Well, another story done. I have to admit, after dragging my feet for a couple of years before actually penning Andre’s story, I found the actual writing of it was fairly smooth and painless. Unlike many previous projects I did not feel muddled or aimless as I reached the end of the second act, nor did I reach the end feeling like I let an important thematic element fall by the wayside. All in all, I consider these pretty meaningful achievements!

The story is done but I’m already well on my way to formulating Andre’s next big adventure, which will probably kick off early next year. In the meantime, we’ll be sticking to custom around these parts and take a short break from fiction to write a few essays as well as taking a week or two off for the Holidays and to square things away for the next project. We’ll talk more about future plans as the new year comes around.

Now, back to Andre’s first adventure. While I have a number of big thematic ideas I’d like to explore as his story unfolds, Beacon’s Dark serves largely to introduce them rather than resolve them. His full rogues gallery is established, though Grigori Borgia has yet to appear on the page, his struggles with authority figures is well established and his personal struggles are in place. More importantly, his identity and toolset is now in place.

Even better, all these elements were introduced in about fifty thousand words, a fast and efficient introduction if I say so myself.

Writing the story itself was a bit of an adventure. I vacillated between whether Phillipe or Fabian and Erasmus should be the final hurdle Andre faced in his escape from Citadel Fionni. I took care to establish both as options in the story. However, I wasn’t sure which one to lean hardest on to push Andre to his ending. Ultimately, as you’ve no doubt determined, I went with the latter pair and the reason for that was fairly straightforward.

Phillipe is thematically crafted as a direct opposite of Andre. He’s not just an authority figure, he’s a jailer and a slow, deliberate mover who is always working towards big picture goals with little emphasis on the personal. That makes him an excellent resource for exploring Andre’s character and goals. However, I’d prefer to leverage Phillipe to the maximum once Andre is comfortable in the role of the Blacklight.

A short encounter between Phillipe and Andre is enough to establish the differences between them. Thus, the role of chief antagonist in this story is handed over to Fabian and Erasmus. They appear in the story less than Phillipe does, which is a bit awkward, but they also represent one of the Borgia’s nastiest modes of operation, the use of hired mercenaries. They oppose Andre simply because there’s money in it.

The sudden appearance of strangers who will do violence to you, not because of personal animus but solely for money, is quite sinister. The longer it goes on, the more likely you are to become fearful, mean spirited and small minded as every stranger becomes suspicious. The catch to this is that it needs to go on for a while. This mercenary aspect to a life of violence in Renaissance Italy (and thus, in Nerona) is one element in Andre’s story that needs to be depicted accurately, so it was important to me that Andre encounter some of those mercenaries at the beginning. They wound up playing a slightly bigger part than I originally intended but I think things will be better for it.

A final aspect of writing this story was the scope of it. It’s been a long time since I sat down to begin a story with a large scale picture in mind, I’ve mostly aimed to tell one story at a time with most of my fiction projects. I certainly had ideas floating around but not an overarching continuity or singular character arc to push forward.

However Beacon’s Dark did not begin as a singular story that I might expand on later. I began with the idea that I would continue to expand Andre’s character in future stories, with a specific end goal in mind. Laying down loose ends to pick up later was an important part of the story, although it certainly felt counterintuitive in the writing of it. Hopefully the narrative held together regardless, and that you’ll come back for the next part next year.

In the meantime, I leave you for the moment. I’ll return on Nov. 27th with a few meditations on romance! See you then.