Inevitable: The end, and my thoughts on a story I started 9 years ago.
So a few notes about this story, nine years later geeze.
If you follow my LJ, it's no surprise that I abandoned my Anita Blake stories about the same time as I fell out of love (rather violently) with the source material. I tried over the years to come back to this story; I'm not sure why this weekend was different, but I am very glad that it was. And here we are.
This ending is pretty much how I envisioned it happening when I started publishing back in 2005. This ending has literally been in my heads since then, and I'm glad I could bring it all out to share with you.
I'm.... I won't say I'm not happy with this ending, as it's the ending I always envisioned. But as with other parts of this story, looking back on it as the writer I have become over the last 10 years, I would have done it different from the start. Tightened up the plotting, cut out about a third of the Anita!angst because seriously. The ending itself in this story is actually, in my mind, quite true to the vein of the story (and keep in mind this was plotted out long before the series ended). However, I will be the first to say that the last couple of chapters tie things up in a very rushed way and it does lay the groundwork open for a sequel that I will probably never write.
On the plus side, I feel that the way in which I killed Voldemort was quite nice - being offed with a muggle weapon, by a half-blood child, would grate at the Lord of Death. And the set-up of the Bokor Majeur was leading up to this point when Anita took over Voldemort's Inferi, and then made her choice in serving with both hands, that it was her choice to take them to her, and then let Elsa kill them, in order to protect the children. As Anita says, we all have good and evil inside us, and it is up to us to decide how to balance our hands.
On the OC side, I still love the main OCs in this story like burning. Elsa is lovely and I have a whole back-story about her. Reece is adorable and I can't help but think that he spends summers in St. Louis now with Richard's Wolf Pack growing up.
Also the happy endings I gave some of these characters (ie by not killing them) like Tonks and Remus, and the twins, and Dumbledore and Snape wasn’t because of any reaction to the last HP book, but because this was how I wanted it to be in the story. (because that's the bigger challenge, isn't it - living.)
Anyway. Thank you so much for putting up with me over the years, and for reading. You mean so much to me, and have helped me become a better writer over these years with your comments, your compliments, and your criticisms. You are, quite simply, wonderful.
Thank you for being part of this journey with me.
And for the curious:
What the sequel would have contained:
If you follow my LJ, it's no surprise that I abandoned my Anita Blake stories about the same time as I fell out of love (rather violently) with the source material. I tried over the years to come back to this story; I'm not sure why this weekend was different, but I am very glad that it was. And here we are.
This ending is pretty much how I envisioned it happening when I started publishing back in 2005. This ending has literally been in my heads since then, and I'm glad I could bring it all out to share with you.
I'm.... I won't say I'm not happy with this ending, as it's the ending I always envisioned. But as with other parts of this story, looking back on it as the writer I have become over the last 10 years, I would have done it different from the start. Tightened up the plotting, cut out about a third of the Anita!angst because seriously. The ending itself in this story is actually, in my mind, quite true to the vein of the story (and keep in mind this was plotted out long before the series ended). However, I will be the first to say that the last couple of chapters tie things up in a very rushed way and it does lay the groundwork open for a sequel that I will probably never write.
On the plus side, I feel that the way in which I killed Voldemort was quite nice - being offed with a muggle weapon, by a half-blood child, would grate at the Lord of Death. And the set-up of the Bokor Majeur was leading up to this point when Anita took over Voldemort's Inferi, and then made her choice in serving with both hands, that it was her choice to take them to her, and then let Elsa kill them, in order to protect the children. As Anita says, we all have good and evil inside us, and it is up to us to decide how to balance our hands.
On the OC side, I still love the main OCs in this story like burning. Elsa is lovely and I have a whole back-story about her. Reece is adorable and I can't help but think that he spends summers in St. Louis now with Richard's Wolf Pack growing up.
Also the happy endings I gave some of these characters (ie by not killing them) like Tonks and Remus, and the twins, and Dumbledore and Snape wasn’t because of any reaction to the last HP book, but because this was how I wanted it to be in the story. (because that's the bigger challenge, isn't it - living.)
