of the book) all those years ago, I really loved the idea. I doubt it's very scientific. But, the spiral is everywhere in our universe. And there was something so romantically appealing about even the end of everything not really being the end. I'd heard of the theory that the beginning and end of the universe might be the same moment. But a loop sounded so boring. But a spiral, where even time itself can evolve, where the sequence of our lives can grow, and possibly even get better... well, it appealed to me, anyway.
So, is this the end? Perhaps. Or maybe it's the beginning.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Status
There are moments when you'd really like to make a status update. But not just any old status update. THE status update. The real status update that actually means anything (if there is such a thing.) But then there's that part of you that thinks it'd be far too much over sharing. That it's not really what Facebook is for, right? And aren't you just being a bit silly? Isn't this all a bit melodramatic? And how would you even put it into words anyway? So then you write sentence after sentence. And you delete, and then you write it out again. And then you realize it's not the time, or the place. So you click somewhere else instead. And the box pops up - "Are you sure you want to leave this page?" And you say yes, leave this page. And if you return, even a second later, all that is left is the comfort of a perfectly acceptable, perfectly reasonable and perfectly appropriate empty white box.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
A Poem for National Poetry Day
October 4th was National Poetry Day!
So, this post is coming a bit late. But to mark the occasion, I attempted to write a poem for the first time since high school, I believe. I mean, I've done jokey acrostic poems at parties (this is what my friends and I do at parties... as part of activity packets... best not to go into detail on that) but nothing where I actually put some effort in.
But, it's National Poetry Day. And I like poems. Though I find them terribly intimidating to write. But fear stops you doing any number of worthwhile things. So here goes.
So, this post is coming a bit late. But to mark the occasion, I attempted to write a poem for the first time since high school, I believe. I mean, I've done jokey acrostic poems at parties (this is what my friends and I do at parties... as part of activity packets... best not to go into detail on that) but nothing where I actually put some effort in.
But, it's National Poetry Day. And I like poems. Though I find them terribly intimidating to write. But fear stops you doing any number of worthwhile things. So here goes.
Shuffle, Shuffle, Skip
Songward, ho, my friend
crystalize each little rip
into jeweled moments—
frozen and hanging—
as anticipation and meaning
and regret
backpedal, backpedal
shuffle, shuffle, skip
a mad dance
for a mad time
with so little time
to be mad
Onward, forward, resend?
Trivialize each intent
into soundbite memory—
flaccid and hanging—
as nothing and no one
and who cares
backpedal, backpedal
shuffle, shuffle, skip
a mad dance
for a mad time
with so little time
to be had
Monday, October 1, 2012
Story Behind The Story: The Other Key
It's that time again. The spoilerific behind the scenes of the next novella in the series of novellas that recount the adventures of Helen Grace and Josiah Witherbloom.
As always, if you've not read the book, you really should. It costs less than a bottle of pop from a machine and it'll last longer.
So, let's head into spoiler territory...
At the climax of the last book, Helen had been spirited away by the Obsidian Emperor into his parallel world. Then, we jumped forward about a year and a half into the future to find Josiah and Wilhelmina searching for a way to get her back, all the while continuing to combat Lord Ashmore's machinations.
First of all, let's address the title. For anyone who read the last book, they knew that there was another key out there to the dimensional gateway to the Emperor's dimension. The original one, in fact. The one that was not to be discovered for another three hundred years. So titling this one "The Other Key" seems a bit like a spoiler. I actually went back and forth on whether to call it that or not. But I really liked the title, and it felt appropriate. And, let's be honest, did anyone think that Helen wouldn't return? As readers, we suspend our disbelief and go along with a story, if it's written well enough. But in the back of our minds certain truths seem very evident. Even though I'd gone through the motions of saying Helen was gone and Josiah and Wilhelmina were now the main characters, it did seem clear to me that most would be expecting Helen's return. So I liked that the title sort of teased that. Because the story really isn't about that.
Sure, it's the plot. But Wilhelmina finds the key pretty early one, really only after just enough time to introduce what her life with Josiah is like now. The Other Key is what gets Josiah and Wilhelmina back to the Emperor's dimension, true, and kicks off the adventure there. But it represents something much more powerful to Wilhelmina as a character and the book as a whole. This is very much a turning point for Wilhelmina. It's the moment when she makes a terrible choice. A choice which the reader really only understands in the next book, and I'll discuss that more in installment for the final book. I do wonder if people are a bit confused, here. Wilhelmina seems almost overly dramatic and almost hard to comprehend, I think, until you read the next book. She just seems jealous and resentful of Helen, and appears to make some rather huge leaps in logic about what her reappearance means. But, hopefully this is seen in a new light in the next book. That's all I'll say for now.
