I Cried for Nothing: It’s Not Time for Goodbye
A lot of people ask me which of the Shadow Falls books was the hardest to write. I think by far it was Chosen at Nightfall. You see, when I was writing that book, I thought it was goodbye. Chosen was supposed to be the last and final book in the Shadow Falls series.
So, that was supposed to be a farewell to Kylie and all her friends—friends, that over the last three years, have become a huge part of my daily life. Every day I stepped into my office, I had a roomful of paranormal, teenaged campers in there waiting on me—each of them trying to talk to me at the same time, and each with a different idea of what we should do that day. Sometimes they were impossible.
Don’t worry, I’m not completely loopy, I know Kylie and the whole gang are characters in a book and not real beings. I know they aren’t . . . real. Oh heck, just go ahead and think I’m crazy. Because darn it, Kylie and all the Shadow Falls characters feel real to me.
After writing five books, spending hours upon hours visualizing these characters, hearing them talk in my head, plotting their struggles and their triumphs, uncovering their pasts, laughing with them, crying with them—Well, call me a few French fries short of a Happy Meal, but they are real to me. And saying goodbye is not just hard, it’s a capital B with an inch. I didn’t just cry writing those last chapters of Chosen, I sobbed. We’re talking big alligator tears.
Ahh, but then Della, the one person who has the hardest time saying goodbye, had to put her two cents in. Do you recall her issues with Kylie leaving for her grandfather’s at the end of Whispers at Moonrise? Yeah, she doesn’t do goodbyes very well. And if you know Della, you know she has a mouth on her.
Well, right after I’d finished Chosen, Della just walked right into my head and plopped her skinny little butt on one of my brain wrinkles and said . . . “You haven’t written about the mission you sent me on with Steve. I mean, you hinted about it in Chosen at Nightfall, but you didn’t give details. Are you really just going to walk away acting like some high and mighty author princess whose crap doesn’t stink and not finish what you started?
Now my mama would have grounded me for a week for talking like that. Unfortunately, you can’t ground imaginary characters. So I had to hear Della out.
And whether I wanted to admit it or not, she had a point. I had hinted at what happened on the mission but I hadn’t written about it, or even completely fleshed it out in my head.
So . . . as that bossy vamp left my head, I started plotting and I wrote Saved at Sunrise. Then I called my editor and told her I’d written a novella about Della. She was a little surprised because she hadn’t asked for novella. She read it, and quickly called me back.
“Well,” she said. “It’s obvious that you aren’t ready to say goodbye to these characters.”
“It’s not me,” I wanted to tell her. “It’s Della’s fault, she started nagging me.” But I didn’t want to come off too crazy, so I just said, “Maybe.”
That’s when she asked me: “What would you think about writing two or three more books from Della’s point of view?”
Hmm? Della’s point of view? That bossy little twit? It’s hard to make her do what I want her to do. She’s always misbehaving in scenes. She’s got attitude to spare and seldom knows when to keep her mouth shut. But dad-blast it, I knew that’s what made her a memorable character. It’s what made my readers love her. What made her . . . okay, I’ll admit it, it made her fun to write.
And, because Della was so secretive, I had a lot of stuff to uncover, a lot of questions to answer. She, like Kylie, is also one of the characters who had the most heartache. Hurt by her parents, who seemed to have abandoned her. Hurt by her ex-boyfriend who she loved more than O-positive blood. Hurt because a part of her still sees herself as a little bit of a monster. Yes, the truth is, the more damaged, the more flawed, the spunkier the character, the more I’m inspired to write about them.
So . . . it ended up, Chosen at Nightfall wasn’t really goodbye. I cried all those alligator tears for nothing. And while I’ve gotten lots of emails from readers worried they’ll never see Kylie again, I have to tell you, Kylie’s not going anywhere either. Heck, if she did, Della and Miranda might kill each other. Don’t you remember the scene where Della threatened to sell Miranda’s blood on eBay?
So, while the new series is from Della’s point of view, all the wonderful Shadow Falls characters will still be there. They will all be waiting for me when I step into my office. Kylie will still be learning to deal with her powers, Miranda will still be messing up her spells, and probably swooning over Perry. (Who, I wonder, will Miranda turn into a skunk next?) Della, in typical Della fashion, will be stirring up trouble. All the other characters will be causing havoc as well. There’ll be a lot of mayhem, there’ll be romance, and of course a lot of laughter.
Della will make sure of it.
Oh . . . and I have titles and release dates now. The spin off series is called: Shadow Falls: After Dark. I really like it because it’s sort of spooky and well, sort of sexy, too. The first book in the series is called Reborn, and it will be out April of 2014. The second book, Eternal, should be out in October 2014.
So hang on, we’re not saying goodbye, we’re just taking a little bit of a different route, and this time Della will be in the lead. So get ready for an exhilarating ride.
Oh, if you haven’t read Saved at Sunrise, you might want to pick it up, it will give you a taste of Shadow Falls: After Dark, and Della’s sassy attitude.
C.C. Hunter grew up in Alabama, where she caught lightning bugs, ran barefoot, and regularly rescued potential princes, in the form of Alabama bullfrogs, from her brothers. Today, she's still fascinated with lightning bugs, mostly wears shoes, but has turned her focus to rescuing mammals. She now lives in Texas with her four rescued cats, one dog, and a prince of a husband, who for the record, is so not a frog. When she's not writing, she's reading, spending time with her family, or is shooting things-with a camera, not a gun.
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