Lou Paduano | Urban Fantasy Novels | Sci-Fi Crime Series

Collateral Commentary – Using the Greystone

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The Collateral commentary concludes here so SPOILER WARNING is in effect!

A reason for everything…

I go out of my way to make this the one truth behind anything I write. There has to be a reason for everything. It has to make sense, both from a character perspective and a plot perspective.

From clothing to speech pattern it all comes from these two factors.

For example: In one of the early novels, Soriya made a reference to Scooby Doo. I want to say it was The Consultant or possibly another story from Tales from Portents, but it was in there through much of the editing process.

It was funny and matched the scene perfectly.

It was also completely out of character. Does Soriya own a television? Negative. Does she ever make a pop culture reference unless it is to question something Loren says? Nope.

Should she know what the hell Scooby Doo is? Of course. Everyone should know what Scooby Doo is and how eternal those old cartoons are. Would she know about it? No way. No how.

It had to go.

See? Reasons for everything.

Including the Greystone

I expected more crap for this. Every instance of a rune showing up I waited for someone to shoot me an email to lay into me for my lack of imagination. Does Soriya depend on the same four or five runes to defend herself from the menaces she faces?

Yes, she does. Collateral, especially, when Soriya confronts the Phoenix in the alley, she blasts her with the same two runes rather than come up with a new game plan.

Is it just my lack of imagination or inability to research some new tactic? No. Not this time anyway…

The truth behind her lack of diversity, and my reasoning behind it when I put together a scene, is that when it comes to assaults using the Greystone it is always based on her knowledge. It comes from her training with Mentor. He knew a specific way of doing things and that was what he taught her.

She continues to utilize that knowledge to the best of her ability.

Why is this important? Why mention this at all?

Ah, dear reader, you know me too well. There is a reason for everything including this blog. See, Soriya is about to learn more about the Greystone than she ever thought possible in A Circle of Shadows.

You will see more runes, more languages, more signs, and more danger because of them than every before.

The first reason for Soriya’s continued use of the same limited number of runes came from character.

The plot reason comes to play in September’s release of A Circle of Shadows.

A monumental shift is coming this fall to Greystone. Get ready.

So no hate mail about the runes, okay?

Thanks for reading.

Collateral Commentary – The Phoenix

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Your friendly neighborhood SPOILER WARNING here! I will be discussing the plot of Collateral in detail including the threat behind the story so you have been sufficiently WARNED…

Finding the threat

I stumbled out of the gate on this one. Usually I’m quick to know the threat of a story. I like to have it worked out before I start putting plot to paper.

To start, I focused on what I knew.

This was Loren and Soriya’s show. Their dynamic, more than anything else in the series, has been the driving force of each and every book. So I needed their case, their shared menace, to be solely about where they were at this moment in time.

Loren was reeling from the gut punch of learning Soriya was present the day his wife died. Another secret, one too many kept from him.

Soriya, during The Medusa Coin, learned that trust is necessary to make their relationship work. Oops…

I wanted to play with those crossed wires and really charge each scene with Loren’s anger and Soriya’s constant joy at just being near him again after his close call with the Charon.

The second piece I had was the background of the threat’s arrival. Henry Erikson. His actions in The Medusa Coin set off this tale. His research into saving his own skin brought something to Portents that should never have been there.

Thus my search began. What was it? What could it mean for this specific story? For these two particular characters?

Finding the Phoenix

Yes, I am a fan of the X-Men. No, this had nothing to do with that.

In my search through a database of mythical creatures I tried to dissuade myself from using a phoenix. Because of the X-Men, because of its constant use through media.

Yet, it was because of this use that the phoenix ended up working perfectly.

The Phoenix as this life-giving force, this creature of light, twisted by her arrival into Portents was meant to prove counter to Soriya’s journey. Throughout The Medusa Coin and even before that, Soriya viewed herself as a force of destruction; offering little more than death.

Here, she tried to save the day, tried to save the city and this creature who was meant to do the same stood in her way. Soriya is forced to play her dark role for the betterment of Portents.

At a cost.

The innocence of the Phoenix, her reasoning behind her actions really drove it home. She is trying to help people live to their fullest in spite of causing their deaths. The fact that she can’t understand the pain being caused by her actions and that Soriya has to intervene in the harshest way possible made it that much brutal.

Maybe there is no real light, no real victory to be had in this fight.

The toughest one to pull off…

I struggled with this tale. More than any other in the collection. For me, the joy of writing the series is the interplay with the characters. To see Soriya and Loren at odds, to feel the tension in the background the entire time, was difficult to manage and more difficult to conceive.

I think it worked though. And I definitely think it was necessary to push these two further apart, which is where they are when A Circle of Shadows opens.

What are your thoughts? Shoot me an email at lou@loupaduano.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Collateral Commentary – Starting Points

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Let the commentary BEGIN! As a warning, there will be SPOILERS and in this case they also relate not only to the opening story in Pathways in the Dark but also to The Medusa Coin. BEWARE… BEWARE… (Sorry, my 3 year old says that to me all the time.)

Starting Points for Collateral…

Even though it has the prominence of the first story in the collection, the truth of the matter is I wrote this one dead last.

There were two reasons.

  1. I knew it was a longer story to tell and I had four shorter tales in the works that demanded less commitment to put together.
  2. I only knew 2 out of the 3 critical elements for this story and couldn’t make it work without the third piece to the puzzle.

Setting Up Those Critical Elements

Coming from The Medusa Coin, I had two things going for me. I had a tension building photo that was causing a rift between Loren and Soriya. It gave me a lot of play on how these two would interact, one aware of this secret and the other completely oblivious.

So, Collateral for me was my chance to delve into a new wrinkle in the Soriya/Loren dynamic. In order to see how Loren would handle it as well as see where Soriya was having made many incorrect choices of late.

I knew where I wanted this story to end and how it would be the only one in the collection to showcase the old team. This was another reason why Collateral HAD to be first in Pathways. To not bring Soriya and Loren right to the forefront of the collection would have been a huge blow to the reader, in my opinion, so I’m glad the timeline and the subject matter worked out in order to keep them front and center for everyone.

The second critical piece for this story centered around Henry Erikson. In The Medusa Coin it is stated he looked into a cure for his illness for 3 years without success. But just because he hadn’t been cured didn’t mean he hadn’t stumbled upon something worthwhile during his search.

That was what clicked for me. This idea that this one man’s actions could have ramifications for so many others. That because of his desperation he unleashed not only the Charon during The Medusa Coin, but something else we had no clue about until now.

But what was the threat?

That’s where I was stuck. Without that critical element I wasn’t ready to put the story together. I’ll tell you all about it next time.

Talk to you then!

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