Developing the Redeemer Chronicles

Ted said I oughta do a post about how REDEEMER isn’t Buffy, and I thought that sounded like a cool idea. Also it’s a chance to show you something that happens when you’re trying to promote a project like this, in terms of story development. :)

Admittedly, although the first bedeviled creature Rosie meets in the REDEEMER proposal chapters is a vampire, my idea for these books is really *not* to get stuck in a Vampire Of The Week story but to get caught up with a wide variety of demonic creatures. Buffy’s vampires can’t be cured (save forcing a soul on them), but the whole point of Rosie’s gift is that she *can* save a damned soul–

–but there I was, typing up something like that for a Twitter post, and it came out “Rosie Ransom can redeem a damned soul with a touch–but will she lose her own in the process?”


That, my friends, is the writer brain at work. And now I know that that’s going to be part of the long term story. Buffy’s always been in danger of *dying*. It’s also always been assumed in the Buffyverse that if you die, you go to some kind of Hell–but Rosie’s coming from the other end of the spectrum. In her world, if you die, you assume you’re probably going to some kind of Heaven…except, crap, if her talent leads to damnation…that’s a whole diffn’t kettle of fish. How far can Rosie go before the balance tips? What happens if and when it does?

So now I know why one of the later books will be entitled SALVATION. (Working titles right now: REDEEMER, DEFILER, TEMPTATION, SALVATION, and this could easily be an up to 7 or so book series, so I may need a few more in there…! :))

The truth is there’s a lot going on under the surface for why I want to write these books, too. Foremost–and this is a not-so-secret, at least to me, aspect of it–is that 1945 is a period of major social, political and economic upheaval, which makes it…a perfect lens for looking at today through. *Especially*, to me, the human rights/feminist angle, because Rosie’s part of the first generation of United States women who grow up with the vote. She’s held a job through most of the war. She’s a feminist–and she’s both proud and a little scared of that fact.

And she has friends who wouldn’t regard themselves as such, which is a good source of conflict. She also has–well, she has her Scooby Gang, guys, and one of the things I really want to do is tell a story with an ensemble cast. The Walker Papers are straight-up Joanne’s story, and the Negotiator Trilogy focused on Margrit and Alban. Rosie’s got friends: Irene, Maxine, Hank, Richie. They’re the Scoobies. They have–oh, man, guys, they have so many secrets and I’m kinda dying to tell them but I can’t. :) You can figure out Maxine’s by reading the chapters (but Rosie hasn’t figured it out yet!), and Hank’s will start developing straight off in…chapter four. :)

But even avoiding spoilers, there’s stuff with these characters, things I didn’t necessarily think about when I was writing them initially, that are still reflective of where we are today socially. Hank’s got a physical handicap in a world long before the American Disabilities Act started making the country a little easier for someone with a bad leg to get around in. There’s so much the-way-we-were versus the-way-we-want-to-be that I’d love to be able to quietly highlight in these books, and I’m really looking forward to doing it.

All I need is about 125 more backers. :) The clock is ticking; we’re down to 13 days and counting. I really hope it makes it!

The Redeemer Chronicles Kickstarter: REDEEMER is waiting for you! :)