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

Hammer and Anvil Author Commentary – Creating a Series Thread

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Welcome to the end of the Hammer and Anvil author commentary. We made it! I hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into the work. If there are things you wanted to know that weren’t covered, please don’t hesitate to write at lou@loupaduano.com. Here it is, your final SPOILER WARNING!

Creating a Series Thread

Going into the prequels I knew there had to be some commonality between them. There had to be a thread, or else it would not be a proper trilogy. At the start of things, however, I had no clue what I was looking to do or where I was headed with subsequent books (for the most part – I did know Kali was going to be in Book 2, which I will be talking about in November and December).

I needed a sense of direction. More than that, I needed the character or incident that tied each book together in some fashion.

Enter: The Door

How did the Minotaur enter Portents? It was a question that plagued me for much of the writing. Mentor’s diversion to the home of the labyrinth wasn’t even a proper chapter in the book until the revision stage. Even then, it was more a red herring to make you think Karen Winters, the Luminary, was the menace behind the Minotaur’s presence in the city.

It was a fun gimmick to try, but all it did was make me realize that someone else must have brought him out. Someone else must have had the ability to open a door into the labyrinth and release this menace.

That was where the series thread was born. That was the moment it came to light just what this series might be about at its heart. (In terms of the plot, anyway… This was always meant to be Soriya’s journey to become the Greystone and take the mantle from Mentor.)

With the realization that someone had to be behind the door for the Minotaur, I had my starting point. Mentor’s chapter where he discovers the door suddenly took on a whole new meaning. I rewrote it several times, trying not to be too obvious with the hints laid out for the reader…

Okay, did you read it again? Good.

The Wiccan Shop

Did you catch the mention of that innocuous shop across the street? I put it there for a reason. There is always a reason when I add a specific detail to a scene, I promise you. Yes, the red herring was there to turn longtime readers toward the Luminary, but the Wiccan shop was listed to foreshadow what is coming next for the series:

The Final Gauntlet

Yes. This is it. The end of the trilogy and the book that owes everything to Hammer and Anvil for creating the series thread. Without the mention of the Wiccan shop, without the question being asked about how the Minotaur made his way to Portents, there would be no Book Three.

Everything was born in this moment and the culmination is coming your way October 13th.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed the commentary.

Hammer and Anvil Author Commentary – My Wife Saved the Day

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Welcome back to the author commentary for Hammer and Anvil. SPOILER WARNING is in effect!

My Wife Saved the Day

Credit where credit is due. My lovely wife, who saves my butt day in and day out when it comes to putting these stories together, really stepped it up for Hammer and Anvil.

Most of the time there are little things she finds when reading through my drafts. There will be the usual hodgepodge of grammar and punctuation issues. Sometimes there are a couple out of place elements or questions that come up, but nothing major.

Then Hammer and Anvil hit.

Mentor’s injury

It’s no secret, Mentor has a problem with his right knee. It locks up on him. It slows him down. Eventually, it leads to his death at the hands of Nathaniel Evans.

I never explained where the injury came from. I never felt the need to dive into it. In my mind it was a process of age from a long life of getting the crap kicked out of him by random monsters.

So when Mentor confronts the Minotaur in Hammer and Anvil, Mentor is taken out pretty definitively. The Minotaur wipes the bloody floor with him.

At one point, the beast takes Mentor out at the knee. It wasn’t specified in the first drafts which one. It was merely a progression of the fight and never went further.

Until the wife reads it.

All of a sudden she shouts out, “So this is how Mentor injured his right knee!”

She was very excited.

And I looked at her without a single clue what she was talking about.

She had to explain the scene to me, to spell out the impact of this blow. This is the moment Mentor’s life changed, that his death was all but inevitable because of the Minotaur.

It never even occurred to me. (Idiot!)

I tried to play it off that of course I meant it that way. That OF COURSE I, being the genius author I am, had that moment planned from the very start.

I didn’t. Not at all.

My wife saved the day. She deserves all the credit for making the connection.

The lesson here?

Always let other people read your work? I guess. More likely, the takeaway here is that my wife is always right and will always be right for all time.