Speaking of Wilhelmina, it's my hope that people like her by this book. If they weren't on board before, I hope they are now. I really liked her. Here we see her mature from the wary maid (seemingly) dragged along by events into the full-fledged adventurer we saw hints of throughout the other books. I really enjoyed her and Josiah's relationship. It's actually slightly weird, especially for the time period. It's all a bit untoward, actually, and I didn't want to shy away from that. I mean, we know that their feelings are genuine, but the outside world doesn't, and certainly doesn't judge them well.
I had a lot of fun with the alternate world. If anything, I wish we could have spent more time there. I had thought to expand it a great deal and introduce more characters and subplots, but they just felt superfluous to the main events. But that world exists in a very visual way in my mind, and I hope I was able to communicate that to the reader so that it lives within their mind as well.
Of course, the other strand running through this story is that we finally catch up to Lord Ashmore and his friends. Ashmore has created for himself a little group that mirrors Helen, Josiah and Wilhelmina in some ways, but they are very different people. While our main characters are very upstanding citizens, Ashmore, Allisa and Jean are all outcasts, thrown together by mere chance, really. You get a tiny hint into what Ashmore has planned, and I hope that threw the readers off a bit when they realize his goal really isn't world domination or anything so prosaic.
We also get to know Baker a little better, after him appearing in very small ways and mentions in previous stories. I enjoyed the short scenes he and Reggie had together. I think they played well off each other, until poor Reggie was done away with.
I really like the ending, where everything seems as though it's gone back to the status quo. But it really hasn't. There are hints around the edges of Helen's character, I hope. She has been changed by her experiences. She's a tiny bit softer. Wilhelmina changes too, in ways that probably don't make sense until the next book. I actually felt really bad for her in that scene at the end. She's putting a whole life away, really, with her adventuring clothes. And when she puts that maid uniform back on, she's giving herself over to destiny. A destiny she knows won't end well for her. To be in that place, to feel like you have no choice... well, it's a terrible thing. A feeling I wouldn't wish on anyone.
As always, if you've not read the book, you really should. It costs less than a bottle of pop from a machine and it'll last longer.
So, let's head into spoiler territory...
At the climax of the last book, Helen had been spirited away by the Obsidian Emperor into his parallel world. Then, we jumped forward about a year and a half into the future to find Josiah and Wilhelmina searching for a way to get her back, all the while continuing to combat Lord Ashmore's machinations.
First of all, let's address the title. For anyone who read the last book, they knew that there was another key out there to the dimensional gateway to the Emperor's dimension. The original one, in fact. The one that was not to be discovered for another three hundred years. So titling this one "The Other Key" seems a bit like a spoiler. I actually went back and forth on whether to call it that or not. But I really liked the title, and it felt appropriate. And, let's be honest, did anyone think that Helen wouldn't return? As readers, we suspend our disbelief and go along with a story, if it's written well enough. But in the back of our minds certain truths seem very evident. Even though I'd gone through the motions of saying Helen was gone and Josiah and Wilhelmina were now the main characters, it did seem clear to me that most would be expecting Helen's return. So I liked that the title sort of teased that. Because the story really isn't about that.
Sure, it's the plot. But Wilhelmina finds the key pretty early one, really only after just enough time to introduce what her life with Josiah is like now. The Other Key is what gets Josiah and Wilhelmina back to the Emperor's dimension, true, and kicks off the adventure there. But it represents something much more powerful to Wilhelmina as a character and the book as a whole. This is very much a turning point for Wilhelmina. It's the moment when she makes a terrible choice. A choice which the reader really only understands in the next book, and I'll discuss that more in installment for the final book. I do wonder if people are a bit confused, here. Wilhelmina seems almost overly dramatic and almost hard to comprehend, I think, until you read the next book. She just seems jealous and resentful of Helen, and appears to make some rather huge leaps in logic about what her reappearance means. But, hopefully this is seen in a new light in the next book. That's all I'll say for now.
