Read-along is moving along

We’re getting closer to the end as we finish up Pale Demon this week in the Goodreads read-along. Pale Demon is one of my favorites in the series, though I think The Undead Pool and it’s as yet unnamed sibling are going to pull that distinction when they finally reach the shelves. It’s more than the chance to get out of the city and see how the Turn has impacted the rest of the U.S., It’s more than getting Trent away from his day-to-day so he can relax a little around Rachel and the gang. A lot of things are settled in this book, and new understandings evolve, such as Rachel saving the life of Al, and standing tall in front of her peers with no guilt for her past. But it’s the evolving relationships that really make this one of my favorites, and I’m not talking about Trent here.

One of my favorite aspects of being a writer is writing an evolving relationship, seeing it unfold from one or two peoples’ perspectives, one person getting it wrong, or not understanding how the other one feels, not in a bad way, but realistic. And then seeing understanding and what happens after that.

It can take an entire book. It can take an entire series. I love it, and it’s probably why I’d rather tease with “what if” then dive in and see.

But occasionally there are times when readers collectively tell me that I’ve not done it right, that they don’t see the path from a to b to c, and they still think b is possible. I’m talking about Ivy and Rachel here, and even though they have tried and failed, then gone on to find a way to live beside each other taking what they need in sideways slices rather than the entire pie, a lot of readers were not getting what I was subtly trying to say. It’s then that the storyteller has to either change the direction of their story, or do something bold and drastic to make it clear that THIS is the path we are on.

Pages 299 and on are like that, and they were some of the most difficult pages I had to write for Pale Demon. As a storyteller, I had already said good-bye to the path where Rachel and Ivy find a blood balance. Rachel had done the same. So had Ivy. But it needed to be said again, and in a way that left no opening to go back–even with wishful thinking.

I think it’s a tribute to both character’s respect for each other that they did manage to get back to the church and live almost a year longer pretending that Rachel was like everyone else and Ivy might someday find a way out of her vampiric curse. Ivy’s claim that Rachel was moving too fast, adapting to changes that she and Jenks couldn’t was both honest and heartbreaking. But it isn’t quite true, and by the end of the series, Ivy and Jenks both find they can adapt, change, and even innovate themselves.

We’ll be starting A Perfect Blood next Tuesday, and you’re welcome to come over to Goodreads and take part in the threaded conversations of this or previous titles. [ Goodreads read-along ]