If This Character Had Listened to Its Author, It Would Be Dead

Major spoiler alert here.

If you’re planning on reading “The Politician’s Pawn,” then go away. Unless, of course, you’re the kind of person who can’t stand edge-of-your-seat possibilities and always skip to the end of your novels to make sure everything ends happily ever after. In that case, keep reading.

Everyone else, you’ve been warned. Here’s the major spoiler…

Main character Kayla was supposed to die at the end of the book. That’s how I intended it to be right from the beginning. I didn’t know how I was going to kill her, but it was going to happen. Why? Because I was sick of politics and politicians, and she and my readers were going to suffer for it.

So there!

I’d like to say that I matured or grew a conscience, or something noble like that. Except that’d be a big fat lie. I had no such change of heart.

Kayla just wouldn’t die.

It wasn’t until the second to last chapter that I realized the stubborn little thing was dead-set on surviving the worst D.C. – and I – had to throw at her. Like a swung election, I had no say in the matter, author or not.

Moreover, I had no say about writing a sequel. As I finished those last twenty or so pages, it dawned on me that the way “The Politician’s Pawn” was going to inevitably end wasn’t going to resolve much of anything. And if there’s anything I can’t stand in the world of writing, it’s a lack of resolution.

So “Moves and Countermoves” was officially begun.

The funny thing is that there’s so much about “The Politician’s Pawn” that was begging for a sequel. I don’t know how I could have been dense enough not to see it until the second to last chapter.

I suppose I was too busy running the show to see where the show was running.

I’m sure my creative muse got a good kick out of that. I can just see her lounging on my shoulder, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

“Silly author,” she might have said. “Who said you were in charge?”