Band of Demons (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Two) (41 page)

Acknowledgements

Warning:
If, for some reason, you are reading the acknowledgements without finishing the book first, you might want to turn back now. Major spoilers are ahead. If you’ve already finished
Band of Demons
, you’re safe to proceed.

Last winter, I was honored to be invited to speak to a book club in Leesburg about my first novel,
A Soul to Steal
. I was a little nervous since I had never talked to a whole group about my book before, much less a crowd who had actually read it. For me at least, it was a wonderful discussion. People asked great questions about virtually everything in the book. It was one of the first times I was really conscious of the fact that what had been in my head, now existed in other people’s minds as well.

At some point, there was a discussion about killing off characters, including a reference to Janus, Quinn’s best friend who meets a rather ghastly (but also somewhat heroic) end in the first novel. Someone asked if the trilogy would end happily.

Because I am ultra-secretive about all plot points, I dodged the question by saying that I hoped it would be a “satisfying” conclusion, which can mean any number of things. The woman who asked it laughed and said something like: “Well, at least we know if you have a trilogy, you won’t kill off Quinn or Kate in Book #2.” Others laughed and nodded.

I smiled and said nothing. I was already two-thirds through writing
Band of Demons
and I knew full well what was going to happen. Quinn O’Brion, who many saw as the primary protagonist, was going to die.

Until that moment, though, I had never once stopped to consider how readers might feel about it. When I conceive of a book, I see the plot and characters as mine to do with as I please. During the writing process, that often changes as characters themselves inevitably surprise me by taking some unanticipated action.

 But I had never worried about what readers thought before. After all, when I wrote
A Soul to Steal
, there weren’t any readers to worry about. It wasn’t until I was sitting in the book club that I realized the situation had changed.

A couple months later, I had another reminder that I wasn’t just writing for myself. A reader on Goodreads posted this review of
A Soul to Steal
: “BLACKWELL, I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR JANUS. NEVER.” The reviewer (whom I contacted because I was impressed with the passion of her sentiment) later told me she had hurled her Kindle across the room when Janus died.

By then,
Band of Demons
was in its second or thrift draft and Quinn’s destiny was fixed. If people were mad at me for killing Janus, what were they going to say about Quinn? I’m still waiting for an answer to that question and I will be honest—I’m anxious about it.

If it helps, killing Quinn was never easy. My wife can attest that I cried when I wrote the scene where he died. It’s tough to kill characters you care about, and I care for almost all of them, even the “bad” ones. But stories are cruel things, and sometimes circumstances and plot demand that a character must be sacrificed. Not because the author wants to do it, but because that’s how the story goes.

I honestly don’t feel like I make up stories—I discover them. They twist, turn and morph as I write, but they are not entirely mine to change at my whim. Quinn died because he was supposed to die—he had to. There’s no other way to say it.

For any of you who are upset about that, I can only offer you this: there is more to this tale. And while I would not ask you to trust me, I would ask that you trust the story. Will it be a happy ending? I don’t know about that, but I think it will be a satisfying one.

I would like to say thank you to all the readers of
The Sanheim Chronicles
. Over the past year, I’ve heard from many of you on my
Facebook
page,
Goodreads
,
Twitter
and
Amazon
. You’ve asked questions, expressed support and written some truly generous and thoughtful reviews. It is no exaggeration to say it has kept me going at times when I’ve despaired of this whole endeavor.

Inevitably, when I was at a low point, a review would pop up or I’d get a posting on the
Facebook
page that helped restore my faith that this book was reaching its intended audience. It’s been quite a ride since I published
A Soul to Steal
, but your enthusiasm for the story and the characters have inspired me to keep going. This book simply wouldn’t be here without you.

Likewise, I owe an enormous debt to my wife and family. When I published
A Soul to Steal
, I truly didn’t know what I was getting into. It has, in essence, turned into a second full-time job, one that has at times made me a distracted husband and father. I am enormously grateful for my wife’s unflagging support during this time. She has been on this roller coaster with me the whole way and never once wondered whether it was all worth it. She has always believed in me, and that has made all the difference.

If that were her only contribution to this novel, that would be more than enough. But in addition, as she did on the first book, Maia served as the editor for
Band of Demons
. In my 15 years as a journalist, I’ve worked with a lot of editors in a professional capacity. Maia is one of the best. She went through this novel chapter by chapter, line by line. She looked for plot holes, wording problems, character inconsistencies, you name it. She worked tirelessly over a period of months at improving this novel and it is much, much better as a result. She should be working for a New York publishing house.

I want to thank a few others. Brian Gill, one of my oldest and closest friends, has been one of
The Sanheim Chronicles
’ greatest champions. I wish I could hire him as my marketing director. He helped
A Soul to Steal
secure its only celebrity endorsement and has repeatedly talked up the novel in the classes he teaches. He enthusiastically tracks the book’s progress online, including sales rankings and reviews. Sometimes he was the first to tell me when a new review was online. He also provided detailed—and incredibly helpful—feedback on the beta draft of
Band of Demons
. I have been deeply grateful for his ongoing support.

The others in my beta reading team were also enormously helpful: Tristan Poje, David Miller, Jenny Roahen, Erik Brandt, James Collins and Dan Gasink. Their assistance was invaluable in catching major and minor errors or pointing out parts that might benefit from added explanation. I really appreciate their time and attention to detail.

Additionally, I want to thank my cover artist,
Travis Pennington
, who once again did a terrific job. Travis worked up more than a dozen possible covers for
Band of Demons
, so of course I picked the very first one he did.

Last but not least, I want to thank
Evelyn Duffy
, my copyeditor. Evelyn agreed to help me out toward the end of the process and quickly and efficiently stamped out the remaining typos, repetitive word choices and other issues that can plague a book this long. She was a pleasure to work with and I recommend her highly to other authors looking for editing assistance.

I hope all of you have enjoyed this novel, and I look forward to finishing the trilogy in 2013.

All the best,

Rob Blackwell

September 2012