One of the things about good canon, in my opinion, has always been that there should be more going on than just a retelling of what might have happened to the characters in any given time period. It’s one of the reasons I don’t fault people who say they find canon fic boring; the truth is, much of it can be. The strongest canon fics have purpose unto themselves; the characters have a story arc and conflict and growth just as they would if they weren’t part of a larger story.
When I set out to write Stregoni, my challenge was to find what the arc was for it. Where is the story in Carlisle’s background? And, with the help of M, my friend of ten years who gives me much inspiration for my stories, I realized that the story of Stregoni is the story of turning Edward; that in some way, each and every bit of every chapter leads us closer and closer to that evening at a hospital in Chicago in 1918, when Carlisle makes the decision that will change his life forever. It’s not enough just to write Carlisle’s history—it’s too long and too circuitous for that. Plus, he is far too purposeful a man to tell his story without purpose.
Making that happen, however, continues to be a right sight more difficult than I thought. Despite that this novel has an outline more detailed than any I’ve ever written (if you’re familiar with Moleskine’s Cahier line, this story has a cahier all to itself), segments of it keep throwing me far off kilter. Chapters 10 and 11, the current one posting and the one just finished being penned, turn both the 1667 and 1918 plots to deeper conflict—Carlisle’s struggle with his father becomes more defined, and he now knows he has to make some decisions if he’s going to keep Elizabeth the way he’d like to. My beta was kind enough to throw this one “back over the wall” as I like to term it, i.e., she asked for some revisions to change the shape of the argument between William and Carlisle. All in all, I don’t know how much I tweaked it (I’m sure Openhome will tell me), but getting the movement between these two to feel right is complicated, to say the least.
A second reason for the delay, which I’ll put here as my site is a bit less public, is that I’ve spent much of the summer preparing a profic work to go out. Although SB is my seventh serious novel I’ve written (I put as much work into my fanwork as I do any of my other work, and therefore I number them among my novels written), I’ve never taken a novel through the process of final revision to get it ready to show to publishers and agents. It’s been an interesting journey, to say the least. I have zero intention of pulling back from fandom, as frankly, it’s too fun (and at this time, I’m choosing to largely keep my profic identity and fanfic identities separate so as to protect my fic postings from anyone who might ask me to take it down), but I’m still learning how to balance the two. I felt I owe you that explanation at least, and I thank you immensely for your patience while I figure out how to keep all these balls in the air.
At any rate. Enough of me rambling on about it. Go read it, if you haven’t already. I’ll be curious to hear what people think.
Also, many, many thanks to those anonymous souls who keep assuring that SB pops up on fanfic award nominations all over fandom. I am floored and continually humbled. Although SB didn’t win in its category for the Hopeless Romantic Awards, “Form 1040” took home “Best Renesmee” (which I find surprising, as I personally hated her before writing that fic), and it absolutely made my day.
Thank you, as always, for reading.
Wow, the first novel to show to publishers and agents – congratulations!!! I’m very glad that you pursue this aim so persistently and circumspectly (at least that’s my impression), because I hope that one day you will succeed and many more people will read and cherish your writings. At the same time I’m very glad that you plan to stay in the fandom, otherwise I would miss you terribly. Much success and good luck!
Well, thank you. We’ll see how it goes! A little luck and a lot of work. But I have way too many fic ideas to step back from fandom just yet. I expect I’ll be here awhile.