A Note from the Author
In January 2011, more than six years after I began writing it, Blue was published. The experience of letting this work out into the world was unlike anything I’d ever been through before. By the time that book went out, I’d witnessed the publication of more than a dozen of my own books, and as someone who had been in the publishing industry for a very long time, I’d facilitated the publication of thousands. Still, Blue felt different from all those other books. Blue was different. I’d lived with these characters for so long that they’d taken up permanent residence in my heart. I wanted this book to do well – not only for me, but in some completely irrational way for them as well.
Thankfully, the response to Blue was largely positive. One blogger commented in response to a laudatory review that it was a good thing people were liking the novel, as I was so emotionally invested in Blue I probably would have hurt myself if readers had uniformly panned it. There was never the risk of my hurting myself, but she was right that I’d been metaphorically holding my breath from the moment I let the novel leave my desk.
One unexpected byproduct of the nice reaction Blue received was that people started asking about a follow-up. This took me entirely by surprise. It shouldn’t have, of course. For decades I’ve been helping writers build their careers, and the first thing you always ask authors when you’re putting together a publishing plan is, “What’s coming after this?” Somehow, though, it didn’t dawn on me that anyone might want to read more in this case.
Faced with the question of how I would write another story about Becky, Miea, Chris, and the world of Tamarisk, I realized I wasn’t quite ready to approach a sequel. However, there was a matter in the past – a Moment When Everything Changed – that I wanted to explore. When Blue begins, two enormous events have marked the characters indelibly. However, in that novel, I didn’t let readers see how those events had unfolded.
That’s what I’m offering you now in this prequel novella. In most works of fiction, stories come together in the end. This work of fiction, though, is about a story coming apart. For those who have already read Blue, I hope this gives you greater insight into how the stage was set for the events that took place there. For those who are coming to the world for the first time, I hope it leaves you wondering where things can go from here.
Regardless, I hope you enjoy it, and as always, I’m very interested in your thoughts and interpretations (so many of you were so kind to write after reading Blue). You can reach me at [email protected] .
Thank you for getting this far.
Lou Aronica
July 2011
1
Chris had been reading the same page in his book for several minutes now. He’d always been able to drop into the world he was reading about so easily, but this had become a futile exercise over the past couple of weeks. He could only remember being this preoccupied once before in his life, and at the end of the day, that had turned out okay. Was it even remotely possible that he was going to be able to say the same about this at some point in the future? And if so, why couldn’t he feel even a hint of that optimism in his heart?
The clock on the family room wall read a couple of minutes after nine. Polly and he had bought that clock in a craft store in upstate Connecticut while she was pregnant with Becky. She’d scoffed at his wanting to buy something so rustic when all of their furnishings were so refined, but she didn’t protest his decision, and when he put it up in the family room she admitted that the clock had a certain “off-kilter charm.” They hadn’t discussed his taking the clock with him to his new apartment, but he assumed that if he left it behind, it wouldn’t stay on the wall for more than an hour after he was gone. Polly would certainly feel that the clock, like Chris,
In January 2011, more than six years after I began writing it, Blue was published. The experience of letting this work out into the world was unlike anything I’d ever been through before. By the time that book went out, I’d witnessed the publication of more than a dozen of my own books, and as someone who had been in the publishing industry for a very long time, I’d facilitated the publication of thousands. Still, Blue felt different from all those other books. Blue was different. I’d lived with these characters for so long that they’d taken up permanent residence in my heart. I wanted this book to do well – not only for me, but in some completely irrational way for them as well.
Thankfully, the response to Blue was largely positive. One blogger commented in response to a laudatory review that it was a good thing people were liking the novel, as I was so emotionally invested in Blue I probably would have hurt myself if readers had uniformly panned it. There was never the risk of my hurting myself, but she was right that I’d been metaphorically holding my breath from the moment I let the novel leave my desk.
One unexpected byproduct of the nice reaction Blue received was that people started asking about a follow-up. This took me entirely by surprise. It shouldn’t have, of course. For decades I’ve been helping writers build their careers, and the first thing you always ask authors when you’re putting together a publishing plan is, “What’s coming after this?” Somehow, though, it didn’t dawn on me that anyone might want to read more in this case.
Faced with the question of how I would write another story about Becky, Miea, Chris, and the world of Tamarisk, I realized I wasn’t quite ready to approach a sequel. However, there was a matter in the past – a Moment When Everything Changed – that I wanted to explore. When Blue begins, two enormous events have marked the characters indelibly. However, in that novel, I didn’t let readers see how those events had unfolded.
That’s what I’m offering you now in this prequel novella. In most works of fiction, stories come together in the end. This work of fiction, though, is about a story coming apart. For those who have already read Blue, I hope this gives you greater insight into how the stage was set for the events that took place there. For those who are coming to the world for the first time, I hope it leaves you wondering where things can go from here.
Regardless, I hope you enjoy it, and as always, I’m very interested in your thoughts and interpretations (so many of you were so kind to write after reading Blue). You can reach me at [email protected] .
Thank you for getting this far.
Lou Aronica
July 2011
1
Chris had been reading the same page in his book for several minutes now. He’d always been able to drop into the world he was reading about so easily, but this had become a futile exercise over the past couple of weeks. He could only remember being this preoccupied once before in his life, and at the end of the day, that had turned out okay. Was it even remotely possible that he was going to be able to say the same about this at some point in the future? And if so, why couldn’t he feel even a hint of that optimism in his heart?
The clock on the family room wall read a couple of minutes after nine. Polly and he had bought that clock in a craft store in upstate Connecticut while she was pregnant with Becky. She’d scoffed at his wanting to buy something so rustic when all of their furnishings were so refined, but she didn’t protest his decision, and when he put it up in the family room she admitted that the clock had a certain “off-kilter charm.” They hadn’t discussed his taking the clock with him to his new apartment, but he assumed that if he left it behind, it wouldn’t stay on the wall for more than an hour after he was gone. Polly would certainly feel that the clock, like Chris,
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