I’m okay with that.

The impact of that moment

Everything changed with that revelation. Every instance in the book, and the two that have followed, was given a new layer of context thanks to my lovely wife’s discovery.

Mentor’s whole life was shot in a new trajectory. If not for this injury, he could have continued being the Greystone indefinitely. By adding this as the turning point for him, there was a ticking clock on his tenure.

It was the perfect way to add a layer of tension to his arc going forward, especially in The Gifts of Kali which I will be talking more about in a couple months.

Hammer and Anvil Author Commentary – A Circle of Shadows

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The Hammer and Anvil author commentary continues. SPOILER WARNING is in full effect! Today I’m talking about that dastardly group, A Circle of Shadows, and my reluctance to keep them in the book.

A Circle of Shadows

When I sat down to outline Hammer and Anvil, I knew I wanted some touchstones to the main series. The top two, of course, were the Minotaur and Soriya’s first meeting with Beth. Those were established facts from the series and should be dealt with in the book.

Beth brought with her some challenges though. Her association with the Circle being one of them.

It needed to be addressed. Clearly, Beth was a member of the group. She was tied to their endeavors in the background prior to Signs and leading up to her death. So I knew I couldn’t avoid the subject. It wouldn’t have made sense.

Still, I fought with myself over having Julian and Pratchett in the book. I mean, FOUGHT.

The argument AGAINST them

Spoilers. That was what it boiled down to for me. If someone decided to check out Hammer and Anvil before reading the main Greystone series, I didn’t want them spoiled about who was in the Circle of Shadows and how important they are.

I created the prequel trilogy as a gateway for new readers, but the more I wrote and delved into the series, I realized it was more a continuation of Greystone than anything else. In truth, Signs should still be first in the reading order. Always.

Hammer and Anvil, while a streamlined version of the main series, was still part of the larger picture. And though I hoped to give people this entry-level adventure, it really is Greystone Book Six in a lot of ways. That wasn’t what I was looking to do, it wasn’t the goal of the project, but looking back I can’t help but feel that the inclusion of A Circle of Shadows in this story made it that way.

So why the hell did I keep Julian and Pratchett in the damn book?

The argument FOR them

Insight into Beth. That simple. Character, for me, is the most important aspect of a story. Any story.

Beth was a member and it should be seen, it should be understood why by the reader. I felt it was too crucial to who she was as a person, and the doubts she was starting to have in that role with the Circle, to ignore.

The great bits included in their scenes:

I can’t help this. I loved the scenes with Beth and Julian. The back and forth between them, the way Julian kept trying to manipulate the situation for his own ends and Beth was so well aware of it, really brought out a nice tension. It also served to plant the seed of doubt for Beth.

This was the moment she realized maybe the Circle wasn’t the right path to follow.

The Circle’s role in Beth’s story ended up being more important to me than the threat of spoilers for new readers. That was how I justified their involvement here and why I did everything I could to make those scenes from Beth’s POV as well as focus in on who Beth was as a person because of her association with this secret organization.

Did it work for you? Were you questioning their presence in the novel or did it fit with the narrative being told? If Hammer and Anvil was your first foray into Greystone, I’d be especially curious about your thoughts.

Hammer and Anvil Author Commentary – The Minotaur’s Evolution

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Welcome back to the Hammer and Anvil author commentary. Be warned there will be SPOILERS ahead for the book!

Today I’m talking about the big bad of the novel: The Minotaur!

Bringing the Minotaur into the story

The Minotaur was one of the few pieces that had to be in the book right from the start. Signs of Portents made it pretty clear that this menace was one of the first handled by Soriya during her training years. I thought it was a significant touchstone to tie in the new prequel trilogy with the main series.

There is a flashback of Mentor watching Soriya battle this creature. It is all of five paragraphs in the book, but it stuck with me throughout the series to the point where I want to expand that moment.

I wanted it to resonate with the readers as much as it did with me.

What drew me to the Minotaur

There was a level of expectation with the character. After writing about men like Henry Erikson and Julian Harvey, it was refreshing to have this powerhouse of a threat against Soriya.

