FA+
Shop
1766
Views
Views
9
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Story / All
Species Badger
Size 120 x 120
File Size 60 kB
Report this content
More from Rikoshi
For those of you who might not know, my debut novel, Thousand Leaves, is going to be released at Anthrocon '08 by the fine folks over at Sofawolf Press. Needless to say, this is all very exciting for me, and I hope it's exciting for the furry readership.
As a bit of a teaser, then, I've got a bit of cut "bonus content" here. This was originally going to be the prologue to the book. It got cut before the manuscript was finalized, but I still think it came out pretty well, and thought that maybe people would be interested in seeing a little bit about what the book is like.
Let me know what you think!
As a bit of a teaser, then, I've got a bit of cut "bonus content" here. This was originally going to be the prologue to the book. It got cut before the manuscript was finalized, but I still think it came out pretty well, and thought that maybe people would be interested in seeing a little bit about what the book is like.
Let me know what you think!
Category Story / All
Species Badger
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 60 kB
Were the next words going to be "Two weeks ago..."?
The hardest part of writing something and then submitting it to anyone, in my opinion, is figuring out what you shouldn't say. And when you really apply yourself to something, it makes it that much more difficult to say, "Well, it took me a week of writing, but it's just not quite right. Oh, it's really good, but not quite right."
I imagine this was difficult to cut, good as it is. It did help the flow of the book, though.
More people need to know about this. I don't understand why there are only the three comments here. (Okay, I'm guilty of not commenting, too, until now.) Go shout it around someplaces.
The hardest part of writing something and then submitting it to anyone, in my opinion, is figuring out what you shouldn't say. And when you really apply yourself to something, it makes it that much more difficult to say, "Well, it took me a week of writing, but it's just not quite right. Oh, it's really good, but not quite right."
I imagine this was difficult to cut, good as it is. It did help the flow of the book, though.
More people need to know about this. I don't understand why there are only the three comments here. (Okay, I'm guilty of not commenting, too, until now.) Go shout it around someplaces.
The decision to cut the prologue was a tough one, but ultimately, I had a number of reasons why I did it.
First is that it's the only part of the narrative that didn't fall into temporal sequence, and while that isn't a terrible thing in and of itself, the narrative already spends a lot of time jumping between viewpoints and perspectives, and I didn't want that jumble to be more confusing than it already was.
Also, I had originally intended for the prologue to show a part of the story that the reader wouldn't see, otherwise. As it turned out, though, both Arkady and Boots ended up appearing a fair bit in the main story, so their little side-appearance in the prologue was less necessary, and the information revealed in the prologue then became redundant.
My main reason for wanting the action-based prologue to begin with was that I wanted to "suck in" readers right from the beginning, because I was worried that the main narrative took too long to get going and that people might get bored before getting to "the good part." I realized, though, that that was a sign that I should probably focus more on making the early section of the book more riveting in its own right, such that a more "grabby" prologue wasn't necessary.
...
After all that, though, I still thought that the writing itself came out pretty well, so I didn't want to see it go away entirely. Deciding to use it as a "teaser" before the book was released make it a little easier for me to go ahead and strike it from the book.
First is that it's the only part of the narrative that didn't fall into temporal sequence, and while that isn't a terrible thing in and of itself, the narrative already spends a lot of time jumping between viewpoints and perspectives, and I didn't want that jumble to be more confusing than it already was.
Also, I had originally intended for the prologue to show a part of the story that the reader wouldn't see, otherwise. As it turned out, though, both Arkady and Boots ended up appearing a fair bit in the main story, so their little side-appearance in the prologue was less necessary, and the information revealed in the prologue then became redundant.
My main reason for wanting the action-based prologue to begin with was that I wanted to "suck in" readers right from the beginning, because I was worried that the main narrative took too long to get going and that people might get bored before getting to "the good part." I realized, though, that that was a sign that I should probably focus more on making the early section of the book more riveting in its own right, such that a more "grabby" prologue wasn't necessary.
...
After all that, though, I still thought that the writing itself came out pretty well, so I didn't want to see it go away entirely. Deciding to use it as a "teaser" before the book was released make it a little easier for me to go ahead and strike it from the book.
Hey hey Ricky! I just started reading Thousand Leaves (it came in the mail yesterday) and I couldn't resist reading the (unofficial, I suppose you might call it?) prologue.
Very exciting stuff so far! It's certainly a change of pace from the other furry novels I've been reading. I'm certain I'm going to love it :D
Also, I think you'll appreciate this little anecdote. My (straight, non-furry) roommate was excited to see what was in the package I ordered. I opened it up and showed him, and he said "Oh no... is that one of your raunchy fox novels?". Of course, the only appropriate response was to beckon him to read the back of the book. Upon reading it, he admitted that it did sound like an intriguing novel, but I think he was a little bit turned off by all the benzene rings XD
Thousand Leaves: Not Just Another Raunchy Fox Novel
Very exciting stuff so far! It's certainly a change of pace from the other furry novels I've been reading. I'm certain I'm going to love it :D
Also, I think you'll appreciate this little anecdote. My (straight, non-furry) roommate was excited to see what was in the package I ordered. I opened it up and showed him, and he said "Oh no... is that one of your raunchy fox novels?". Of course, the only appropriate response was to beckon him to read the back of the book. Upon reading it, he admitted that it did sound like an intriguing novel, but I think he was a little bit turned off by all the benzene rings XD
Thousand Leaves: Not Just Another Raunchy Fox Novel
Hey now! I'll have your roommate know that my roommate's not even close to being a raunchy fox novel. Heck, I don't even think any foxes ever get halfway-naked in the course of the narrative. :)
But nah, in all seriousness, thanks for checking out my book! I hope you like it, and I'd love to know what you think of it once you're done. I'm glad the premise was able to drum up interested for you.
As for the prologue here: well, it's not officially part of the book, but I do still consider these events that still "happened" as far as the story is concerned (and you can probably figure out where they'd go once you've read it).
But nah, in all seriousness, thanks for checking out my book! I hope you like it, and I'd love to know what you think of it once you're done. I'm glad the premise was able to drum up interested for you.
As for the prologue here: well, it's not officially part of the book, but I do still consider these events that still "happened" as far as the story is concerned (and you can probably figure out where they'd go once you've read it).
Hey now! I'll have your roommate know that my roommate's not even close to being a raunchy fox novel. Heck, I don't even think any foxes ever get halfway-naked in the course of the narrative. :)
But nah, in all seriousness, thanks for checking out my book! I hope you like it, and I'd love to know what you think of it once you're done. I'm glad the premise was able to drum up interested for you.
As for the prologue here: well, it's not officially part of the book, but I do still consider these events that still "happened" as far as the story is concerned (and you can probably figure out where they'd go once you've read it).
But nah, in all seriousness, thanks for checking out my book! I hope you like it, and I'd love to know what you think of it once you're done. I'm glad the premise was able to drum up interested for you.
As for the prologue here: well, it's not officially part of the book, but I do still consider these events that still "happened" as far as the story is concerned (and you can probably figure out where they'd go once you've read it).
I was telling another housemate of mine about this fabled non-pornographic furry novel called "Thousand Leaves". I handed him the book and he was flipping through it, and his eye caught the line
"Oh God!" the fox said in a panic... ...he looked like he could break the little vulpine in half
What an excellent line to be read out of context. Keep up the good work :)
"Oh God!" the fox said in a panic... ...he looked like he could break the little vulpine in half
What an excellent line to be read out of context. Keep up the good work :)
Comments