If you are following along, you know I’m in the process of editing the next book in the Sean Colbeth series; I find it an intriguing experience coming back a few months after putting the manuscript to bed and reading it from the top, adjusting as I go. Blindsided managed to add a few thousand extra words during that edit – probably the antithesis of the process – though those changes helped to extend some portions of the backstory for both Sean and Vasily. (It helped that by the time I went back to edit the first book, I’d written the next two and had a far better sense of the quirkiness of my two main characters, and an idea on how to sprinkle more of that into the first book.)
Outsider has picked up three four additional chapters so far — mainly due to my own more robust relationship to the main characters that seem to have invaded my life. There’s also, I think, a certain desire on my part to tease a thread that started in the first book so it will continue onward. I’m not sure this is how other authors work, but for me it’s been a pretty cool way to watch the wider story of these two characters unfold as I move further into their series.
As I mentioned in a prior post, Sean and Vasily are quite alive to me in ways large and small. For example, I know (now) that Sean favors Samuel Adams over wine, and would willingly sign up for trials of any medical device that could deliver coffee to him intravenously throughout his work day. (He also has a penchant for a specific phone/laptop manufacturer that got me into hot water with one of my beta readers… but that’s a story for another day.)
One thing I’ve noticed for Vasily is his penchant for fast food, specifically In-N-Out Burger. I didn’t initially know that about him, but as more of his backstory appeared, it seemed completely appropriate he would be addicted to the Southern California mainstay — especially since he grew up outside of Los Angeles. What I didn’t know was how much Vasily missed eating there, at least, not until the third book was underway. Thank goodness he’s something of an athlete in tip-top-form, but I wonder if I’m doing him harm each time I write him diverting into the next drive-thru he sees…