Having the Minotaur also focused in on something I thought was important for this trilogy. There is no Loren here. This is Soriya’s story. So rather than have it bogged down on the investigation angle of the series, this was a chance to amp up the action.

Greystone-in-Training became a fast-paced adventure series instead of the crime thriller that Signs was. And that was the direction the series was going anyway. You could see it with The Medusa Coin and A Circle of Shadows. The action bits were bigger and more prominent, than the seedy underbelly of the mystery.

That was Soriya’s influence on the narrative. And since this was her story to tell, it made sense to take it to the next level with a bad guy like the Minotaur.

The Evolution of the Minotaur

Readers of these commentaries know where I stand when it comes to writing the villain. Writing Nathaniel Evans in Signs of Portents was an eye-opening experience for me. Where I saw all this nuance and motivation in him, most others felt he was one-dimensional. Not that he was a terrible villain, but that there was no meat to him.

I took those comments to heart and redoubled my efforts in fleshing out the threats in each of the subsequent novels.

The Minotaur was no exception.

I dug deep into the lore. I read about his subjugation at the hands of King Minos (though he didn’t see it that way at the time). He was abused consistently, and still felt love for his king.

Adding that backstory was just the first step for me.

The moment I knew I had something with the Minotaur in this book was the scene with Mentor, where the Minotaur holds out the phone and speaks for the first time.

It was in the original script. It was in the outline. But I didn’t realize the significance of why that mattered until later drafts. He was evolving. He was becoming something more than the monster in the labyrinth.

I loved that turn. Because it meant he could be viewed as a creature anymore. He was a living, breathing entity with unknown potential now.

He took things too far, of course. I mean, who wouldn’t? Here he sees his freedom, this new world, and he seeks to claim it as his own. He tries to test himself, to prove himself, and it leads to his own downfall.

We can all identify with the villain.

Not the mania or the immorality of them, but their ambitions – their dreams? Sure, why not?

Once I tapped into that evolution vibe with the Minotaur, I went back and filled in the blanks. I layered it into every scene. You can see it starting with the scene where the two cops arrive. He figures out that’s what they are by “reading” the word from the cruiser.

He “reads” the relationship between Mentor and Soriya during their fight in the old city. The Minotaur even lays a trap for Mentor.

All this things point to the Minotaur’s ability to grow, to evolve, and it made him a truly terrifying menace (IMO).

I hope you enjoyed his tale as much as I had writing it.

Will he ever escape the labyrinth again to threaten Soriya and Portents? There is an answer to that question. But should I tell it to you?

No, I better wait. Just a little bit longer.

Hammer and Anvil – Making the Hammer Work

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The Hammer and Anvil commentary continues. SPOILER WARNING is in effect!

The Hammer of Hephaestus

From the inception of the project I knew Beth was going to be invested in finding the hammer. Her entry into the story is because of the hammer. But how did it fit with the Minotaur plot? That was what I had to figure out as I outlined the novel.

The hammer saves the day.

That was the start of it. By having the hammer integral to stopping the Minotaur, it would tie the two threads together into one explosive climax.

But it couldn’t be the hammer, per se. That was where my trouble started, and where some crafty revisions helped in the clarification of what was going on with the hammer.

Eddie’s new gift

In the first draft, the hammer of Hephaestus held all the power. With it in hand, anyone could create their every thought. Unfortunately, because of that intense power, the hammer basically took away free will.

It threw away the redemptive story of Eddie Domingo. He became the tool in the equation, and I didn’t like that angle. The hammer had to become the muse which aided in the work.

When I develop a story, character is key. The hammer was a prop piece. Eddie had to be the one to take it up and use the damn thing. That was critical in my eyes. He had to take that step forward and help.

That was when the scene at the forge was born. Beth gives Eddie the push he needs to stand up, something he has been unable or unwilling to do until this point. That turn was critical for the story to work, and it only came about thanks to delving into the hammer and the power it contained.

Following the trail

There was one huge sticking point I had with this book. Beth knew too much.

