The end of the year is fast approaching and so is this author commentary on A Circle of Shadows! SPOILER WARNING ahead!
Robert Standish
I love a good foil for the hero. I really enjoy trying to find their polar opposite and build them up. For Greg Loren, there is no character more despised than Robert Standish. I needed someone able to push Loren’s buttons, someone able to do things so heinous (and get away with them) that the reader couldn’t help but hate.
A little history…
Standish was a one-off character, much like Pratchett who I wrote about last week. He was meant to be nothing more than a memory, something in the background as the reason for Loren’s removal from the force. When I finished Signs of Portents and realized Tales would be a prequel style collection, I had the opportunity to expand on those memories; to really dig into the Standish character and his relationship with Loren.
In Tales, readers were able to see their first meeting, realize they were partners for a time, and then see the partnership dissolve in explosive fashion with Resurrectionists. Arc completed. End of story.
Never say never
Standish wasn’t meant to be in A Circle of Shadows. Honest.
In the outline and first couple of scripts, the man in the shadows, the man manipulating Myers was Julian Harvey.
Why? Exactly. I had no clue as to the proper motivation behind such an act. It didn’t make sense. At all.
I thought about the Luminary. Maybe she fit the bill better but that didn’t feel right either. What did she stand to gain from it? Why would she care about Loren at all, her focus was always on the Greystone.
Who hated Loren enough to want to end his career? Who was motivated and greedy enough to blackmail others to do their dirty work?
Standish was the only man for the job.
How his role evolved.
At first, that was the end of his involvement. He was messing with Myers to bring down Loren. Easy peasy.
Yet it didn’t seem enough. Not for Standish. He wouldn’t settle for a small bit in the drama. He needed a big role. So as I was piecing together members of each organization–from the Heads of Cerberus to the Circle of Shadows and everyone in between, I decided to make him the middle man.
He was the one playing all sides against each other. The mass-manipulator. The grandstanding cheat of it all.
I loved the idea.
Lessons learned:
I’d say never let anything (or any character, in this case) go to waste. The truth of the matter is that while each book grew progressively easier to craft thanks to the characters established in prior installments, there is something to be said with serendipity. I have to believe fate plays a hand in things and that, while a master craftsman might see all the angles and swear to them from the start, I will never be quite that adept and hope above all things that the story makes itself known to me as we go along.
Sure as hell makes for a fun ride that way.
