Tag: Battlecry Series

you mentioned a few weeks ago that someone was going to die in Mercury but you changed your mind? what was originally going to happen?

emeralddodge:

Reid was on the chopping block for a long, long time. In fact, I’d planned to kill him up until I was writing the hospital chapters in Mercury. 

What happened was that I felt that both Ember and the Fischer brothers had been through enough tragedy. Ember, while a total butthead in the book, deserved her happy ending. The Fischer men had a ridiculously hard path in life. At the end of it all, Reid’s death wouldn’t have had the same punch because it would’ve been just one more sad thing for those characters. 

But someone had to die, which I why I went the direction I did.

How could you do that to Abby and Eddy???? I’m literally in tears 😭😭😭 (also I hope you’re doing okay! I noticed you haven’t been on)

emeralddodge:

I’m doing better now. 🙂

Those deaths were some of the hardest lines I’ve ever had to write. I am very fond of Abby, and killing her was excruciating. But the truth is that I didn’t know what to do with them. I’d played with the idea of having them move overseas to be tigers together, but that felt odd in the context of my otherwise-gritty books, almost like a fairytale ending for a couple whose lives were decidedly not fairytale-like. I hate it when other authors do that.

So when I decided to spare Reid, I looked at the other characters, because someone had to die in the finale. Jillian was never going to die. Obviously I wasn’t going to kill Marco, whom I based on my real-life younger brother. Ember was going to live if Reid did. I couldn’t kill the narrator. Reuben had been through enough, and I’d never do that to Gabriela.

That left the star-crossed lovers. Even the brave and beautiful die in war.

Will Jill and Gregory ever make up?

emeralddodge:

I think, one day, Gregory will pull his head out of his butt and show up on Jillian’s doorstep with his hat in his hands. I don’t know what will make him see the light; perhaps his sister’s constant presence on television, or maybe a dishy tell-all written by a former superhero will finally make things click. Maybe Dean will find him and talk some sense into his head. 

Mercury, ch. 23-26. You basically ripped out my heart and stomped on it for four chapters. I told my mom about it and she agreed with me that authors have no soul. So, uh, I guess you achieved your goal?

emeralddodge:

Seriously though, I think Mercury is my favorite installment of the series. It was so cool to have Benjamin’s POV for a whole novel, and I loved the scene from Marco’s POV. As always, your characters are so compelling and believable and the pacing and tension are just perfect. There were a lot of twists, but they kept up the excitement rather than feeling contrived. I’m kind of sad it’s over, but what a great conclusion! I’m looking forward to your next series. 😀

Thank you so much!!! I’m doing a huge overhaul on the first few chapters of The Sea of Lost Souls today, and then I’m chugging ahead into brand new material later this week. My first big change: I’m switching narrators.