The author commentary continues for A Circle of Shadows! SPOILER WARNING is in effect. BIG TIME!
The moment everything changed.
So there I was, writing my way through The Medusa Coin. I had a clear line to A Circle of Shadows. I knew the mystery involved and the threats. The conflicts and the resolutions. To some degree at least.
At that moment, I needed an ending. I needed to make The Medusa Coin as strong as it could be by knowing without a doubt my final destination at the end of the arc. So I outlined like a son of a gun to position myself in the strongest spot possible.
I had my Circle of Shadows. I understood their motivation and had them in the mix as the primary threat in the novel. They worked WITH the Luminary originally, manipulated throughout until their collapse.
Then I started thinking about who should be in the circle. And everything changed.
Circling back…
I like callbacks to previous stories. Locations are used in new ways but are meant to harken to earlier times. The apartment building at the end of Signs of Portents is one such spot. Having the lightning strike in The Medusa Coin and then showing the result of the damage with Thel in A Circle of Shadows shows progression but also lets the reader know everything matters.
This goes for characters as well.
When thinking about members of the circle, I wanted some names. I wanted people readers from the beginning would recognize and immediately understand.
Julian Harvey was there right from the start. When it came to Harvey’s involvement I knew there was no underling role for him. He was a leader in his own right. That revelation brought with it a complete rewriting of my thinking about the circle and its purpose.
No longer was the Luminary involved. No longer were they manipulated. They were a power in the city, doing what they believed to be right as a counterpoint to Soriya’s methods.
Julian Harvey explains this in the book. They handle the threats Soriya and Loren don’t even realize exist. They are the front line not hiding in the shadows but keeping the rest of the city in the dark about the truth. For their safety. For their protection.
For the good of all. The same as Soriya and Loren only different.
In their eyes, too different and that is the center of the conflict between the two parties.
The impact on Trustfall
As I’ve said many times, outlining ahead to reach your destination and strengthen your current position really does help your writing. Knowing Harvey’s ultimate role in A Circle of Shadows made Trustfall all the more important.
When I was putting this book together I was also writing Pathways in the Dark. Ruiz’s story was a simple case of an overprotective father and his college-bound daughter. When I realized the villain of the piece and the foil in the guise of Zoe’s professor, I saw an opening for the return of Harvey.
Not only a callback to The Great Divide, but also as a precursor to A Circle of Shadows. To reacquaint the reader with the character and how he fit into Ruiz’s life, but also provide motivation for his choices to come.
One character can change everything.
Without Harvey, Pratchett wouldn’t be involved in the circle. Without Pratchett’s involvement the tension changes completely in the story. His motivation shifts, Loren’s does the same, and everything threatens to fall apart.
One character can be the linchpin and for A Circle of Shadows, I thank Julian Harvey for playing that role.
