Author Commentary - Revelations

I love the scene from Chuck’s point of view.  It was difficult to find the right balance between child-like reactions and a quasi-immortal who has been around for almost a century.  Using 30’s slang was fun.  I also liked playing with the reality of being a ghost.  Granted, I don’t have any direct experience, but the idea of a ghost’s emotional state affecting their physical manifestations makes sense to me. Chuck’s limitations become all too clear in this chapter.  He doesn’t think to check about cameras since they weren’t around when he was alive, he’s only looking for physical guards.  Karan is able to guess that their captives are up to something and Dalhard rightfully picks McBride as the weak link. For Dani and Michael’s rude awakening by Virginia, it took awhile to get the right blend of emotional reactions.  Virginia is terrified by the loss of control (as only a psychic and control-freak can be).  Michael is torn between embarrassment...

Michael inviting Joe to go along on their illegal break in was a controversial decision both in and out of the story.  I had several beta readers tell me that they hated it and others tell me they loved it.  Personally, I insisted on it because there is a limit to what can be accomplished under the table.  The Harris family is so used to taking care of things themselves that they’ve forgotten the law can be a resource.  Exposing someone legally is much more effective at neutralizing them than vigilante justice.  This decision is part of Michael’s growth and development as a character. This chapter has a few of my favorite lines in it.  “Our witness is the ghost of a twelve-year old boy who has been dead at least eighty years, delivered through a medium who is certifiably crazy.” And “Fee, Fie, Foe, Fum, F*cker” which I’m considering putting on a t-shirt. It is true that in experiments no animal would get into an enclosed space with a known predator, no ...

Michael has been wanting to rescue Bernie since she was kidnapped and this is finally his opportunity to do it.  Their reunion always brings a little teary ache to my heart.  Thank you to Alyssa for reminding me to have Michael apologize for not believing Chuck was real. Chuck illustrates the usefulness of ghosts as he searches the building for victims, scouts for Dani and her brothers and reports it all back to Bernie.  The ability to be invisible, walk through walls and floors, all of it makes for great reconnaissance.  I love Bernie’s faith in Michael.  He might as well have a red cape and a giant S on his chest as far as she’s concerned.  Everyone should have someone who looks up to them that much as well as someone they can look up to. Vincent and Dani’s fight was another scene which came to me early on and helped me with defining Vincent’s character.  He’s looking for someone to take away his responsibility and make him safe and sheltered a...

Every hero has to have a moment of despair and realizing that Dani’s personality has been overwritten and Bernie has been recaptured is Michael’s.  I rewrote the scene several times until I was satisfied with his reaction.  I didn’t want him completely broken but at the same time, it needed to be a strong wake up call about the difference between fantasy and reality. When Dani believes that Michael is dead, that is her dark moment and unlike Michael, she dives right into it.  I wanted to contrast their reactions.  Michael goes down trying to protect while Dani plans for suicidal vengeance.  Go on to Chapter Forty-Four Go back to Chapter Forty-Two Author Commentary Page Revelations - Author Commentary Page

For anyone who had any doubt, the Goddess is the one waking Michael up in time to escape.  Hopefully most of us have never had the experience of trying to escape a locked building before it blows up, but despite what action movies like to show, the average person will have trouble with even simply motor skills under great stress.  Military and police recruits practice their skills over and over again so that they become ingrained, below the level of conscious control. I relied on a number of articles and a Mythbusters experiment to determine the minimum safe distance from an explosion.  Michael escapes significantly less scathed than one could expect in real life but he’s a hero in a story, so he gets some slack.  Joe, being unconscious, would likely sustain few injuries since he would be flat to the ground and unresisting. The escape and pursuit scene is Joe’s own awakening.  From here, he’s never going to be able to comfortably retreat to denial again....

I think Dalhard’s explosive possessiveness in this scene defines him.  His first words are both hurtful and callous: Your dead friend owes me a new plane.  He sees Dani as a possession to manipulate.  In fact, everyone is a possession to manipulate and if they are not useful, they should be discarded.  He’s no longer trying to conceal it, now it’s been brought into the open.  His true self has been revealed and it’s not a pretty sight but he still remains ignorant and unawakened.  His lack of insight is his worst limitation. I love the imagery of someone being trapped in their own body but acting in the brief moment when something is important enough.  It’s a image of triumph, of the true self overcoming the most overwhelming obstacles.  We’re all trapped in some way and we all long to break out, even for a moment.  I believe that our traps are often self-constructed.  We can’t or won’t see the way out. Dani needed to free herself in...

When I first observed “George” at the autism center, I was surprised by how effective his escape technique was.  By keeping his body perfectly still and shuffling his feet, he was able to move out of range without being obvious.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to use it for Dani’s grand escape. The first time I wrote the final confrontation, I had Michael attack Dalhard while Dani recovered but it didn’t feel satisfying to me.  It took me some brainstorming time to realize that I wanted Dani to be the one to avenge herself.  Having Michael physically attack someone didn’t suit his character. When Karan threatens Michael with the gun, it is the moment where he reveals himself as the more dangerous of the two villains.  I’ve always felt the intelligent and practical bad guys were more frightening.  Someone convinced they are doing the right thing and that the ends justify the means is the most dangerous combination but ruthless practicality is up th...

 The idea for this epilogue was one of the first images which came to me for this novel.  I liked the idea of the hero watching the heroine perform her burlesque routine and feeling proud and satisfied.  The heroine isn’t abandoning her wicked ways.  She’s still the same exhibitionist but not as aggressive about it.  She has support and a place in the world again. Obviously Dalhard and Karan are still a threat to the Harrises and the lalassu community as a whole.  They may have lost the first round but they haven’t been defeated.  They’ll be looking to take the fight to a new level in the sequels. When it came to everyone’s recovery, I didn’t want this to be a complete reset to how things were at the start of the book.  Vincent and Eric have both been through a substantial amount of trauma and it would take more than a few months to recover.  McBride also has a lot of emotional processing to deal with and we’ll see how he copes with it i...