The subject line says it all, pretty much.

That makes 6 for this summer, and 5 all set in one world.

This whole experience of writing in one world has been a learning event.  When I first began, I hated having to be confined to write in that one world.  So much so, I wrote a story set somewhere else.

Then the first of the 5 short stories set up the world and the main story line that was to play throughout all the other short stories. 

When it came time to edit though, I ended up deleting the whole beginning set up - costume, culture, people.  It read better starting where the action for the story began.

Setting the second story in the same world felt restrictive.  I wanted the freedom to do my own thing.  But I forced myself to do it, albeit on another continent, with the first story's enemy as the main characters.  I liked that one because I learned how to build a bridge using stacking stones.  That was cool.

The third took me back to the original continent, but with ew characters and well into the conflict set up in the first short story.

The fourth went to a third location, an island on the far side of this world, filled with sorcerers.  And I wrote it as a young adult story to help me work through how magic works on this land.  As a child, the main character, too, learned how to gain mastery of her magic.

This fifth short story took us back to the first setting on this world, and the bit I chucked, which was set inside a university.  I re-used some of the costumes and decorations, and one of the characters reappeared with a walk on part, with the main story revolving around a murder mystery.

The most amazing part of this experience is that throughout the writing of these short stories, I was thinking in the back of my mind, wouldn't it be nice if I could be like some of the fantasy authors I enjoy reading, who write characters that became staples for their stories.

These were characters that kept me coming back again and again, years later, to the same author.  Yet, in all of my shorts, I couldn't find any character that stuck with me.  They were all interesting, and entertaining, and fascinating.  But my instinct said none of them had that thing that makes them staple characters.

Until this last short story.

I can totally envision a hundred stories with the main and side characters from this one.  So, of course, I've been trying to figure out why?  Why these two?  What makes them different?  More enduring?  And the answer, I think, is that they're more endearing.

Well, the next short for September isn't supposed to have them in it.  But maybe it will.  Since I can't seem to shake these two out of my head.


Shereen Vedam
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