author commentaries Archives - Lou Paduano | Urban Fantasy Novels

Here we go again! Welcome to the latest author commentary of yours truly, where you get to read every rambling thought that popped in my head during the making of The Final Gauntlet.

Author Commentaries

I’ve said it before, I adore commentaries. I love behind the scenes dirt on what happened during the production of pretty much anything – from television to film to books and on and on and on.

They make the finished product that much more astonishing to me. That all these obstacles stood in the way and each was overcome in turn to bring something new and refreshing into the world.

I thought they were fun exercises when I started them with Greystone. It was a way to work through my own weaknesses and really hone how the story came to be. Over time, it’s really helped close out a chapter for me. My author commentaries put the entire work into perspective for me more than anyone.

I find them incredibly invaluable yet, most of all, fun. I hope you do as well.

The Final Gauntlet

I won’t delve too deeply into this one here. I’ll save the good stuff for next week. Suffice it say, this book was a BEAR to make happen.

This was the book where the world came crashing down on me. I was six days into the draft when the US went into lockdown.

All of a sudden I had a wife and two kids with me at all times. I had to hit up grocery stores constantly to find toilet paper and buy enough food to last through Easter. (It was supposed to end around then, I’d heard… Whoops.)

Having outlined and scripted the book before the implosion of my writing sanctum sure as hell helped matters. I don’t know what I would have done if I wasn’t already knee deep into the draft. The whole thing might have collapsed.

Every step of the process became hampered. There were days when writing was the farthest thing from my mind, where Greystone was the dream of some other guy.

My family helped me through it. My wife, especially. She saw my struggle and sat my ass at the keyboard and forced me to the finish line. I will always be grateful for that.

The Final Gauntlet was a personal one for me as well. It was a trial and a half, and I tried to inject that level of drama into the events of Soriya and the others.

Next time:

My three goals for the book.

Thanks for reading.

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.

Connecting Factors

It was important for me to filter little threads that tied events in the collection together. I mentioned this previous when discussing the use of Robert Standish as a connecting factor. For me, short story collections tend to fall flat in that they have no impact compared to the full length installments.

I wanted to break that trend by connecting seemingly disparate events. Some are simple, a character that shows up consistently.

Others were more subtle.

Chaac and the Storm

When I was developing the collection the original idea was to offer a free story to fit prior to Signs of Portents. (What eventually became Resurrectionists… sort of…) This seemingly simple plan turned into two stories told concurrently.

One for Loren. One for Soriya.

Eyes in the Storm and The Consultant.

If I wrote about one it was important to write about the other. Two equal partners to the story. Balance.

I decided to take it further and make the connection between the two clear, to tie them in a way to show they occur at the exact same moment in time for these two characters.

Hence the storm.

Building that bridge through subtle references in The Consultant, including the end of the storm in the final chapter of Soriya’s story, kept the two main players in the series connected in a way during their separation.

Both need each other, something they need to be constantly reminded of, during the series. This was a nice way to keep them part of the same world, even if all Loren wants to do is escape it.

Evolution of the references

This connecting factor didn’t exist in the original drafts. Chaac was very much a part of Eyes from the start. He was the device used to pull Loren back into the insanity that tends to follow anything Portents related. But The Consultant had no reference to the storm.

Except for one line.

When Soriya is hanging outside the apartment of the first victim it mentions the spitting rain. An annoyance and nothing more.

From that little nugget I went through the entire story to filter more references to the rain and its unsuspected nature. When it ends Soriya is elated, the same smile she wears whenever Loren returns to her world. That was my way to keep them tied together.

Their partnership has become the cornerstone of the series and something that should be explored with each story. I was surprised by the sudden connection and completely overjoyed it was able to come together in the way it did.

I hope you felt the same.

Next time:

One last connecting factor and then the mother of all tales; Resurrectionists!

Thanks for reading.

The Final Gauntlet Author Commentary Introduction