Life, full speed ahead!
— Lisa McGarrity
I’ll be back.
— Trevarr
Author’s Cut Notes
A number of unseen forces leave their mark on a book. Only now, as I have the opportunity to write and publish independent works, am I beginning to realize just how much influence those unseen forces can have, especially for a career writer.
That is to say, a writer with no other income beyond the writing.
For most of us, completing a contract means being out of work. Or sometimes (for reasons far beyond the writer), being out of work in the middle of the contract. The paradigm makes for a certain amount of living on the edge, and such circumstances inform every decision about what contracts to pursue, when.
Circumstances can also interfere with what (and how) a writer might otherwise be inclined to write.
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I started work on Reckoners when I heard that an editor was actively shopping for [vague ghostbusting concept]. It sounded like a whole lotta fun, and I was full of glee!
Was it what I would have developed at that point, left to my own devices? No. But I don’t grab for a project unless I love it, so really... that’s okay. And once I develop and start writing something, I pour enough of myself into it that I desperately want to finish it!
This particular editor eventually rejected my proposal because in fact what she’d really been looking for was [much less vague ghostbusting project not very much like my idea but only defined after rejecting my idea, so... yeah, glad to be of help with that].
By then I had fallen in love with my own idea, so I put more of the story together and my agent eventually sold it.
Along the way, the market forces came to bear from all sides.
Write in this voice. Include these elements. Don’t include these other elements.
I found myself blinded, in a way — discouraged from including the pieces that would have allowed the story to unfold in completion. The pressures of the do’s and don’ts created a surreptitious gestalt, which in turn subtly dictated character action and presentation.
The book poured out nonetheless, and I happily prepared to deliver it — until the edict came down to cut 20,000 words. The publisher didn’t want to use that many print signatures for the book.
Let’s be clear: This isn’t me saying, “None of my precious words should have been cut!” This is me saying, “Cutting 20,000 words for reasons unrelated to storytelling is not beneficial to a book.”
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Well, I won’t say I’ve added those words back in — the time has long passed for that, though I did take advantage of the opportunity to re-clarify the story in the wake of those lost words. But the thing I really, really wanted to do with this independent edition was to more fully explore pieces of Trevarr’s world. His background, his stakes, his reasons. Even a smoking gun or two.
New scenes! New details! New characters, bursting forth!
Oh, the muse was so happy.
Being freed to put those words to paper, painting the details I’d always wanted to explore, has been a profound experience. And while I was always in love with Garrie and Trevarr and the crew, now I know them so much better, and love them all the more.
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Anyway.
After twenty-plus years of writing across genres, I feel blessed to have found so many opportunities in publishing — but I also feel triply blessed for the additional opportunity to rediscover my writing through independently published works. There are just as many originals left to come, as well as the ability to address what I had wanted for this particular series all along.
So all in all, I’m delighted to pursue the heart of an individualized writing process again — and even more delighted to put together this author cut version of The Reckoners.
I hope you like it, too.
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Glossary
Garrie’s World
Bob/Bobbie - Garrie’s default name for all ghosts
caray - a Spanish interjection, meaning, “!!!”
chicalet - Lucia’s nickname for Garrie, based on Spanish chica and the English diminutive, not to mention an allusion to a certain brand of wee gum.
darkside - a place vague in Garrie’s understanding, from which invading entities come. They all have the same flavor to her. She has thought of it in terms of spiritual planes rather than dimensions. This may change.
reckoner - those who take care of a final reckoning for spirits who need it; specifically someone who can manipulate ethereal breezes, although Garrie considers her whole team to be reckoners beside her.
Trevarr’s World
atreya/o - heart partner
atreyvo - bondmate
blood token - a powerful clan relic
chakha - a parasitic darkside entity that invades smallish predators and hulks them out, then controls them in a hunt for atypically large prey for its own consumption.
ekhevia - a hunting tool; it detects energies and can “store” and transport beings in an ethereal state.
eatsll - a nasty living substance from Kehar.
fark - Every culture seems to have a word for this...
