A few years ago, I wanted to say thank you to somebody who was one of my first fans. She went by the Twitter name of @ThatGhoulAva. I penned a short story that was just for her, but the reaction I got was that this needed to be a "real" story. I gave it some thought and added a second short just to see if it might have been a one-timer. Once again I was told that this had legs. (NOTE: the first short that started the That Ghoul Ava series is currently involved in a wee bit of a contest. Click HERE and scroll to the bottom. If you click on the heart, that gives her another vote and takes her a step closer to winning. Seriously...every vote counts and THAT MEANS YOU!)
Okay, I thought, let's give it a try. I even originally put this out under a pen name. (Marianna Mann if you are curious.) When I wrote That Ghoul Ava and The Queen of the Zombies, I started to get into a feel for what Ava was about. I still had no idea if anybody would read an Ava book, but I knew that this was a marathon and not a sprint, so it might take time for an audience to grow. I am still waiting. Yes, she gets a little hit when a new book releases, but not much.
Ava is a slow builder, but I am okay with that. My problem comes from those first shorts. I sort of picked and chose what I would use from the shorts and by the time QotZ was done, I was on a slightly new path. I moved on with That Ghoul Ava Kicks Some Faerie A**. And that was when I really fell in love with writing Ava. She still was only selling a couple of books, but the people who read Ava really started to love her as well.
The problem resided in those first adventures. They have a few discrepancies that don't exactly jive with the story I am now creating. I started Ava like she was re-telling a story that began a decade or so ago. That has vanished in the series that really, for me, gets its real start in QotZ. So, my question is...do I go back and re-write history, or do I just let it go as is? As readers, I value what you think. And as for my Ava fans...well, your voice will be heard loud and clear on this.
And just a note...2016 will be Ava's year. I have 5 stories planned and an upcoming opportunity for YOU to choose her foes! After all, I write these books for you.
Doesn't matter to me, I liked the old books. Unless the differences are world-shattering continuity changes that turn everything upside down, it's all good.
ReplyDeleteOkay, this is going to sound weird, but my brain still sees her stories as the past. So any stories that were half hidden in the first two books (Werewolf future story-line maybe?) eventually in one of the future stories. I still see it as being in the early days/years of Ava. Each story brings her a half year to a year further into her life. So don't worry about it. It still seems to flow nicely, I think. (Except the werewolves. I'm still curious about that story!) Anyway it goes, I Ava. She's my favorite ghoul.
ReplyDeletesee Dave W i cu-dent say it any better
ReplyDeleteI kind of look at it like real life, as we tell & retell our life stories. You know the "remember that Thanksgiving you forgot that the turkey was in the garage & it was 99 degreges in the shade?" funny little stories. Little distortions start to occur in the retelling. That's probably the thing with Ava, I say leave them. It keeps it real in it's own inaccuracies.
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