Announcing “To Mix and To Stir”

Here it is! Part two of my Hagen Patterson, Alchemist, trilogy “To Mix and To Stir” is out and available in print version (Kindle to follow in a few weeks).

For me this book is special in several ways.

First of all, when I wrote its predecessor “She Should Have Called Him Siegfried” I had planned it as a stand-alone and it had a “final” ending. I workshopped the book and one of my critiquers told me she’d prefer if he = Hagen didn’t die! That’s right – in the original “She Should Have Called Him Siegfried” a governmental agent kills Hagen!

In the version that is in print now, however, he escapes his exploding house.

That left me with unanswered questions – the biggest of which being: who is Alberich or “Al”, the “demon” that lived inside Emma since the night of Hagen’s conception.

Yes, I admit it, while writing “Siegfried” I did not know myself who Al was.

I brooded for a while over who he is. As long as I wasn’t clear on that, I wouldn’t have a story. But then, finally, Al revealed himself to me and my first reaction was – Al, you gotta be fxxing kidding me!

But that was it, the cat was out of the bag, and I had to take the challenge. And while writing especially “Hagen 3″ Al proved to be indeed who he claims to be at the end of “To Mix and To Stir”.

“To Mix and To Stir” and its successor “Hagen 3 (title yet a secret)” are much closer connected than “She Should Have Called Him Siegfried” is to “To Mix and To Stir”.

The time gap between “Siegfried” and “Mix and Stir” is thirteen years, since I wanted to show Hagen as a father. He has three children now, Richard, who is twelve and three quarters, Will, ten, and Helena, seven, and they very much define the “new” Hagen.

The time gap between “To Mix and To Stir” and “Hagen 3” is a few hours. So, in that way you can say “To Mix and To Stir” and “Hagen 3” are much closer together also thematically than “Siegfried” and “Mix and Stir” are.

I kept the structure for all three books = three main POVs and some agent reports, although the agent reports are fading out (deliberately, you’ll see why when you read it) in “Mix and Stir”, and disappearing in “Hagen 3”.

The main POV characters in “Siegfried” were Hagen of course, Hagen’s mother Emma, and the first-person-present-tense account of Helena Sears, Hagen’s cancerous potion customer (and the namesake of his daughter Helena).

In “Mix and Stir” the POVs are Hagen, his apprentice (well, candidate) Lana and a mysterious first-person-present-tense lady who has something to do with Al…

It was fascinating for me to see how huge the impact of keeping a certain structure actually is. Your POV characters determine everything. That might sound obvious and maybe it is, but it nevertheless was a revelation to me, since in “Siegfried” the structure developed organically, whilst in “Mix and Stir” and “Hagen 3” it was a given fact and I had to arrange the story so that it would fit into this structure.

Rather than restrictive, I found that challenging and inspiring and it made me think clearly about how to give what kind of information when in a more organized way.

The other thing that struck me while writing “Mix and Stir” was its tendency towards horror and I have added the “horror” tag next to the “contemporary fantasy” tag. Now whose fault is that? Al’s of course! Just joking. The circumstances Hagen finds himself in have tugged the balance a bit onto the horror side. However, I also think that “Mix and Stir” has more funny moments than “Siegfried”. I’m only mentioning one word here: fluffy

Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy reading “To Mix and To Stir” as much as I did enjoy writing it! And that the cliffhanger at the end will make you want to read “Hagen 3” as well, whose first draft is already completed and that will come out next year.