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

Founder’s Day Commentary – Starting Points

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We’ve arrived at last! The final short story contained within Pathways in the Dark! I’m going to dig deep into this story so SPOILER WARNING ahead for this author commentary…

Founder’s Day

This story was always going to be in Pathways in the Dark. At the end of Resurrectionists I left the door open on a number of threads that eventually had to come to light. Figuring out the narrative, structuring the story of Founder’s Day had to be one of the greatest challenges of the entire series.

Starting Points

The Founder was my way into the story. In the initial draft of Resurrectionists, the Founder was taken into custody. His history came out at the end, his work at the Church of the Second Coming on full display for the public.

It didn’t work.

It sucked the life out of the scene. Instead of the story centering on the shattered life of Loren it became about this cloaked cult-like figure and how he managed to wake the dead.

I scrapped it for the simpler solution. He escaped and was still looming in the background.

How to bring him back?

If the Founder was my starting point, this question was the first of an indescribable amount of challenges in plotting the story. Why would this man come back?

The murders built from this.

I love detective fiction. I love building crime scenes and going through evidence; finding new ways to offer up exposition while also strengthening character moments. Signs of Portents was built from this love and I wanted to circle back to those good old days with some classic detective work on Loren’s part.

Signs of Portents’ influence…

For me, nothing was better than building the history of Portents. From Nathaniel Evans to the ebony tower, from the Corridor to the Courtyard, all had their place in the expansive history of this fictional city.

When developing the murders, when playing with the idea of the return of the Founder, I realized I could play with that concept on multiple fronts.

Make the murders about the Founders of the city. Make the city in the midst of celebrating a Founder’s Day celebration. All little tidbits to hint at the mysterious figure in the background. All feeding into the main threat, while also returning to the roots of the series and the history tucked behind the narrative.

The Evans line, Patrick Hennessey, Wilbur Caldwell, William Rath. Some fictional, some real to the people of Portents. All important to the past, the beginning of Portents. History matters in this world and that was what I wanted to touch on here in Founder’s Day.

Next time:

Challenges Part 1 – The many roles this story was forced to play…

Connections Commentary – Hints for the Future

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One final look at Connections! SPOILER WARNING is in effect for the Pathways in the Dark author commentary! Beware!

I mentioned 2 goals, didn’t I?

It’s been a bit since our last look at this tale but I mentioned having two goals with Connections. The first, and foremost, was the give Gilgamesh the boot from the series (for now). It was a necessary evil, but there was no way to make his presence work with where things are heading in A Circle of Shadows and set up Soriya’s growing isolation nicely.

The second goal, and the enjoyable one for me, was in laying out hints of things to come.

The good and the bad part of hints…

There are two sides to this coin and it is one of the points of my writing I work very hard at when outlining. Hints come at a cost. You are committing the narrative to an event of some kind that can’t be forgotten.

There has to be a payoff.

But it can be fun to create those moments. Connections is FILLED with them. Go on and read it again.

I’ll wait…

Done, yet? Good.

Every aspect of Connections is a hint for what is to come. Gilgamesh’s abduction by Ishtar and the forces of Anubis comes about because someone knows he is in Portents and working with Soriya.

Who? Who could be working in the shadows and manipulating events like that?

Then, of course, there is the big climax of the tale where Gilgamesh reveals his connection with Death and how it keeps an eye into the future…

The original ending of The Medusa Coin…

Yeah, I tend to keep my favorite bits even after they’ve been sent to the cutting room floor. In the original draft of The Medusa Coin, Gilgamesh meets Soriya in the Bypass chamber and offers hints of the future. He talks about events down the line and choices to be made that will impact everyone.

It didn’t work. It was forced and held no place for the narrative.

This later became the coffee house scene and the small tidbit about the Bypass falling if Soriya isn’t careful. Much clearer and it fit the moment.

Connections allowed me to revisit the original ending to The Medusa Coin, but use it in a fun, foreshadowing way for readers with a keen eye on what is happening in Greystone.

I don’t want to get into specifics. That spoils the game. And while I haven’t heard from many on the subject, I hope it managed to spark some ideas in your heads about what is on the horizon. That’s why I like playing with the notion of the future, of hinting at longer stories tucked into the background.

To spur imagination. To enrage readers (to some degree) and get them ready for what is coming down the line.

Connections Commentary – Build Up Then Tear Down

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SPOILER WARNING is in effect as the Pathways in the Dark author commentary continues!

Building Connections

Soriya’s arc in The Medusa Coin was all about building connections. She realizes her secrets from Loren, her lack of trust in handling the Erikson case, hurt their cause and almost caused Loren’s death. That couldn’t happen again.

Her eyes opened to the need for others, something she always wanted anyway. By the end, Soriya walks away from the Bypass to search for a new home.

