Tuesday, October 4, 2011

an unfortunate incident involving an inflatable whale


Another day in the undisclosed secret location.

Stick comes out one week from today.

Today is the final Tuesday in which Stick does not exist.

So I have been working on Passenger from my undisclosed secret location. My pouting period was an all-time record for brevity. Seriously, I never get into work on revisions just two days after receiving the assignment.

I know that a lot of people out there are kind of down on the whole idea of sequels. Believe me, in the most general sense I am too. So when I set out to write Passenger, which is quite long, I wanted to try and do something that was not so sequel-ish.

Without giving anything away, my thought (and I've hinted about this before) was this: Suppose every time Jack thought he was going back and forth, he was actually going someplace completely different -- that he was never going "back" home, or back to Marbury, for that matter, either.

I think I left some clues (well, obvious ones to me) about that puzzling dilemma in The Marbury Lens. Look. You will see. And, what if the little differences started to get bigger and bigger, worse and worse, so that Jack and the boys become hopelessly lost in their struggle to get "back" to any place that is exactly the way they left it?

That is Passenger. And I hope that makes you excited to read it.

But first, you can get excited -- and take a little hopeful breather --with Stick.

This coming Tuesday.




7 comments:

Matthew MacNish said...

I've got no problems with sequels, in fact, I love them. If I love a story/world/premise/character, why would I not want to read more?

Now, writing them is another story (hah hah, pun intended).

Jonathon Arntson said...

Cute.

Unknown said...

One week until Stick! I've already made it one of my autumn/holiday staff picks. Now the question is: how will we wait for Winger (which I'm not sure I can wait for, really, because it sounds amazing) and Passenger?

Also, I will confess that I had almost convinced myself that your trip to an undisclosed location was actually to Portland for Wordstock, which is this weekend.

Andrew Smith said...

I will not forget my promise to you, Rachael.

Matthew MacNish said...

Unknown/Rachael ... I'm perfectly willing to discuss a commando style assault on Andrew's home when it comes to these manuscripts. I've stalked him to a narrow 500,00 acre area somewhere in the canyon/mountains north of LA, so whenever you're ready to toss your research in, I'm down.

Andrew Smith said...

Ha! My son was just telling me the same thing this morning... Dad, send me more books. He has read Once There Were Birds. I am considering sending him Passenger (that should get him stalked on Facebook).

Kristen Pelfrey Faulconer said...

Kristen: *shocked*Matthew! We have a revolution to plan! Eyes on the prize, dude.
Matthew:(inaudible)
Kristen: But, you know, you're right. Fall 2012 is, like, still a year away. *starts twitching* And, and..
Matthew:(mutters darkly)
Kristen: ...that's a long *twitch* time (goes hollow-eyed)
such...(assumes fetal position) a long...
Matthew: (inaudible, possibly obscene)
Kristen commences rocking.