About Tether.
I didn’t write Tether. willingly. My PA told me I needed a reader magnet. I could use the first couple chapters of Run., but a prequel or standalone short story would be better. Knowing Run. and all the world building that occurs in the first couple chapters, I agreed to write a short story for a prequel.
I was very grumpy and snarky when I sat down to write it. I can’t really write and plot on command—I’m a mood writer. I think part of my problem was that it was really hard for me to write a prequel after the main events had already happened in my brain. Of course, I knew the backstory of all my characters and what they were up to well before the start of Run., but communicating that in a cohesive way didn’t seem like the story that needed to be told. The idea of the prequel being from the point of view of one of the characters in Run. seemed wrong. It would be a whole bunch of whining and complaining and angsting. I don’t think anything Lya or Oliver had to say would add to the upcoming plot. On top of that, I knew there were plotholes in my book I needed to answer for readers. In my head, I knew what the answers to all those big questions were, but I’m the sort of reader who dwells on plotholes. I couldn’t answer those if I wrote the prequel from the perspective of someone who was just as unaware of what was going on as my readers.
Then, I woke up at 1 a.m. and knew what it had to be. Yet again, another plot twist I wasn’t expecting developed. I have to say, I think it worked, too.
Do you need to read the prequel to understand the series? No, absolutely not. Does it add another layer to what is going on? Yes, for sure.
The lovely thing about writing my own book is, if I don’t like the origin story, I can just change it. With a little finagling, anything can become canon. Trust me, it’ll all work out. For now, I think it’s funny to sit back and laugh at my characters who are so blissfully ignorant of what is truly going on in the world around them. Can you imagine Kota’s reaction when his entire understanding of the world is flipped on its head? And Gregory, staying closed lipped as always.
Rook’s addition to the cast of characters opened so many doors and answered so many questions for me. He’s such a complex character, and I’m really regretting not writing him into the primary series. The short stories in between each book are going to be from his point of view, which gives Rook a better backstory when we get to his spinoff.
Writing the prequel taught me a lot about my personal writing process. Mainly, that I can’t question it when things I didn’t plan for find their way into the plot. But, we’ll save that for another blog post.
If you want more of Rook, make sure you are on my mailing list. That’s how I’ll send out his short stories.