And she gains an ally in Gilgamesh.

For me, at this stage in her arc, Soriya’s goal is to grow, to humanize, in a city where all kinds of insanity occurs to dissuade her from that. Making friends with Gilgamesh cements their bond by the end of The Medusa Coin.

And it causes her to trust in his presence.

Creating my own problems…

Unfortunately, I knew where we were headed in Greystone. For all my efforts of building up these connections, of cementing friendships for Soriya, I knew I had to end some.

I had to sever ties to push her where she needed to be for A Circle of Shadows.

That became one of the two goals in Connections. How to take Gilgamesh, who has just committed to being Soriya’s ally in the fight ahead, and knock him from the board.

I’ll be honest – I didn’t want to do it. At all.

I had the same fight when it came to breaking up Loren and Soriya. Driving the wedge between them was the toughest choice I ever made. Was it the right one? Absolutely.

Did I struggle with it? Oh, hell yeah.

The same held true in this. Gilgamesh was fun to write. There is untold potential in writing a character that has served as Death for centuries and is suddenly part of the world once again. (I wrote down three separate notes about potential stories while typing this…)

But his presence, his friendship with Soriya, for as much as I wanted it to be there, needed to move in a different direction.

Tearing them down.

Finding cause to do this was tough. Having Gilgamesh run from Soriya at the end, to disappear for fear of what might happen should someone else figure out who and what he is, was probably the toughest scene to craft in the tale.

I went back and forth on the how of it. On the reasons behind each choice.

There was a moment where killing Gilgamesh off made it easier than simply walking away. I didn’t want that. I wanted to know he was still out there, able to be part of the narrative to come.

By tying his fear to his connection with death, by making it about his potential to be exploited and used against Soriya cemented the decision for me. It also based his departure in friendship, in their deepening connection, rather than be abrupt and out of place.

Using the knowledge we learn about Gilgamesh and then tying it to the overarching story playing out in the background strengthened the final choice all the more.

What this means for Soriya down the line comes to light in A Circle of Shadows, this September.

Connections Commentary – Starting Points

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Continuing the author commentary of Pathways in the Dark with an in-depth look at the short story, Connections! SPOILER WARNING is in effect!

Starting Points

There were many threads left from The Medusa Coin to be pulled for this collection. Each character had a right to the spotlight and I wanted to hit as many as possible, knowing this might be the last time to explore them before the big finale coming your way in September.

When creating my wish list of stories to tell, Gilgamesh kept coming up.

I was never sure where to land on the idea of this mythic hero cropping up in Portents. Sometimes I go back and wonder if it was the right move or not, having someone with such a rich history involved in the story. Rather than wish the opportunity away, however, I hoped to utilize that history to create a fun little narrative for Pathways in the Dark.

At the end of The Medusa Coin, Gilgamesh promises to stick around and help when he can. He also serves to warn Soriya about the threat to come. That warning was my inroad into what kind of story I wanted to tell.

The message beneath the surface.

The title hit the nail on the head with this one. This tale is very much about connections. Personal connections like the friendship budding between Gilgamesh and Soriya. Or like those of our past, which Gilgamesh is forced to face as a result of his resurfacing in Portents.

There is also the hidden connection, kept secret by Gilgamesh. One from which his previous warning may have come from and one that was too powerful to leave undeveloped and unexplored.

Manipulating history

As I said, Gilgamesh comes with baggage. Many books have been written about the figure . Lots of books. Each depicting events pretty similarly but always with a vague allusion to certain events. I wanted to pull at those moments, use the characters mentioned in the historical epic and twist them a bit.

I also wanted to play with the role he played in The Medusa Coin, by adding to this myth. He was Death for all intents and purposes. He was the gateway for the dying to reach the next phase of existence.

That connection, above any other, in this story was the one that intrigued me most.

Gilgamesh’s past comes to light

This is another theme of the collection, one that I didn’t realize was occurring until the end. Much like Myers has to face her past in Blackmail and Loren is forced to confront Richard Crowne in Founder’s Day, Gilgamesh is not immune to the past.

Ishtar represented his mistakes, his past sins.

When he spurned her affections all those years ago, he created his own nemesis and one that cannot let him go. The fact that she uses Osiris to try and bring back Anubis comes directly out of her intentions in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Her promise to bring death to Gilgamesh for what he has done to her finally fulfilled after so long.

Every story in Pathways became that much more personal in nature by relating it directly to character. Building from within and then expanding the narrative that way kept the focus solely on each main character and their arc.

It is fun to build from plot and the opening scene with Soriya battling the Onna-Bugeisha definitely filled that role in this tale, but the strength of each work stems from the deep connections of each character.