Ghehera — Tribunal HQ on Kehar, a small city in its own right with detention and nefarious reputation.
Kehar - Trevarr’s world
Klysar or Klysar’s Blood/various rude body parts - irreverent cursing.
kirkhirra - a record of clan history kept in knots and formed into a ceremonial belt. The most complex macrame ever.
Krevata - a clan of semi-ethereal demons, particularly ill-formed and excitable.
Kyrokha - We’re not really sure yet.
memory stone - one of Trevar’s clan objects. He seems to have the responsibility of carrying his people’s important things.
oskhila - a dimensional travel tool.
rekherra - a being with both ethereal and corporeal states
Solchran - Trevarr’s village
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A Note from the Author
There are so many good books to read...thank you for choosing The Reckoners! I appreciate your letters, emails, blog comments, and Facebook posts more than I can ever express. These days, readers hold more power than ever with their choices, and reviews and word of mouth are an author’s best friend — always very much appreciated!
If you’d like to keep tabs on what I’m writing, here’s my newsletter sign-up. It goes out several times a year with notices about releases and giveaways, but I won’t fill your mailbox. Or feel free to come by and say hello at my Facebook page, where we have lots of other fun! If you just want to see what else I've written, try this list on my web site.
And if you liked The Reckoners, you might enjoy the rest of the trilogy:
Book II: Storm of Reckoning
The Author's Cut of this book is in production.
Lisa "Garrie" McGarrity just fought a battle of cataclysmic energies alongside a man who turned out to be not from this world at all. Now she no longer seems quite familiar to herself...or quite under control. But she'd better figure it out fast, because she and her ghostbusting reckoners team have detoured to Sedona, where a friend desperately needs occult assistance--and where fiercely driven, half-human bounty hunter Trevarr keeps glancing inexplicably over his shoulder.
It doesn't help that the intense ethereal breezes and vortexes of the Red Rocks have gone utterly silent--and that the regional ghosts, when they do appear, are targeting Garrie.
With a rogue entity on the loose, Trevarr's not-cat bond partner also hinting at dire trouble on their trail, and Trevarr himself resting uneasily on exile, Garrie is running out of time to figure out just what's happening to herself--and to the Southwest--and to put a stop it it.
Again.
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Book III: Reckoner Redeemed
Reckoner Redeemed is in production.
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Dun Lady’s Jess
All woman, all heart... all horse.
When hikers Dayna and Eric find a naked and terrified young woman, they’re sure she’s the victim of foul play. But the truth is much more shocking: she isn’t human at all. She’s Dun Lady’s Jess, a horse transformed into this new shape by the spell that brought her and her rider, to whom she is utterly devoted, into this world.
Possessed now of human intelligence but still a horse deep inside, Jess desperately searches this world for her master and rider, using her fiery equine spirit to take on human idiosyncrasies — and human threats.
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A Feral Darkness
Suspense, romance, and a Celtic dog bundled into a contemporary fantasy setting.
As a child, dog-loving Brenna Fallon naívely invokes an ancient Celtic deity to save her beloved hound — and inadvertently anchors the new-found power at a spring on her family’s farm.
She doesn’t know she’s also left an opening for a far more malevolent force.
Years later, Brenna discovers the terrible potential of that gateway. With a devastating plague unfolding abruptly around her, she must depend on her wits, a stranger she doesn’t trust, and a mysterious stray dog who becomes more than just a faithful companion as she struggles to drive back the threat of a modern Black Death.
Welded by a desperate sacrifice, woman, man, and dog face the feral darkness together.
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About Doranna Durgin
Doranna Durgin is an award-winning author (Compton Crook, best first SF/F/H) whose quirky spirit has led to an eclectic and extensive publishing journey across genres. Beyond that, she hangs around outside her Southwest mountain home with horse and dogs, and the dogs keep her busy in the sports of tracking, obedience, and agility. She doesn’t believe in mastering the beast within, but in channeling its power. For good or bad has yet to be decided...
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