An acquaintance who had never read any of the Riley King books was looking for something to peruse on vacation, so I gave him a copy of ‘Beware of Darkness’.
He was reluctant to accept it. “I’m sure it’s good and all,” he said. “But shouldn’t I start at the beginning of the series? I hate to jump in this late. I won’t know any of the characters.”
I told him what I tell everyone who asks. Every book is self contained and I try to include enough backstory so that the novice can get up to speed in a hurry.
Of course, this can present problems. “Darkness’ includes characters from the first King book, as well as folks who have dropped in at various times. For the steady fans of the series, too much backstory gets in the way of the narrative. Indeed, upon reading the first draft of ‘Darkness’ my wife made that observation. Extensive re-writes followed to the point where I feel there is just enough re-capping, but not so much as to ruin the momentum of the new story.
Even longtime readers of King forget past events. A dirty little secret is that authors forget as well. Were Jaime’s eyes green or blue? Her hair brown or auburn? And how did you spell the last name of McCullough?
Frequently, even in the course of writing a chapter, I have to refer back to a previous one to check a detail. Other writers I speak with confess to the same issues. It seems unimportant in a lot of cases, but readers expect the ‘canon’ to stay true. Think of the Star Trek films that ignore things that happened in the earlier vintages.
Writers know they can always rely on eagle-eyed readers to pick these inconsistencies up. They are the best editors, when it comes to your characters. In some ways, they know them better than the writers do.