Their painful secrets, their mistakes or even their triumphs are all great starting points to come up with new challenges and I was happy this one came together the way it did.

Blackmail Commentary – Use of Flashbacks

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Back to the author commentary on Pathways in the Dark. A final look at the Blackmail story in the collection so SPOILER WARNING is in effect!

The use of flashbacks…

There weren’t many options in this regard. The goal of the story was to add a layer to Myers’ character that had yet to be seen with The Medusa Coin.

From my starting point, I knew that the critical aspect of her story was her past. In order to use that to its full effect I needed to dive into the past and bring it to the forefront of the narrative.

Thus, the flashbacks worked their way into the story.

If Kenneth Myers is the center of her current conflict, why should the reader care about him? Why does Myers?

These are questions I wanted to answer, or allude to, in order to flesh out this character that has become so integral to the overall narrative of Greystone.

Flashbacks as a crutch.

They can be. I see this as the case sometimes. An easy way to deliver information to the reader. Which is why I worked at not giving away the entire story for Blackmail until the climax.

You meet Kenneth Myers. The flashbacks allow you to learn about his relationship with his daughter and how Sam idolizes him. You see his death but you don’t learn the truth in the flashback.

You learn it through the present day narrative, through actions that drive the character to relive certain moments for a specific reason.

Does it work? Is it a cheat? That’s for you to decide and I’d love to hear.

Backstory building.

Every action taken by Myers can be seen through a single lens. The blackmail against her.

It’s not mentioned at all in The Medusa Coin. It is not even hinted at, but if you go back and read the book over again you can see it there in the background. The choices she makes. Why she calls Loren even though she’s been told not to over and over again.

Every strange coincidence, every decision made, is built on from this backstory that comes to light in Blackmail.

Why reveal it now? Why reveal it this way instead of having it come to light through a present day action?

I want to tell you, I do. I want to be simple and easy to explain. There was a moment where this story wasn’t going in the collection. I think it gives away a lot of the mystery of Samantha Myers, the drama of her building relationship with Loren.

After writing Founder’s Day and figuring out the main plot of A Circle of Shadows, it was an easy decision to make. You have to know now. There’s no other time to discuss her motivations and no way to make sense of what happens next without this understanding. It simply fit perfectly here in order to reach the next step of where the story goes.

Which was the point of Pathways in the Dark in the first place.

Funny how that works out sometimes, isn’t it?

Blackmail Commentary – Losing the Supernatural

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The author commentary of Pathways in the Dark continues with more insight into the Blackmail tale! SPOILER WARNING is in place!

The truth and nothing but…

I set rules when I write. I create a standard by which all stories set within a specific universe or series should adhere. This is meant to increase reader enjoyment, to play to their expectations, and offer them exactly what they’re looking for when it comes to my stories.

Greystone is very simple. Myths and legends create mayhem and murder in the city of Portents. Soriya and Loren have to stop them. Easy peasy. It is the impetus of every story breakdown, every script, every note I take when it comes to world of Greystone.

And then Blackmail came along.

Losing the supernatural.

It was never my intention. When I settled on a Myers story, my first instinct was to come up with a supernatural angle for her to confront. In terms of scope the Eyes in the Storm story from Tales from Portents sprang to mind. A way to build a world around this supporting character while also digging into who she was as a character.

Nothing worked.

Nothing felt true to Myers.

Because her story doesn’t come from the same place as Soriya and Loren. When it comes to Samantha Myers, her story is built around the mystery introduced in The Medusa Coin. Who is controlling her? Are they actually controlling her or is she a willing participant? And what do they have on her in the first place?

It was from these questions that Blackmail was forged. When I finally settled on delving into her past, I realized where the threat had to come from. Tying the two threads together made perfect sense from a narrative standpoint and kept the focus on Myers as a character instead of a plot heavy tale with no stakes.

Losing the supernatural, however, came with consequences…

Is this truly a Greystone tale?

If the supernatural is lost, if I break the rule that centers the universe of the series does it no longer belong? More importantly, will the reader enjoy it, having come to expect something completely different?

I struggled with this for a long time. Every revision, every readthrough, brought these doubts to the forefront and I had to justify Blackmail’s inclusion in the collection each and every time.

How did it make it through my inane questioning?

By the strength on which it stood as a character story. Myers needed more depth, she needed that extra element to proceed to Founder’s Day and A Circle of Shadows. Her mystery clouded her motivations and clarity on that front afforded her the chance at redemption or condemnation by the audience. I wanted to have that moment and continue to have those moments where you aren’t sure about her.

She represents a true threat to Loren. The unseen threat, on his end anyway.

What did you think about the change of pace for the series? A worthy exploration or did you miss the supernatural element in this tale?

I’d love to hear from you.

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