It can be a problem when it seems like your protagonist has all the answers right away. In the original draft, Beth visits the Circle of Shadows earlier (Chapter 9) to relate the missing hammer to Julian and Pratchett. She feeds them all this information about the hammer, about why it must have been stolen, yet there was never a beat where she figured it out for herself.

She simply knew it.

Not good.

So that needed a change. Big time. Instead of throwing her into the deep end immediately, I pulled the scene out and moved it to Chapter 19. It changed the ENTIRE dynamic of her story.

Now, instead of knowing everything right out of the gate, Beth gets time to investigate. She stumbles on the robberies of Eddie and Tony to gain insight into how the hammer of Hephaestus has been used. She heads to Atlas Books where she researches the subject and is then able to pick Soriya’s brain on the subject as well.

It is only after no less than four scenes take place that Beth has the information necessary to pass along to the Circle of Shadows. Even then, nothing is an absolute which it had been the first time around. There is more nuance, more questions asked than answered, in the discussion.

This was the first time I’ve had to rejigger the very structure of the book before. Sure, there have been slight shifts – a chapter or two flipped around for continuity – but never to this degree.

I think it helped tremendously in the pacing of Beth’s story, as well as the information parsed out to the reader. What do you think? I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

Hammer and Anvil Author Commentary – Eddie Domingo’s Story

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Welcome back to the Hammer and Anvil author commentary. I’m digging deep into the story to give you some behind the scenes tidbits. SPOILER WARNING is in effect!

Eddie Domingo

I have to be honest: I was scared out of my mind about writing Eddie Domingo’s story.

There are certain expectations when it comes to Greystone. Most stem from me, and I take full responsibility for their inclusion or exclusion from the series.

Gangsters were never part of the Greystone universe before this story. I mean, I guess they probably existed, but they were never discussed, never hinted at, never dealt with in the confines of a story. Greystone focused on the bizarre, the myths and the legends of the world, coming to life in Portents.

Not some Goodfellas wannabes.

I liked it that way. But when it came time to write this book, the Domingo family forced their way into the narrative. I could have chosen any average bum off the street to wield Hephaestus’ hammer. Average guy turned master forger. It would have worked perfectly fine.

I wanted a redemptive story though. My plan was to mirror Soriya’s arc of trying to prove herself to Mentor, by introducing this inept crook who wanted nothing more than to be worthy of his family name.

Eddie Domingo as an idiot didn’t cut it though…

He couldn’t just be a moron. He couldn’t be a dick who cared nothing for the world. Why would he bother to help anyone, then?

That’s where Tony came in. Tony, the cousin, was the bastard of the pair only so that the audience could see Eddie in a fairer light. When bad things happened they were never truly Eddie’s fault.

Did he take them that way? Absolutely! What decent human being doesn’t shower some personal guilt over every situation that goes poorly? (I might be projecting here…)

Tony – and by extension, Frank – were the lens through which the reader could relate to Eddie and his predicament.

Revisionist history

A lot of his redemption arc came in revision. Eddie Domingo wasn’t the nice guy. Hell, he was pretty selfish through and through. The prose brought out the aspects of Eddie to make him a likable guy. The background info about his time in college to give him the background necessary to wield the hammer by the end, his desire to change, everything came through later in the process to make his story click.

Bringing his story to a close

Eddie was truly meant as a guest-star to the series. His role, while instrumental to this book, was never meant to go further. By the end, Eddie – now as Edward Smith – is in a good place with a good job.

The End. Thanks for stopping by.

It would be perfectly fine leaving it there. But there was an itch in the back of my head, another arc for him to travel in my eyes.

So, because of the potential those revisions created for the character, Eddie is coming back in The Final Gauntlet. What is his role? Where does the story take him? You’ll have to find out in October.

One more thought about gangsters

This was the first project without Greg Loren in a leading role. I was nervous about that and wanted to maintain the connection to the main series in some way. By using this crime figure, Frank Domingo, and having that investigative connection to the Central Precinct, it made it that much easier to work Loren into the narrative without it feeling forced.

It also allowed for that nice moment where Loren thanks his guardian angel for taking down Frank Domingo. That was a great bit I was happy fit the scene nicely.

Next time:

Making the hammer work for the story wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be…

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