Sometimes, you have step back and wonder where we are heading. The same is true for the novel universe. Only, I know the end. The end of this narrative arc at least. Its going to be wild ride that will fit our times at least. The trick is making sure you are all there at the end understanding how everything came together.
Back when I first finished Song of Betrayal, when it still called Collide, I had these basic ideas: Gwen the cheerleader siren, the loss of her sister, and Tom the boy she knew who became a merman. As the story grew these things grew with it. So did the cast of characters around it. Everything got so much bigger as I fleshed out the world of the Assembly.
Tom changed first. From the basic surface teen who bribed his uncle to stay and got caught into the world of the assembly, to this son of a famous musician who met a girl online who turned out to be famous in her own right: grandniece of the biggest names in the music industry as well as a member of the assembly. He fell hard enough for her that he got shot saving her life.
Now 20 he is shepherding her sister in this massive scheme to save the assembly from destruction. Not something I expected.
Gwen changed as well. I always expected her to be light and kind. Her and Tom’s love story to be beautiful. Sadly, all this migrated to Lorelei. Gwen became who she really was: a smarter but darker person, who understands people but will still put her own wants and needs above them.
What does this have to do with the current book? Well, its where the narrative is at. As I edit ‘Song of Reconciliation’ (its final name) those pieces of Collide are indeed slamming into the new story. A lot are collapsing into a pile of rocks. The police pool scene where Tom transfigures the first time; gone. He did that in Melbourne, 3 years before.
This also brings several other things into force. I finally removed Jen the traveler from the novel. Of the four scenes she was in, the first Reagan replaced her. The final three she is replaced with Valiere the cat person. Yes, cat people.
This book I explain how the assembly came about, how the Archive came into existence and elaborate on the Hall of Remembrance scene. You see Atlan society with a little taste to why all the Assembly seems to be christian. Along with it is a more elaborate linking of the cat people, Gellicles, to the Assembly.
Here is the fun thing about copyright: Jellicle cats are a fictional[1] type of feline from T. S. Eliot‘s 1939 light poetry book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Jellicle cats were first mentioned in Eliot’s 1933 poem “Five-Finger Exercises” and later developed in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. They were given further characterization in Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s 1981 stage musical Cats, which was based on Eliot’s book. The large cast of diverse cats is an important part of the worldbuilding of Cats. Many of these characters originated from Eliot’s book, while others are named after characters from other works by Eliot or were invented for the musical.
To be clear, the Eliot estate owns the rights to Jellicle cats, the names and the Cats broadway musical imagry. It doesn’t own the idea of anthropomorphic cats having their own society, singing or dancing to achieve a better life. There is even a prevailing theory that jellicles are dead and the place they live is their purgatory.
So I grabbed the idea and ran with it. My cats are outcast members of Atlan society genetically engineered for a purpose that got freed when the assembly did. They escaped the wrath the assembly did and spent the last 6000 years exploring and growing in anticipating of the return of the assembly to live with them.
Then there is Taylor the character. I have a solution in the event there is an issue. However, I would perfer there isn’t. She fits better as herself. This will be the only book where you will see her tail thought. There is a lot of work in the discretion as well as fitting it into the available time.
Lastly, there is the focus of editing history. In addition to the removal of the UN which I explained, I also inverted the CDC, renaming it, Red Hash. I’ll explain more in a different post. Its not detrimental, as the NIH has always done most heavy lifting.
There is no real way to remove Mao without functionally changing the entire course of the twentieth century beyond what I wanted. So as much as it saddens me, he continues to do what he did. However, I can mitigate certain events. The Rape of Nanjing is one of those. Also, Reagan is deeply involved in those changes. She became much more than the girl who simply was a cheerleader in Homecoming Song.
In fact, the editing changes lead to the point that the only young people are Gwen, Lorelei, Tom and Chelsey. Everyone else looks young. Reagan, whose real first name is Aja, is almost 200.
Following the finish of Song of Reconciliation, I still plan on a book addressing the MTV video music awards 2009 which will reveal the career transition of Gwen. It will also establish Reagan as a warrior in her own right, explaining why 20th century history is as different as it is. Once I finish that, all that is left is the final series book where the concert that moves the world, described in Song of Hope, takes place.
Eventually, I will publish the archive of everything I am compiling about the assembly reality. I named it Mythic Notes. It will have detailed timelines of the main characters, historical figures and several altered events as well as maps of the areas in question. Hopefully, you all will discover there is more than the climb.
So with all that, I leave you with this: “It’s just a dream until you believe.“
