October 2017 Group Read # 2 with Guest Author, Glen R. Krisch

[Kenneth]

Glen, what can we expect to be coming down the pike from you in 2018 and beyond?

[Glen]

So, I promised a little bit of a follow up on the notorious ending to LOSS. I see that readers were just about equally divided on the ending. If you haven't read the book yet, stop right here until you're caught up...


Anyway, I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to use the twin angle. It was a little science tidbit I read at the time about how the dna of identical twins is the same. I started thinking... what if I killed off the love interest of a character, and then the main character gets pregnant after the fact? And, then, what if it turns out a paternity test showed that the deceased man was really the father? There was a lot of meat on that bone, so I wanted to explore it.

I'd planned on not diving into the twin angle right away. The plan was to write about other possible scenarios about what Angie was going through, and who, ultimately, was the man in the road who caused the car accident that killed Paul.

The problem with how it played out--the actual writing of Angie's descent into depression and madness--is that it got too raw for me. Readers always point out how well her downward spiral is written.

Well, as the writer, I can honestly say Paul's loss impacted me close to what Angie experienced. Except, it wasn't the loss of Paul I was feeling. To get into the headspace to write about the topic, I would imagine losing my wife. And after a long day of writing about Angie's descent, I found it difficult to pull away from that headspace when I stepped away from the keyboard. So I wrapped it up, possibly, too soon. But I think I needed to, for my own well-being.

I guess you could say I pulled my punch with the ending. It was abrupt, and it works to a certain degree, but I didn't "go there." I didn't follow through to the extent I originally intended. Because every day of writing after the fictional car crash was like a day of mourning for me. When Angie is screaming in anger, "Why did you leave me!" I literally had tears in my eyes, and I'm not usually the crying-type.

I don't know if that's the answer you were looking for, but it's an honest one.

If you want to check out my other work, my novel Where Darkness Dwells is on sale for 99-cents. The sale ends this weekend, and I only have sales a couple times a year, so this is a rare deal. Otherwise, if you're a member of the Amazon Kindle Unlimited program, you can read many of my titles for free.

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004QGYXCA
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004QGYXCA
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B004QGYXCA
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B004QGYXCA