The Claire Stories
The first reason? After I wrote those stories, I revised the first novel one more time. This last revision made the novel even better, but it changed Claire's world in some fairly significant ways. Some of the early stories simply couldn't have happened. I knew this when I was changing the novel and, ultimately, I didn't care. I want Claire's story to be as strong as it can be and those stories were necessary casualties.
The second reason? Some of those early stories contain secrets that shouldn't be revealed right now. They are delicious little morsels for books as yet unwritten. It's funny because I started writing short stories based around outtakes from the first novel. I couldn't use the scenes in the novel, so I created stories around them. Now the opposite is happening. I'm writing short stories and I'm lifting them into novels. Outtakes and Intakes: there's a balance.
I've been asking myself if I have any stories that absolutely must be on the website and yesterday I posted, "Not A Girl." Since Xander doesn't make it into the first novel, I feel better not leaving him in a bad relationship.
One other story keeps bugging me too, asking for inclusion. Since my previous attempts to revise it haven't been altogether successful, I'm not sure it will have its way. If it behaves on my next try, there may be one more story.
This is not to say that there will never be more short stories from Claire's world, but we may have to wait for the outtakes from Book 2.
I hear much growth in your Voice..Johanna...Only you know. We are always around...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Susan! Your words mean so much to me.
ReplyDeleteIt's a tough call, Johanna, whether to revise a universe already existing in readers' heads. I'm juggling with a similar decision myself, so your announcement is timely.
ReplyDeleteIt's a balancing act between optimizing for new readers versus rewarding existing readers, I think. One can't really afford to alienate either party.
Yours,
Cheeseburger Brown
Yes. So far the world of the short stories is still consistent with the novels, but I'm hyper-aware of keeping it that way. Traipsing around in these early years is more treacherous than I imagined! :)
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