Where you start, where you end up

Confession: I snapped at the barista at the Barnes and Noble cafe. She kept trying to get me to order larger drinks and food and snacks, and I just couldn't take it. My exact words: "For the love of God, please just give me the drink I ordered!" I apologized later, at least, and maybe they won't do that again. Of course, now I'm too embarrassed to order anything else!

Reading:

• Master of the Cauldron, by David Drake

Writing:

• "Illuminated"

It's interesting how sometimes a story will take a life of its own. I've often heard this said, and I'm never quite sure what it means for other people. For me, it's when a story goes in a direction I didn't plan.

In the case of "Illuminated," for example, I had originally planned for Lasair to die at the end as a result of what Tiarnach did to him. As I wrote, though, I realized that Lasair would be perfectly safe as long as he followed Tiarnach's instructions. Instead, he broke every single rule, and paid for it at the end.

The setting changed, too. The final scenes originally took place at the abbey, but as I'm writing it now, Lasair leaves the abbey after finishing the Book of Earth, and instead completes his task in a small cottage. This is the same cottage I had originally used in the opening scene, which I cut.

Tiarnach himself started as a druid and became, by the end, some sort of angel, I think. I left it intentionally vague, but in my mind, he's a servant of God on Earth, whatever you want to call that. He has enacted this scene over and over... searching out someone with sufficient talent and the right personality, giving them the commission, and watching as their humanity gradually overwhelms them. In the closing scene, we learn that Lasair did better than most, because at the end, he did not allow the power to consume him utterly.

In general, I think the story of temptation, succumbing to that temptation, and later resisting, is a stronger story than being forced into a fatal task by a stranger. Tiarnach never seemed evil to me--quite the opposite, and his motivations could only be explained in the terms laid out in the story.

I just realized that anyone reading this post would have no idea what I'm talking about without reading the completed story. If you'd like to, email me, and I'll send it along.