I Stand Alone

When working on several different stories within the same fictional universe, and quite often not in chronological order, it helps to have each one stand on its own. It has been a bit of a struggle for me to keep that in mind when writing new stories because not everyone knows all the little details floating in my head. Vague mysteries are great, but they shouldn't take away from the entire story.

First, I have no idea the order things are actually going to be published in. It rarely is enjoyable to read something where you don't understand what is happening. There is no guarantee my readers will read each and every little scrap I put out there. As much as I would love for it to happen, who knows. Also, you don't know the order they will read the shorts!

The best comparison for what I'm going though in my head is Star Wars. You have the two-soon to be three-trilogies, video games, comic books, and the novels. Ignoring how Disney is rewriting the canon, there are quite a lot of stories going on. As much as I love Star Wars, I haven't read every single piece of the Expanded Universe. I think I've touched about a fourth, and that's being generous. Yet that doesn't detract from my experiences while watching the movies. I can't tell you Han Solo's entire genealogy, but I still love him.

I really can't think of any author who doesn't try to keep to this model, but I seem to keep forgetting in my first draft. The words come out and it all makes sense in my head. When I read it over, I realize half of what's going on is not mentioned at all. My current project is actually about a character who doesn't appear until the second volume of the Gaslight Hunters. It is one of those instances where I could not wait to write about her and this one particular location, even though the first book isn't 100% finished. The Muse sweetly suggested writing about her anyway, writing about her first day in London.

So why not! It won't take away from any of the other novels or shorts. It also gives me an opportunity to build the alternate reality away from the eyes of Esther and Bryan. This particular character is also one of the bridges between the Hunters and the currently unnamed series in Russia ten years earlier. I hope everyone is as excited about this as I am.