Speaking of Wilhelmina, it's my hope that people like her by this book. If they weren't on board before, I hope they are now. I really liked her. Here we see her mature from the wary maid (seemingly) dragged along by events into the full-fledged adventurer we saw hints of throughout the other books. I really enjoyed her and Josiah's relationship. It's actually slightly weird, especially for the time period. It's all a bit untoward, actually, and I didn't want to shy away from that. I mean, we know that their feelings are genuine, but the outside world doesn't, and certainly doesn't judge them well.
I had a lot of fun with the alternate world. If anything, I wish we could have spent more time there. I had thought to expand it a great deal and introduce more characters and subplots, but they just felt superfluous to the main events. But that world exists in a very visual way in my mind, and I hope I was able to communicate that to the reader so that it lives within their mind as well.
Of course, the other strand running through this story is that we finally catch up to Lord Ashmore and his friends. Ashmore has created for himself a little group that mirrors Helen, Josiah and Wilhelmina in some ways, but they are very different people. While our main characters are very upstanding citizens, Ashmore, Allisa and Jean are all outcasts, thrown together by mere chance, really. You get a tiny hint into what Ashmore has planned, and I hope that threw the readers off a bit when they realize his goal really isn't world domination or anything so prosaic.
We also get to know Baker a little better, after him appearing in very small ways and mentions in previous stories. I enjoyed the short scenes he and Reggie had together. I think they played well off each other, until poor Reggie was done away with.
I really like the ending, where everything seems as though it's gone back to the status quo. But it really hasn't. There are hints around the edges of Helen's character, I hope. She has been changed by her experiences. She's a tiny bit softer. Wilhelmina changes too, in ways that probably don't make sense until the next book. I actually felt really bad for her in that scene at the end. She's putting a whole life away, really, with her adventuring clothes. And when she puts that maid uniform back on, she's giving herself over to destiny. A destiny she knows won't end well for her. To be in that place, to feel like you have no choice... well, it's a terrible thing. A feeling I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Story Behind The Story: The Obsidian Emperor
Here it is! The spoiler-filled review of Grace & Witherbloom Book 5: The Obsidian Emperor!
So fair warning! If you've not read The Obsidian Emperor, then run over to Amazon, Amazon UK or Amazon DE and pick it up. Read it. And then come back here once you're done. I'll wait.
Okay?
Then let's go, because this (and the next book) are quite possibly my favorites of the bunch. Maybe. Actually, as a unit I was very happy with the final three books. Which is good because I suppose you don't want the story to go all boring and wibbly at the end, do you? And, in essence, though each book is pretty much a standalone story (more on that in a bit) it really is one bigger story, too. Part of the reason I liked writing the book as a series of stories was really so that I'd ensure there was no flagging middle. There are lots of starts, middles and ends. But running through them are all the threads that come to a head before resolving themselves in the final book.
But, onto the book itself. The weird thing about this book was that, unlike the first few books, I really had no idea where to take the story as I was writing Book 4. Usually my mind was working forward a couple books at least while I was writing the current book. But not this time. I had a lot of ideas floating around in my head, of course, but most of those were either used in the first four books or were rejected for any number of reasons.
I knew I wanted two more stories before the final story, which had started to take shape in my mind pretty clearly after the first seeds of it started sprouting in my mind while writing the first book, The Girl Who Died Backwards. I suppose I could have gone right into the final book, but the overall story would have felt too short. I feel like we needed more time with Josiah and Helen and Wilhelmina. I wanted them to "simmer," I suppose, and originally I wanted some space between Josiah and Helen's "origin" stories. As I believe I mentioned last time, "Josiah's Story" (which became The Light On The Moor) was going to be a short story attached to this book, and "Helen's Story" would have been attached to the next book.
Around the time I was writing The Light On The Moor, I visited a museum with my partner. I love museums. This one wasn't huge, but it had some interesting pieces. And that got my mind going about setting an adventure in a museum. Oh, it's been done before, let's not pretend it hasn't. And I wanted one of the displays to come to life and start killing people. Which has also been done before. But I just loved the creepiness of that. It felt very much like a classic scary movie in that way, and seemed to fit Grace & Witherbloom as a series. But it needed a twist. It couldn't be a boring old mummy. It needed something to move it beyond what could be a boring retread of scary museum stories.
