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

The Apartment Commentary – Walter Schriff

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The Apartment author commentary concludes! SPOILER WARNING ahead. Big time for this one!

Figuring out the threat…

When it came time to figure out who these ghosts were hassling people in Portents, the first two or three drafts never named them.

Yes – them.

Three were present in the first drafts. I made their appearances vague, their motivations even more nebulous. I had no idea how they connected to the story or how to raise the stakes. At one point I was researching things like Blackbeard and Napoleon in an effort to connect with some legendary aspect.

They didn’t fit. None of it fit with the narrative.

Enter the Kindly Killer

It was during the self-editing phase when I stumbled on this notion of the Kindly Killer. He is the first connection between Loren and Soriya, a vital part of their so-called origin story and when I remembered him he fit so perfectly I couldn’t stop writing until the story was completed.

Having that personal connection with Soriya at the climax of the tale raised the stakes. She knows how dangerous Walter can be and can’t risk his return to the mortal plane. Making it personal, looking for that deeper meaning in terms of the overall narrative of Greystone, builds a better story in my mind.

I hope you agree.

Why care so much about the Kindly Killer?

Walter Schriff has been around since Signs of Portents. Always a background mention, never anything more. I did that purposely. (I try to do everything purposely…)

Some people believe his inclusion in the first novel is a distraction. I look at it differently.

His presence is a seed for something to come.

The Kindly Killer serves as a point of origin for Loren and Soriya’s relationship. His suddenly viciousness in slaughtering people, his arrest and the subsequent events that locked Loren and Soriya into this incredible journey lies at the heart of the story that will serve as Book Six of the series.

Say what?

Yeah. I’m a couple years away from putting it together. Having A Circle of Shadows back on my desk has sparked a few notions about what’s to come for the back half of the series.

But Walter Schriff plays a huge role in Book Six.

Get ready.

Red eyes…

Did you notice another old friend within the Bypass at the end of our story? Talking about raising stakes, having Soriya peer into the Bypass at the climax of the story served two purposes.

The first was to seed an event to come in A Circle of Shadows. (Shhh, it’s a secret…)

The second was to bring back old red eyes, Nathaniel Evans, for a cool cameo. I missed our old villain from Signs of Portents and once I realized Schriff played a role in the story I thought it would be cool to bring back more past threats as a nod for where we’ve been in the series.

And where we’re heading…

Did you enjoy the story? Did you like the nods to the past? Shoot me an email at lou@loupaduano.com to let me know.

Thanks for reading.

The Apartment Commentary – Bypass Thread

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The Apartment author commentary continues and your mandatory SPOILER WARNING is still in effect! Strap in kiddos cause here we go!!

Logic rules all

Logic, especially story logic, is and always will be my number one rule when it comes to writing. Things need to happen for a reason. If there is a way to make a story element fit within the massive structure already being built over the first three novels of the series then it needs to happen.

As long as it makes complete and total sense.

I’ve spoke about this before. Certain elements of the series have to carry over, character traits that would never disappear (unless mind control is in the mix, which DOES happen…), and other rules that each writer creates for their world.

So how do ghosts fit into the Greystone mythos?

I wanted a ghost story. I knew I had the perfect trappings of one. An abandoned apartment, kids trapped inside and Soriya playing the hero.

But where do ghosts come from when dealing with a city like Portents? With mythical creatures and legends becoming real, how do these specters play into it?

I wracked my brain on this one. It took WAY too long to figure it out, if I’m being honest, and I always am with you, dear reader.

The truth was I had no clue until I was going through the proofreading phase of The Medusa Coin.

The Bypass.

I wrote my answer months earlier. The Greystone was freaking out and, by extension, the Bypass was changing. Evolving. Fluctuating.

The Bypass stands as the center of existence, the crossroads of reality, as we know it. It holds every past, present and all futures within its orbit. So what happens to the dead? Are they floating inside?

And what happens when the Bypass shudders, when it shifts, and a flick of light escapes the chamber tucked under the city?

Taking the thread left by The Medusa Coin and being able to use it here, dove-tailed perfectly with where things were heading in the series. The threat of something happening to the Bypass needed to be explored and with its presence in the apartment as a means of transportation for the ghosts haunting our heroine, it created the story logic I needed to explain their presence.

Our friendly neighborhood ghosts…

I’m saving this one for next time. I’ll be talking about our friend, the Kindly Killer, who seems to continually pop into these pages and why that might be, as well as another friend tucked in the background of the tale.

But I’m sure you know who I’m talking about already, don’t you?

Thanks for reading!

The Apartment Commentary – Starting Points

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It’s been a couple weeks but the Pathways in the Dark author commentary continues!!! SPOILER WARNING ahead for The Apartment tale in the collection…

Starting Points

Truth be told, The Apartment was the very first idea I had coming out of Signs of Portents. At one point it was going to be a story tucked in Tales from Portents but then that collection turned out to be full of prequel stories and it didn’t fit.

From there, the concept of Soriya leaving the nest stuck with me. I thought it was a nice progression of her arc in the series, always looking for connections; always resenting Mentor’s stance of isolation for the betterment of the work.

When it came to The Medusa Coin, the initial outline had Soriya seeking out a new place to live. It was ancillary and really pulled people out of the story. Frankly, it didn’t interest me when looking at the overall narrative of the novel and it was quickly cut from further outlines.

However, I couldn’t let it go. I had been drawn to that moment for almost a year. In my head, it played more comedic as Soriya is forced to learn how to live a “normal” life amid the insanity that plagues her. A real super-hero dilemma compared to the nightmares she usually faces.

That wasn’t enough to sustain the story, though. Doing it for giggles, while tempting, offered no drama; no stakes and the initial concept petered out pretty quickly from there.

Telling a ghost story

I scare pretty easily. I don’t enjoy the feeling, the terror that comes with the horror genre. Yet, something always pulls me in that direction; some unnatural predilection to scaring the crap out of myself that made writing The Apartment so exciting.

When it came to finding a reason for why Soriya would pick a certain place to live, without relying a simple need to connect with people, I kept coming back to her work. Her commitment to Portents.

So what would draw her to this apartment at the Golden Palisades?

A ghost.

Something simple, yet mythic in how we’ve created lore around the idea of ghosts in the world. Those unwilling or unable to head to their natural end and remain stuck. What would they do? What would they want? These questions fascinate me as much as they terrify me and I wanted to figure it out.

The Apartment allowed that aspect. It opened Soriya to a new experience, multiple new experiences especially when taking into account the arrival of the kids – Davis and Kevin – to the story.

That was what Pathways was about; pushing this cast of characters into new situations to see where they would go. How they handle tragedy, violence, horror and even the mundane on their own…

Holding onto an idea

This one stuck with me longer than most and I was so glad it did. Soriya’s move fit perfectly with the themes being explored in the collection and it let me tell this haunting tale as a bonus.

Thanks for reading.

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