Family in Facets of Fantasy
When I made the decision a couple weeks ago to retire Facets of Fantasy permanently—both versions—I started to notice something different about it from any other books I’d written. The role of family. There was something about Facets I could never “get right” and it created a big roadbump for me. Sometimes the right thing to do is just let go and move on. Some books just honestly can never get over their internal flaws and continuing to work with them is wasting time.
When I realized that, I found the Facets stories could all be defined as attaching very unusual importance to family. Even A Year with the Harrisons, though family are prominent, really has an emphasis on individual decision-making throughout. In Facets, the heroine’s families define their actions in a way that might be honestly shown, but it just isn’t a good message. This is what many people in life actually do on a daily basis—they are defined by their circle and what’s around them, starting with their families. Writing this collection wasn’t a reflection of my life. But I could never “fix” Facets because many people saw this element of the book and wouldn’t let it go.
Cassandra, Violet, Victoria, and Sekana are all set in motion and dictated by incredibly important families who create the plot behind the scenes. Karl, Julie, Juranai, Bella, and The Hirado all respond according to this dynamic as it unfolds around them. Many times, like Karl, they are themselves dictated in interests by family things. I enlarged Taranui into a series and sent Millhaven Castle’s Alyce back into her original plotline to clarify that the similarity in these two stories is coincidental. Katia and Alyce can appear to have the same submission to family when they’re in the Facets collection, but once they’re in context in longer stories readers can see that’s not really true of their worlds.
Only Don stands apart as defiant or critical of family, refusing its claim on him to any degree. This is what makes him stick out as a character, and even Don is emotionally drawn back to family situations and obsessed with them rather than truly moving on. In none of my other books are families dominating influences over people. There was something genuine about this collection, reflecting the lives of people as I observed them. But I think it’s time to move it into the past.
And there will be more updates.
When I realized that, I found the Facets stories could all be defined as attaching very unusual importance to family. Even A Year with the Harrisons, though family are prominent, really has an emphasis on individual decision-making throughout. In Facets, the heroine’s families define their actions in a way that might be honestly shown, but it just isn’t a good message. This is what many people in life actually do on a daily basis—they are defined by their circle and what’s around them, starting with their families. Writing this collection wasn’t a reflection of my life. But I could never “fix” Facets because many people saw this element of the book and wouldn’t let it go.
Cassandra, Violet, Victoria, and Sekana are all set in motion and dictated by incredibly important families who create the plot behind the scenes. Karl, Julie, Juranai, Bella, and The Hirado all respond according to this dynamic as it unfolds around them. Many times, like Karl, they are themselves dictated in interests by family things. I enlarged Taranui into a series and sent Millhaven Castle’s Alyce back into her original plotline to clarify that the similarity in these two stories is coincidental. Katia and Alyce can appear to have the same submission to family when they’re in the Facets collection, but once they’re in context in longer stories readers can see that’s not really true of their worlds.
Only Don stands apart as defiant or critical of family, refusing its claim on him to any degree. This is what makes him stick out as a character, and even Don is emotionally drawn back to family situations and obsessed with them rather than truly moving on. In none of my other books are families dominating influences over people. There was something genuine about this collection, reflecting the lives of people as I observed them. But I think it’s time to move it into the past.
And there will be more updates.
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