The title "The Obsidian Emperor" just sort of came to me, as well as the title villain. Which is probably the most boring thing to say because it doesn't give you any insight into how it happened, but there it is. I've always been fascinated by Chinese jade sculptures since I was young, and when I was a kid I had a hunk of "obsidian" that I used to look at constantly. I used to hold it up to the light and run my hands over it. It was such an intriguing hunk of glass. I'm not entirely sure if it was real obsidian or not, but it certainly looked like it. I'd purchased it from a garage sale somewhere along the way. The wonderful thing about obsidian is that it's much more "evil" looking than jade. It can also be very sharp. So a visual flashed in my head of a very scary and very dangerous villain for the story. Which was a nice change of pace because there are actually very few straight-up villains in the books. It was a refreshing change to have a direct nemesis for Helen and Josiah to play off of.
I really liked the idea of two related exhibits coming together as well, and the gate and the alternate universe from which the Emperor originated again came from a visual that flashed in my head. I thought of huge, floating pagoda cities. I just loved that visual, a merging of a classic architectural style and the very futuristic. That they hovered over a bombed-out wasteland only added to their appeal. From there, everything just sort of snowballed. It was one of those story's whose various story threads came together very naturally.
I knew I wanted to give Wilhelmina a bit of a spotlight, heading off on her own to get herself into (and out of) some trouble without Josiah and Helen around. This was important because Wilhelmina couldn't stay as inexperienced as she started out for too long. I didn't want her to become a jaded adventurer right away, but she was in danger of getting annoying if she couldn't keep up with Helen and Josiah a little bit. This was also a good set-up for the next book.
Speaking of set-ups, yes... this ends on a little big of a cliffhanger. I still feel as though the two books are really fairly distinct stories. It's more that The Other Key is a sequel to this story than it is the second part of the same story. But this is the one instance where you really get maximum satisfaction and resolution by reading two stories and not just the one.
Removing Helen came fairly late in the game, actually. Originally, the story was going to end the way that The Other Key does. But I wanted to see more of the world of the flying pagodas. And I realized that I had a perfect opportunity to develop all three of the main characters in a very substantial way. Breaking up Grace & Witherbloom was the best way to do it.
But I didn't want it to feel like a cheat. I didn't want people to think "Oh, Helen's going to get out of this in two seconds where we pick up." I think, as sophisticated readers, we know that most of the time cliffhangers are resolved fairly quickly in the next story. So I added the coda with Josiah and Wilhelmina to drive the point home. Helen is gone. Over a year has passed. Life has moved on. The Emperor's actions had a real, profound effect on everyone's lives and that wouldn't be undone at the start of the next book.
So fair warning! If you've not read The Obsidian Emperor, then run over to Amazon, Amazon UK or Amazon DE and pick it up. Read it. And then come back here once you're done. I'll wait.
Okay?
Then let's go, because this (and the next book) are quite possibly my favorites of the bunch. Maybe. Actually, as a unit I was very happy with the final three books. Which is good because I suppose you don't want the story to go all boring and wibbly at the end, do you? And, in essence, though each book is pretty much a standalone story (more on that in a bit) it really is one bigger story, too. Part of the reason I liked writing the book as a series of stories was really so that I'd ensure there was no flagging middle. There are lots of starts, middles and ends. But running through them are all the threads that come to a head before resolving themselves in the final book.
But, onto the book itself. The weird thing about this book was that, unlike the first few books, I really had no idea where to take the story as I was writing Book 4. Usually my mind was working forward a couple books at least while I was writing the current book. But not this time. I had a lot of ideas floating around in my head, of course, but most of those were either used in the first four books or were rejected for any number of reasons.
I knew I wanted two more stories before the final story, which had started to take shape in my mind pretty clearly after the first seeds of it started sprouting in my mind while writing the first book, The Girl Who Died Backwards. I suppose I could have gone right into the final book, but the overall story would have felt too short. I feel like we needed more time with Josiah and Helen and Wilhelmina. I wanted them to "simmer," I suppose, and originally I wanted some space between Josiah and Helen's "origin" stories. As I believe I mentioned last time, "Josiah's Story" (which became The Light On The Moor) was going to be a short story attached to this book, and "Helen's Story" would have been attached to the next book.
Around the time I was writing The Light On The Moor, I visited a museum with my partner. I love museums. This one wasn't huge, but it had some interesting pieces. And that got my mind going about setting an adventure in a museum. Oh, it's been done before, let's not pretend it hasn't. And I wanted one of the displays to come to life and start killing people. Which has also been done before. But I just loved the creepiness of that. It felt very much like a classic scary movie in that way, and seemed to fit Grace & Witherbloom as a series. But it needed a twist. It couldn't be a boring old mummy. It needed something to move it beyond what could be a boring retread of scary museum stories.
