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

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 – Starting Points

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Welcome to the author commentary on Hammer and Anvil. This is where I go in-depth into the book to tell you all the spicy in-fighting I had with myself to make this the best book possible. Here is your official SPOILER WARNING!

Starting Points

I had been away from Portents for a bit at this point. A Circle of Shadows had been in the rearview for almost a year and I was working through DSA Season One.

When it came to starting Hammer and Anvil, I wasn’t sure of a great many things. I had two main seeds planted in the first five Greystone novels:

  1. Soriya’s fight with the Minotaur.
  2. Soriya had a prior relationship with Beth before she ever met Loren.

That was all I had.

So how could I build a story from those two pieces of information.

Setting the core

Soriya and Beth were to be my core. That was obvious. There was one rule in my mind when setting up their relationship:

Make it different from Soriya and Loren’s partnership.

There is an ebb and flow to dialogue, to patterns of people, and it is difficult to break out of that mold when trying to start a new dynamic. Soriya, obviously, had to be the same stubborn badass: always pushing for a fight even when the odds were stacked against her.

Beth, however, wasn’t a cop. She wasn’t an investigator in the traditional sense. She was a local historian, writing about the history of her city. That brought with it a level of curiosity, of knowledge, unseen by someone in her position.

I loved the dynamic. Have Beth be able to go tit-for-tat when it came to local lore or historical significance put them on equal footing. Soriya was able to relate more to Beth and find a connection she had been missing most of her life.

A friend.

That became the heart of the piece: building this friendship through the obstacles set against them.

Widening the scope

Having the core set, I knew I needed to introduce Soriya’s world to the reader. This had been done in Signs of Portents, but when you put Book One on the cover there is a level of expectation that people can pick it up and understand the world you’ve built.

Where characters like Ruiz and Pratchett made sense for Loren’s world in Signs, they didn’t fit here in the opening chapter of a prequel trilogy.

So who else fit the bill?

Mentor.

It was when I realized Mentor’s expanded role in the book and the series, that the Training aspect crystallized. Mentor got the shaft in the main series. I regretted not giving him more screen time before his death. The prequels opened the door for more exploration into him and his relationship with Soriya.

Having her teacher become a major force for the story was a godsend. Mentor’s presence created the necessary tension and the pressure to put on Soriya to keep her on edge – to keep pushing her to be a better Greystone.

With these two relationships at the heart of the book, I had my starting points. And a place to take my characters.

Next time: The story of Eddie Domingo.

A Circle of Shadows Commentary – The Epilogues

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This is it! The end! Goodbye to Greystone in this final author commentary for A Circle of Shadows! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Epilogue

Stories never end. They shouldn’t. You should always want more, to see more, to know more about a character’s world. That is the fun of an epilogue and why I thought so many were necessary in this book. Each contains a snippet, a vitally important piece, of one of our cast member’s next steps.

All to show the reader the potential for what is ahead.

Myers

Out of all the epilogues included, I knew this one was going to be tough. After everything they’ve gone through, Loren and Myers make it out the other side but how can they go on? How can Loren ever truly forgive Myers for what happened?

And he doesn’t. Never in the chapter do you hear the words, I forgive you. The sentiment is there, but so is the bitterness over what happened. Not everything is sunny or rosy, though I did try to skirt the line between them as much as possible.

Myers stays. That is the key takeaway from this piece. She is staying in Portents as Head Detective for the Central Precinct. Her new partner is Thel, the siren. How cool is it going to be when we get to see them next? They deserve their own series!

Seriously though, setting up this new dynamic not only allows the reader a glimpse at what could come in the future as well as open possibilities for me as an author for not only plot based threats but also character arcs.

Ruiz

I love this chapter. It brings closure to the Hady Ronne plot, while also opening the next phase of Ruiz’s career as the new Commissioner of Police. Ruiz is my absolute favorite character. As a family man I try to keep him as grounded as possible and show what that truly means in a city like Portents.

It isn’t all sunny and rosy here either, though. Eagle-eyed readers will note what the chiming of the bells means for the future. I won’t say it here but go back and check out Pathways in the Dark for clues to what Ruiz’s actions at Saint Sebastian’s might mean for our heroes down the line.

Loren

This is as open as it gets with a character. A new apartment, no job, but a new partner in the mix and unfettered access to the Library of the Luminaries?

The possibilities are ENDLESS.

I was so excited to close out Loren’s past in this book, to finally put to rest the great mystery of what happened to his wife. I am, of course, scared to death to find out where he goes from here. He’s the one question mark in the whole series, the human side to Soriya’s supernatural–but I can’t wait to take that journey with him.

Soriya

………

What? Did you think I’d spill the beans on what happens next?

I miss Soriya. I miss her brusque attitude, her need to fight, her struggle to learn. Her choices led to this end, something I first noted back in Tales from Portents when I was drafting. This was what was GOING to happen. There was no avoiding it.

But what comes next?

Wait and see. It’s going to be awesome.

Thank you for reading

These author commentaries are the most fun I have all day. Honest. I love digging into the books and recalling the process behind each decision. There were so many times I thought this wouldn’t work, or that the novels would never stand on their own or even come together in a complete package.

