"THE MERRICK SEQUEL"

After nearly two years of overthinking what I considered to be several major snags in the grand plot of MERRICK, I finally had a breakthrough.

The lesson I learned in the process was this: If you've written a couple of characters you really dig, whose minds and inner lives are solid and real to you, TRUST THEM WITH THE STORY.

(If you haven't read MERRICK, spoilers ahead!)

When we last left Merrick and William, they had left the magical herb-scented cottage in the woods upstate and were vacillating the days away back in New York City. William had teamed up with Merrick's old friend Theo to force Merrick to turn William into a vampire. But Merrick was still holding out, determined to delay the inevitable as long as possible.

Yes. That's where I ended the first book. Why did I do that? I have no idea. It left me in a terrible position to begin the next book. Absolutely terrible. Like, "out of gas in a backwoods strip mall" terrible.

But you knew that already. (What, me? Read all the reviews? I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about!)

I mean, we all know where the story needs to go. Merrick has to turn William into a vampire, because the only way out of it is to kill himself, and if he does that, Theo will just kill William.

I can't tell you how many times I've cursed myself for leaving myself with that mess of a conundrum to open the sequel with. I mean seriously.

While I plotted the entire sequel last year and am very happy with the narrative arc, there were a whole lot of knots and snags to get through right at the beginning.

-How does William play out his inevitable "Ahhh I'm gonna kill a bunch of people" angst?
-How does Merrick deal with said angst?
-How do we understand the urgency of Merrick's thirst for William, and that it's impossible for Merrick to hold out forever?
-How soon in the sequel would William turn into a vampire? Whether he's a vampire or a human would influence every conflict in the story.
-Is the Merrick/William relationship even interesting without the vampire/human conflict?

Fits of despair, guys. Fits. At one point I thought, "Great, so this book is basically, 'Hey, remember how irresistibly, undeniably romantic it was when I was teaching you how to heal sick people with flowers? I was thinking next semester I could teach you how to KILL PEOPLE IN COLD BLOOD.'" Oh, the despair.

But to bring this back around again, what really saved my ass was the strength of these characters, their chemistry and their rapport.

Awhile ago I decided to play around with an opening scene I'd never tried before: Merrick and William, sitting at a table, talking it out.

BOOM!

It's on. It's so on. And I'm so excited. That's all I'm going to tell you for now.

Wait, except for this: Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for reading Merrick, leaving your wonderfully thoughtful reviews all over the place, and expressing your interest in the sequel. It means the world to me that you enjoy this story, and your response has raised the bar for the sequel. Thank you from the bottom of my heart forever, and never hesitate to comment, message, tweet, Tumbl, and review to your heart's content.

xo
Claire