It’s
bizarre to look at a novel and track it back from finished product to where it
began as a first draft (or even later draft). During the editing and revision
process, books go through a lot of changes. In the original River Road, for
example, there was another water species involved in the plot in addition to
the merpeople and the nymphs—the nixies.
The
nixies might show up again one of these days, but the book was suffering from
species overload, so I replaced them with a second clan of merpeople.
Another
major change was the deletion of a series of memos from the Elders to the
wizards of the New Orleans region. Each new day in the storyline of the book
began with a new memo from the Elders. In the end, the memos interrupted the
story too much, but they were kind of fun, so here are a few of them.
MEMORANDUM
Tuesday,
October 18
FROM:
W.A. Zrakovi, North American District, Congress of Elders
TO:
The Wizards of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana
RE:
Policy Changes
Population
groups capable of passing for human may now enter New Orleans and Southeast
Louisiana, with restrictions. These changes follow lengthy negotiations between
the Congress of Elders and other preternatural councils following Hurricane
Katrina in 2005.
Vampires:
Feeding from willing donors only, memory erasure required. No creation of new
vampires without approval from the Regents of Vampyre and the Congress of
Elders.
Weres:
No full-moon activity within incorporated areas.
Nixes,
Nymphs and Mers: No abduction of humans for breeding purposes. No unauthorized
swimming in incorporated areas.
Formerly
famous humans known as the Historical Undead may also enter the region if they
have connections to the area, but must disguise their identities. For
information on the Historica; Undead, contact Captain Jean Lafitte, c/o the
Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans.
MEMORANDUM
Wednesday,
October 19
FROM:
W.A. Zrakovi, North American District, Congress of Elders
TO:
The Wizards of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana
RE:
Interspecies Cooperation
Effective
immediately, investigations of suspicious activity must include a delegate from
all affected species. Call Alexander Warin or Drusilla Jaco with any questions
or reports of preternatural misbehavior. Also, all expenses involving pretes must
be approved by Elders beforehand, and paperwork must be filed in triplicate
within twenty-four hours.
MEMORANDUM
Friday,
October 21
FROM:
W.A. Zrakovi, North American District, Congress of Elders
TO:
The Wizards of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana
RE:
Interspecies Relations
It
has come to the Elders’ attention that with the proliferation of new species
into Southeast Louisiana, requests about rules for interspecies dating are on
the increase. The official ruling from the Congress of Elders to any individual
dating outside his or her species is that unless a law is broken, you’re on
your own.
MEMORANDUM
Saturday,
October 22
FROM:
W.A. Zrakovi, North American District, Congress of Elders
TO:
The Wizards of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana
RE:
Travel Outside Temporal Boundaries
Questions
have arisen about the possibility of travel between the modern world and the
Beyond. While it is not prohibited, it is strongly discouraged, as the Elders
have no uncontested jurisdiction over any areas of the Beyond and no idea of
how to get from Point A to Point B. Proceed at your own risk and don’t come
whining to us if you get in trouble.
MEMORANDUM
Monday,
October 24
FROM:
W.A. Zrakovi, North American District, Congress of Elders
TO:
The Wizards of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana
RE:
Elves
The
Elders regret to inform the wizarding community that, contrary to the popular
belief that we ourselves perpetuated, elves are not, in fact, extinct. Please
note that elves are skilled in mental manipulation. Any suspected elven conduct
should be reported to the Elders immediately. Do not attempt to deal with them
yourselves.
MEMORANDUM
Saturday,
October 29
FROM:
W.A. Zrakovi, North American District, Congress of Elders
TO:
The Wizards of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana
RE:
Preternatural Sponsorships
It
has come to the Elders’ attention that among the new species moving into
Southeast Louisiana are a number of individuals new to their status. As a
reminder, all newly turned vampires and weres, in particular, must have a local
sponsor who will be responsible for ensuring the safety of those with whom said
individual comes in contact. You know who you are.
The Nixies - water people, now that could have been fun. Glad we had the nymphs, even when "Libby was a whole fruitcake." Starting each day with a memo reminds me of Royal Street starting each day with the paper headline. Thanks for the memos.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Roger! LOL on Libby :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, when I did the memos, I was trying to set it up like Royal Street, but where the news clippings helped set the context, the memos just didn't work as well so I ended up cutting them. Some of them are kind of funny, though--you can tell where they came in the story. The Elders are always a half-beat behind.
I could maybe see memos from the elders as a chapter preface. I enjoyed reading them but I have to agree - the Elders are clueless jerks.
ReplyDeleteLOL, they ARE clueless jerks...and boy are they going to pay for that in the long run as the series goes on :-)
DeleteThese are awesome!!
ReplyDeleteLove the interspecies dating memo:) Lots of fun must've been in in the ones about broken laws too:)
^^ i love the part " don't come whining if you get in trouble" they are the one who creates the most some troubles^^
ReplyDeletepoor Dj that receive that nearly each day she must become crazy, they don't answer, they are days late and they think they got the right to decide problem in the future for sure
( and yes to see nixies in teh futur would be great) thank you a lot for sharing those with us
Nice memos. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Suzanne, remove need to be done to get the perfect book and the removal is to be memorial :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!!
ReplyDelete