The title "The Obsidian Emperor" just sort of came to me, as well as the title villain. Which is probably the most boring thing to say because it doesn't give you any insight into how it happened, but there it is. I've always been fascinated by Chinese jade sculptures since I was young, and when I was a kid I had a hunk of "obsidian" that I used to look at constantly. I used to hold it up to the light and run my hands over it. It was such an intriguing hunk of glass. I'm not entirely sure if it was real obsidian or not, but it certainly looked like it. I'd purchased it from a garage sale somewhere along the way. The wonderful thing about obsidian is that it's much more "evil" looking than jade. It can also be very sharp. So a visual flashed in my head of a very scary and very dangerous villain for the story. Which was a nice change of pace because there are actually very few straight-up villains in the books. It was a refreshing change to have a direct nemesis for Helen and Josiah to play off of.
I really liked the idea of two related exhibits coming together as well, and the gate and the alternate universe from which the Emperor originated again came from a visual that flashed in my head. I thought of huge, floating pagoda cities. I just loved that visual, a merging of a classic architectural style and the very futuristic. That they hovered over a bombed-out wasteland only added to their appeal. From there, everything just sort of snowballed. It was one of those story's whose various story threads came together very naturally.
I knew I wanted to give Wilhelmina a bit of a spotlight, heading off on her own to get herself into (and out of) some trouble without Josiah and Helen around. This was important because Wilhelmina couldn't stay as inexperienced as she started out for too long. I didn't want her to become a jaded adventurer right away, but she was in danger of getting annoying if she couldn't keep up with Helen and Josiah a little bit. This was also a good set-up for the next book.
Speaking of set-ups, yes... this ends on a little big of a cliffhanger. I still feel as though the two books are really fairly distinct stories. It's more that The Other Key is a sequel to this story than it is the second part of the same story. But this is the one instance where you really get maximum satisfaction and resolution by reading two stories and not just the one.
Removing Helen came fairly late in the game, actually. Originally, the story was going to end the way that The Other Key does. But I wanted to see more of the world of the flying pagodas. And I realized that I had a perfect opportunity to develop all three of the main characters in a very substantial way. Breaking up Grace & Witherbloom was the best way to do it.
But I didn't want it to feel like a cheat. I didn't want people to think "Oh, Helen's going to get out of this in two seconds where we pick up." I think, as sophisticated readers, we know that most of the time cliffhangers are resolved fairly quickly in the next story. So I added the coda with Josiah and Wilhelmina to drive the point home. Helen is gone. Over a year has passed. Life has moved on. The Emperor's actions had a real, profound effect on everyone's lives and that wouldn't be undone at the start of the next book.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Quiet Times
Things have slowed down quite a bit sales-wise on the G&W books. It's to be expected. There is no longer the bump of free books to give it any promotion, and I haven't been doing a ton other than these blogs. This is a somewhat planned down time. There are things afoot. Actually, there are things afoot I had planned to talk about sooner, but it'll be a couple more months at least before I can share.
This has all been an interesting road. I just wanted to say thank you again to all the readers who took a chance or are taking a chance on Grace and Witherbloom. It's been great to see a good amount of readers rate it on Goodreads.com. If you haven't already, I encourage you to add the books to your read or to-read list and rate them! I'd love to read some reviews, too, of course there and on Amazon.
I'm intrigued to see what the future brings. I have had my mind percolating on a few ideas about what to write next. But I'm not settled on anything quite yet. In any case, there are still three more installments of the spoilerific Story Behind The Story series. I hope someone has been enjoying reading them or finding them interesting! If not, I'll just tell myself they are here for the sake of posterity. :)
That's all for now. Feel free to drop me a line if the mood strikes you or you have any comments or questions. Until next time.
This has all been an interesting road. I just wanted to say thank you again to all the readers who took a chance or are taking a chance on Grace and Witherbloom. It's been great to see a good amount of readers rate it on Goodreads.com. If you haven't already, I encourage you to add the books to your read or to-read list and rate them! I'd love to read some reviews, too, of course there and on Amazon.
I'm intrigued to see what the future brings. I have had my mind percolating on a few ideas about what to write next. But I'm not settled on anything quite yet. In any case, there are still three more installments of the spoilerific Story Behind The Story series. I hope someone has been enjoying reading them or finding them interesting! If not, I'll just tell myself they are here for the sake of posterity. :)
That's all for now. Feel free to drop me a line if the mood strikes you or you have any comments or questions. Until next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)