Here it is! This is the short story that started it all. Remember, I didn't write this.

But this is where the concept of Sajani first appeared and this is the character concept I was given for writing the novels. You can see I made a lot of changes. Sajani is a wolf. Sahja was a human. Sajani is tall. Sahja was short. Sajani has a very dry sense of humor. Sahja loves puns. You can see that Sahja was a sailor even though you know from book one (and two and three and four and five) that Sajani doesn't really like ships and didn't even know proper nautical terms until she acquired the Wisp.

The story was submitted to a Pathfinder Chronicles contest where it won an honorable mention. Having read the stories that beat it out, I'm a little puzzled. The lower rating swore my publisher off writing more, since the winners were shallow stories with flat characters. The top winner didn't even have a plot.

Next week will be the first of the deleted scenes. It's not as exciting as the actual stories, but I'm trying to keep posts regular. (Speaking of staying regular, there's an achievement in World of Warcraft with that title: proof that I'm not alone in raising small boys.)