The next several months will bring author commentaries on all six stories contained within the Tales from Portents collection. My hope is to offer insight into the decisions made in putting the project together and the challenges therein. It’s also fun to point out the little Easter eggs throughout. (I love that crap.) So, SPOILER WARNING is in effect for the duration.
Greg Loren, lone wolf.
There is such a thing as getting too comfortable with a series. Too formulaic. Too stuck in one mode of thinking. Every chance I get to create a new tale in the world of Greystone is a chance to tell something new and I am very much aware of the been there, done that factor.
So when I was outlining the different stories presented in Tales, I knew there were many ways to take the characters. There were no limitations on timeline or specific events so it really opened the door for new looks at each of the principal players in the cast.
Soriya’s solo appearance in The Consultant came together first. It snapped together like a giant jigsaw puzzle pretty quickly from the onset. It was clear from writing that piece when it took place. It ends right where Signs of Portents picks up, dovetailing directly into her investigation into the Night Owls bar.
So what was Loren doing during this time?
That question alone started the ball rolling on what became Eyes in the Storm.
Cases, especially those handled by these two characters are typically handled together. Greg Loren is a man out of place in the true city of Portents. So what happens when he has to fly solo? How does he handle things on his own? How does the world look to Loren from outside the influence of Soriya Greystone?
That was my starting point.
Comfort zones
It isn’t only about breaking away from my comfort zone when plotting new tales in this world to keep the series fresh when creating. It’s about pushing the characters out of theirs as well.
Eyes in the Storm offered a chance to do that by putting Loren in a situation on his own, away from Soriya and away from Portents. Yet completely entwined on some level.
At a time when he wants nothing to do with anything from his past. He’s left it behind, fallen so far he can’t afford another mistake, just as it pulls him right back into it. Forcing Loren to face the world introduced by Soriya on his own, without the safety net of the Greystone in the mix, was the ultimate test for Greg Loren as a character and one I was very happy to see come together.
The Chicago way.
Eyes in the Storm also answered one of the main points on display throughout Signs of Portents. Loren’s time in Chicago. He ran away from Portents, hoping to reconnect with the city of his birth and the family he left behind. He mentioned it several times in the first novel of the series.
It felt wrong not showing it off, at least for a moment.
Connecting to Portents
Another important element for this story was keeping it connected with everything else going on, especially the city of Portents itself. These are tales FROM Portents so having that connective tissue, those threads in place, was something I was very cognizant of when outlining.
The idea that the staff of Chaac traveled through Portents first became that thread. Did something happen to the staff during this trip to allow it to possess Owen Chase? Was it like this prior to its visit to Portents? If you were left with these questions, that was intentional. I wanted to keep it vague, to keep the mystery of Portents and the true city very much in the background for both the reader and Greg Loren.
Portents, in my mind, is the center of this series. It plays as much a role in the way events occur as any character in the book. Just as it plays an important role in who Greg Loren is as a character.
Next time –
Eyes in the Storm continues next week.
Thanks for reading.