I still deal with that with everything I write.

Greystone, however, was a dream to produce.

Thank you for taking the ride with me and I hope to see you again on the next one.

A Circle of Shadows Commentary – Standish’s Late Addition

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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.

A Circle of Shadows Commentary – Pratchett

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Huge SPOILERS ahead!!! You’ve been warned! We’re talking about big doings from A Circle of Shadows.

John Pratchett

Pratchett, to me, was one of the most fun aspects of writing Greystone. He started out as a nothing character. A one-off bit player, built around some comedy relief. Every appearance by him in Signs of Portents is played for comedic value.

It’s important to have characters like that. It’s a change of pace. Not everything has to be grim and gritty. There can be some light.

Well, with Pratchett’s frequent comedic riffs came some depth to the big lug. He’s a baseball fan, for one. Did you know that? I didn’t until the scene showed up in Signs out of the blue. I looked at that chapter and the other instances in that opening novel and realized there is something here.

This is someone to explore.

The growing role

Pratchett was a driver basically. Loren didn’t drive so someone had to take him places. That was Pratchett.

When it came time to explore Tales from Portents, to dig into the lore of the cast and the city, Pratchett came to the surface again. First it was in Resurrectionists. He’s the one at Loren’s side after the disgruntled detective’s fight with Standish. He’s the one defending the man when everyone else looks the other way.

That was an important moment for me. Not in the writing, but in figuring out the motivation behind it.

During Tales, we also learn he’s the nephew of Julian Harvey. I liked the connection between the two and it set up much of what followed.

The Medusa Coin afforded me the chance to bring Pratchett more to the forefront. He’s partnered with Myers and has some of the best bits of dialogue in the book. His joke with Frankie about the zeros and ones on the beach still cracks me up. (I have problems. I’m aware…)

It wasn’t until Pathways in the Dark that I realized who John Pratchett was to Loren. Why he was always around out of everyone on the force. Why he cared for, and fought for, Loren so much.

He killed Loren’s wife.

Truth time!

I didn’t map this out ahead of time. A friend used to ask all the time if I knew who killed Beth and I always played it off with a non-answer like “You’ll see” or “That would be telling.”

I had no fudging idea.

There were plenty of options. A monster of some kind. A deeper threat that tied eventually to the Circle of Shadows.

None felt right. None gave the event meaning or broke the characters down as much as a true tragedy.

Pratchett’s mistake, his error in judgment, spoke volumes compared to all other options on the table.

Why? I love Pratchett!

Me too. I do. I love him more now, because of everything he’s been through, because of the journey to get there, than I ever did in Signs. He was no one special, just a background face for Loren to connect with at a crime scene or in the office.

But once that event came into focus. Once it hit me what actually happened and how it tied to the Circle and so many other things, it made me appreciate this fun-loving goof so much more.

He might have fallen like so many others in the end but he truly defined the first half of the series for me. A man pushing through his inner-darkness, his great mistake, and bringing light back to the city of Portents.

Thanks for reading.

A Circle of Shadows Commentary – Loss and Sacrifice

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The author commentary of A Circle of Shadows continues! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Theme in a larger sense…

I always hated this part of English Lit; determining the theme of a work. How do you summarize 300 plus pages into a single overall concept?

Now I can’t help but do it constantly. Much to my chagrin.

Big picture, Greystone has always been, to me, about good against evil. About standing for something, about being a light against the constant darkness. Loren and Soriya made up the light and with it they battled the shadows of Portents for the safety of all others.

Constant. Never yielding. No matter the menace. No matter the cost.

Loss and sacrifice.

Death holds meaning.

It has to, and I’ve done my best to exemplify this throughout the series. Soriya’s ruminations on death, on the concept of the afterlife as it ties to the ever-present Bypass, are constantly in the background of the stories. She is always wondering about coming back, about bringing people back, about righting the wrongs of those she’s lost over the years.

That need, those conversations early on in Signs of Portents and Tales from Portents, paved the way to the finale of this novel.

Soriya’s fear of death, that early memory of Gilgamesh taking the soul of the girl in the orphanage, made it clear this was a fight she needed to face.

And ultimately lose.

Not by surrendering and not by defeat. But by sacrificing herself for her ideals; for Portents.

For Loren more than anyone.

Killing a major character.

I didn’t want to shy away from this. I tried, Lord I tried, to change it. There are some terribly written hospital scenes buried somewhere in my recycle bin if you want the evidence.

Truth be told, I think death for Soriya was just another journey and she was willing to take it now more than ever.

She stopped the threat, survived the menace of the Heads of Cerberus, and had nothing left to give.

Loss and sacrifice. What Greystone means to me. For the greater good, sure, but for ourselves more than anything. The betterment of ourselves. Never out of fear but love.

When Soriya tosses the Greystone out to Loren, knowing the journey continues for him; knowing he will pick up the mantle and do the work she has since she was four, she lets go of the world with love in her heart and a smile on her face.

The way any of us would like to go.

So what happens next?

I want to tell you. Really, I do. But I won’t. There are clues in the books. Things Soriya has said herself about the Bypass and what lies beyond the veil.

Is Soriya’s story done?

What do you think?

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