Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Adrian's Story

Claire Emerson writes --

Since you brought up Adrian -

What are your latest thoughts on writing him a book of his own? I'm following your deliberations on this with great interest. He's a marvelous creation and I'd love to read more of him, but, like you, I have some difficulty imagining his heroine or HEA.

And, if Adrian's story isn't next (after Doyle/Maggie)... do you know yet what is?



I'm up to my gills in MAGGIE right now. Adrian -- for me -- is twelve. He's dirty and skinny and one of his knees got dislocated a while back. I haven't decided whether it's his left knee or his right. Do you have a preference?

He's not just a bundle of joy to those around him.

Since I'm holding Adrian so firmly in front of me as an angry, dangerous pre-teen, it's difficult to see him as the more complex and thoughtful, (still dangerous,) man he becomes.

When I get to the end of the MAGGIE story, I'll know whether I can visualize Adrian's HEA.
I hope I'm working on it in the back of my head all that time.

I don't know right now if ADRIAN will be the story directly after MAGGIE. There might be one intervening story. But I think the one after that would have to be ADRIAN.

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:19 PM

    As a fan, I would love to be gifted with Adrian's story, but it would have to be extraordinary. :)
    Also in response to previous posts, especially on the anachronistic "Shut up": I'm a big fan of Crombie's "1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" (1971 paperback edition from Digest Books) which offers such fun alternatives as "Cheese it," and "Shut your Gob." Obviously they're not as readily understandable to the modern reader but the book does offer loads a great slang and cant from your period.
    All the best. Cheers, Eliza

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  2. Hi Eliza --

    I do make mistakes in these word details, no matter how careful I try to be.

    I love the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. And Partridge's Slang and Unconventional Language.

    I guess I just love words in general.

    Slang .... I never know about putting slang in. There's a line between building the feel of the period and annoying folks.
    I don't want to pull them out of the story, wondering what a phrase means and thinking about the language.


    Adrian's story ...
    I need both the woman who matches him and a story that's worthy of the two of them.

    Pity I can't pick it up on the shelf between the Tide and Downy.

    Right now, Adrian is twelve. I'm deep in the French Revolution. Scary stuff.

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  3. Whenever you write Adrian this year or in the next five, I will definitely be there to pick it up! :D

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  4. Joanna, I hope that you will find the right woman and the right story for Adrian, because I think all of your fans would love to hear his story.

    Glad to hear that you are knee deep in Maggie's story. I can't wait to read it!

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  5. Hi Katie(babs) and Buffie --

    What is it about Adran, anyway?
    Maybe it's the knife.

    I tried to show growth and change in his character between TSL and MLAS. Now I'm going back and ... well, regressing him.

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  6. Left knee, definitely. It's just more romantic that way.

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  7. Hi Ros --

    I think it's going to be the left knee. He's left handed, so this kinda works out somehow.

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  8. Anonymous7:46 PM

    I have no idea what it is about Adrian, but there is definitely a something there.

    I think it's the whole awful Dickensian childhood combined with the man he's clearly become: I particularly think I was done for in that scene when he and Jess meet again. I think I (and clearly many, many others) are a sucker for the whole still waters...

    That, and how fantastic would his heroine have to be? I'm showing up just for her. :)

    -Estelle

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  9. Hi Estelle --

    D'ya know ... it's this business of creating a great female for him that's so difficult.

    I'm just starting to imagine her.

    Now I have to follow her story. It's kind of exciting, really.

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  10. Anonymous8:18 PM

    I don't know how both their stories will fit in one book. It will be explosive.

    Not that I'm being nosy or anything, but can you tell me anything about this frenchwoman that is mentioned in conjunction with Adrian twice? I must admit, I'm intrigued.

    Oh, let's not even pretend indifference; I'm dying to know something about her!

    -Estelle

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  11. Hi Estelle -

    Unless things change again, Adrian's going to end up with that Frenchwoman.

    Her story is unformed. It's off in that vast, gray, unsettled territory of possibility that stretches away beyond the story-that's-seen.

    And it 'hasn't happened yet'. "Always in motion is the future."

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