This is absolutely my favorite time of the year. If you’re anything like me, you love to listen or read the author commentary on a book, film, DVD collection… anything that brings insight into something you loved. To me, the process behind putting a final product together adds to the enjoyment of the product itself.
Pathways in the Dark Author Commentary Begins!
If you’ve enjoyed the book already feel free to dive in right from the start. If you haven’t, be aware that I will be going in-depth into each and every short story contained within. I won’t deliberately go out of my way to ruin a plot point, especially if it doesn’t pertain to what I am talking about during the blog.
Remember, if there is something you desperately have to know about the making of Pathways in the Dark, be sure to email me at lou@loupaduano.com. I have my general list of items I want to hit for the next few months (yeah, it’s a little long…) so be sure if there is something you really found interesting in the book and want to know how it ended up in the draft LET ME KNOW!! Can’t wait to hear from you.
Why this project?
This is a question I will answer for each and every short story in the collection. However, looking at the book as a whole I think this is important as well. I’m not a fan of short stories. I don’t typically read them, anthologies, or the like. I’ve never felt they carried the same weight or meant as much to a series as a full-length installment.
I was wrong.
Or, at least, I set out to prove that conceit was incorrect.
Pathways in the Dark, like Tales from Portents before it, is vital to the Greystone series and deliberately so. There are so many little tidbits layered into the collection. Pieces of a puzzle yet to even be formed in some cases, that I can’t see the series without this book. The overall narrative fails without the arcs contained in Pathways.
Ruiz’s lesson in Trustfall. Soriya’s new apartment. The backstory of Samantha Myers. Each one was designed to showcase a character and propel them forward, to push them toward A Circle of Shadows while also putting them to the test to explain why they are important to the story, to understand who they are and where they’ve been when the next novel opens.
It is a much different collection than Tales from Portents. One that owes much to that first collection, but one that when all is said and done very much stands on its own as a moment in time for these characters and the choices they have made. The impact of those choices and how they came about.
The price they’ve paid or will pay because of them.
Collateral starts next time!
Feel free to drop me a line and let me know your thoughts and if you would like to hear more about a part of the book or the series at lou@loupaduano.com.
Always happy to hear from you.
Thanks for reading.