Anyway. Thank you so much for putting up with me over the years, and for reading. You mean so much to me, and have helped me become a better writer over these years with your comments, your compliments, and your criticisms. You are, quite simply, wonderful.
Thank you for being part of this journey with me.
And for the curious:
What the sequel would have contained:
- Harry goes back to St. Louis with Anita and Jason.
- He waits for Dumbledore to let him know he could come back to Hogwarts.
- Meanwhile, he's in touch with Hermione's parents and Tonks' Dad (who's muggle) and pretty much everyone he can think of. He just wants to know everyone's okay, you know?
- So he'd living in Anita's house and it's getting on his nerves and Richard wants him to go to high school and one day he just snaps and gets on a train to Chicago because fuck it, you know? And he spends like a day there dicking around until he finally breaks down and calls Damian and they talk for the first time, really.
- He spends the night at the train station and the next morning he wakes up to find Jason lounging at his side.
- They go back to St. Louis and Harry moved into the furnished apartment over Anita’s garage and starts thinking about what he’s going to do with his life.
- John Cassidy (that American Auror dude) shows up and suggests that Harry enter the American Auror training because he’s probably not going home, and Harry brushes him off but what else is he going to do? Richard, quite rightly, points out that Harry’s like seventeen and says he can go to school like a normal person and maybe do college and then Jason points out that he’s a smart kid who might still want to look into that wolf pack Vargamour thing (pack witch etc).
- And Harry still thinks maybe he can go home but then Remus shows up with Tonks (with the news that they’re getting married and Harry’s like WTF but OK) and Remus tells Harry the real score, how Scrimgeour is consolidating power on Voldemort’s death and there’s this massive power struggle between him and Dumbledore and it wouldn’t help anyone if Harry showed up, especially given that whole necromancy thing Anita pulled. And Harry is crushed. Devastated. All the things you can think to be sad, that’s Harry.
- (And Remus has an encounter with Richard which is just awkward (remember how Richard and all the wolves were shocked that Remus didn’t have a pack?) And Remus sees the pack and wonders how much he’s been missing out on, being a wizard werewolf.
- So anyway Harry gets Tonks alone and they talk about the American Aurors and school and things and Tonks is really blunt about what it’s like being an Auror and when Harry says he might be able to go to college and do stuff she’s all wistful (cuz she’s like 25 remember) because learning is cool. And she tells him that he has to do what he wants, not what anyone else wants.
- In the meantime, Asher is moping around St. Louis because Harry’s back in town. And Meng Die is lurking around Harry because she’s a creeper.
- As Harry’s trying to figure out what to do, guess who shows up? Hedwig that’s who! She’s got a bunch of letters for him from home. Hermione and Ron and the twins and kids from school. Luna sent him a packet of pictures of the Castle and rebuilding, with only one line of text, I am so glad we could be friends. Harry freaks over this a bit until he reads Ginny’s letter, that Luna was having a hard time after the battle at Hogwarts, but she’s getting better, that she misses Harry and so does Ginny and it’s just so fucking hard, Charlie is dead and mom still isn’t there. She understands why Harry can’t come back but it sucks and she hates it and she hopes he’s okay.
- And Harry lies on the floor for a few hours being understandably sad and angry, that he’s been cast away by a world that used him to kill a man they were all scared of.
- Then Jason and Nathaniel show up and ask him if he wants to go to a movie or grab a pizza or take a painting class or something and Harry freaks out and that’s okay, there’s just a big group hug and Jason points out that there’s tomorrow, and the days after that, and for a while Harry just stays angry and gets Richard to set up him for muggle tutoring so he can get into college and he tells John Cassidy to shove American Auror training up his ass, and he tags along with Anita on zombie jobs and she starts telling him what he has to do to be a federal marshal and he points out on a daily basis that he’s not the male version of Anita Blake and Jean Claude hears this and just spends an eternity rolling his lovely blue eyes at those two idiots.
- And Harry learns what it’s like to be a real boy just tries to figure out what his life can be, when it’s his own.