Through the Blood—Mette Harrison

When I first wrote THROUGH THE BLOOD, I had only the idea that there was a king being executed and that he had magic.  The rest of the story came as I was writing it.  And rewriting it.  I remember Ed writing to me and saying that he couldn't use the story as it stood because of some important questions the reader was being kept in the dark about, such as what is the king's magic, what is the relationship between Haber and Elwell, and even why was the king being executed.  He said that he felt this information was being artificially withheld, that the characters knew it and I knew it, but only the reader didn't know it.  The truth was, that I didn't actually know the answers to those questions.  But of course, this information needed to be clearly conveyed because without that information, it was difficult to care about the characters and to feel the real impact of the surprise at the end.  Maybe there is some part of my hind brain that did know the answer to those questions, and it just had to be coaxed into spitting it out properly.  I am not sure I want to know exactly how my writing brain works fully.  It would take away all the mystery and angst and then why would I write?

--Mette Harrison