Collages redux

Remember the collage?

The one I was making so I could find my way inside Flynn and Sara's story? The one that had me scouring the internet and filching my friends' upscale lifestyle magazines so I could nail down Irish castles and such? Not to mention my vast collection of pictures of Flynn and my several versions of Sara and such?

I put it together and it is still hanging above my computer. I can stare at it now, even as I type (except at night I have to lean to the right because the light reflects off it and I can't see it unless I sit somewhat tilted). I still love it.

But I'm a little worried because the brother is on it. The dead brother. (I've got to give him a name. I can't keep referring to him as the dead brother).

He was going to be Callum, but he can't be Callum, because Callum is still alive and has a story in my head -- and while he's not going to be Flynn's dead brother anymore, I couldn't take everything away from him. And no, Jennifer Y., this is not another case of 'authorial control.' It's a case of Callum insisting that enough is enough, and give the dead guy another name, please. So I will. But first . . .

I keep seeing possibilities for what might have been and now they're not there anymore. I think that I might have to 'rewrite' the collage. And that sounds like more work than rewriting the book.

But now I realize that when I look up, I see what Flynn sees -- a world that no longer exists. A future he thought was possible -- and then was snatched away from him. It actually works pretty well. Sometimes.

But other times he's going to have to be looking at Sara and not at his brother, and when he does that he's got to be thinking life looks pretty damn good (at least when things are going well, he should think that. And at the moment he is still under the mistaken impression that they might be -- good, that is).

But of course, he's wrong. We wouldn't have a book if he wasn't.

So I think I might need a new collage to reflect that. A collage of Flynn's life as he gets to know Sara again. A collage of the two of them building a life together. A collage where we add bits and pieces as we go along to reflect the book?

I think this might work into part of the Q&A I'm going to be doing on the eharlequin.com site next week. I will post a link as soon as I find out what it actually is.

From Monday to Friday, February 5-9, I'm going to be writing about and answering questions on "creating fictional worlds."

It started out as a Q&A about writing linked books and how one goes about making sure that everything makes sense. But even if you only write one book, things have to 'track.' They have to make sense. The world has to work.

And I think, perhaps, the collage has to work, too. It's giving me something to think about.

And I'm almost tempted to make one for Theo and Martha because Martha, being a muralist, is a very visual person. She would love the idea of doing a collage. It's what she does often in her murals. And, in fact that's sort of what her students end up doing on the walls of the theater. When I have time, I just might try it for Theo and Martha. I'm sure Ted will provide lots of pictures of himself and expect me to add a few 3-D dog treats for "realism."

But for now, I'm going to be gathering bits and pieces for the Flynn and Sara collage, 2nd edition as Flynn and Sara and I come to grips with their story.

When I started this I never thought my collages would need rewriting, too.