Remaking the World in Some Image or Another

Quick word from our sponsor (…so, basically me):

For a limited time, the Kindle e-book for “The Song Caster” is on sale for $0.99!

That’s right, because I want to make it easier on everyone to get all caught up on their Wilderhark Tales before Book 6.5* launches on July 7th, Book Four can be on your e-reader for just 99 cents. Run, don’t walk! The deal only carries through Monday, June 22nd.

*The Goodreads giveaway for that is still running, btw…

And now onto our regularly scheduled blog post.

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Y’know what’s stupid disconcerting? Watching your author write your life, then completely dismantle it so she can rewrite it into something more or less similar but totally different.

You’ve all been there, right?

I’m Bruno, by the way. Most of you don’t know me. Like I said, Danielle’s in the process of taking my life down to studs, so it’ll probably be years before the books hit the market. Some of you may sorta half-remember me from a guest post I wrote way back when, but let’s face it, most of you don’t. That’s cool. I’m not here to be memorable. I’m here because Danielle wants this process written about, but she’s not in the mood to do it herself, so hey, character, you do it for me, ‘kay?

I have got to join a union.

Anyway. The process.

It’s kind of like the last time she took a bunch of old writing and overhauled it to embarrass her less. (You haven’t seen that book yet, either.) Except that time, the plot didn’t really change; it was more a matter where she focused on the timeline, and through which characters’ point of view. This time, though, she’s got even more work cut out for her. She sort of wrote my first book on the fly, and the second one didn’t get much better, planning-wise, so Books 3 and 4 were basically trying to make sense of 1 and 2. She had some okay ideas, but overall? Kind of a hot mess.

Beyond that, her vision for the series has changed. She’s had the better part of a decade to mull this thing over, and to grow enamored with different characters and kinds of stories. The big game-changer, really, was “The Ballad of Allyn-a-Dale”. (Y’know. “Outlaws of Avalon”. The trilogy that, like my story, doesn’t even quite exist yet, but you wouldn’t know it by how that one Merry Maniac has taken over at least two planes of reality.) Not to give the whole game away, but there’s a connection between the worlds of “Outlaws”, and Wilderhark, and mine. Danielle wants to play that up more. Like, a lot. She basically thinks she’s the Marvel universe.

– Out with the old. Some characters from the story’s first version won’t make it into the second. Sucks for them, but we’re not running some sprawling epic fantasy with a dozen books, twenty protagonists a pop. Yeah, it’s still supposed to be kind of an epic, but Danielle has some vague idea as to her limits, and so prefers a slightly narrower scope.

– …To make way for the new. The main reason people are getting cut is that Danielle’s got her eye on some other people to take their places. I should probably be grateful she still wants me in the starring role, but gratitude’s not really my way of life, so that’s not happening. Plus I’m privately terrified that I’m going to get completely upstaged by half the cast.

And by “privately”, I mean I totally just slapped that onto a public blog, so.

Will I even still get to wear chainmail? ‘Cause I’ll be too ticked if I can’t keep my chainmail.

– The GPS is as lost as the rest of us. The journey from A to B is rerouting all over the place – in no small part because the destination is no longer quite the same. Hell, the whole landscape’s changed. We’re dealing with the plotting equivalent of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and a tsunami or two. A dream come true, for fans of plate tectonics. For the author and me, it’s more like sitting atop a rollercoaster’s highest peak, trying to figure out how to assemble the rest of the track before we plunge to our deaths.

Fortunately, the parking brake’s on, so we’ve got nothing but time.

– To be determined. How much free rein will she give me, in this thing? Will I get to swear in-text, or will she prose-dance around it? Will she bother to learn conversational Italian so I can flaunt my heritage? These are the questions I’ve got.

– Is this cool enough yet? That’s the main thing, really. We both want this remade series to be cool. She wants to hit every awesome note she can, and do it in such a way that these are books she’ll not only love to write, but love to read. I just want to avoid looking lame.

We’ll see what another several months of brainstorming gets us. Just know that I don’t get as loud a say in Danielle’s work as certain other characters I could name (but don’t need to, ‘cause chances are you all know exactly who I mean). So if the project tanks, that’s all on her. And if it rocks… Whatever, that’s on her, too. I’ll just be glad I made it out with my rep intact.

Or, like, a rep at all.