The Little Goddess, Unwrapped

I’ve gotten this e-mail from several people–and I feel bad. I wish I could just schwack a stickum or a post-it note or something and put it on every copy of every Little Goddess story I’ve put out so far, because, yeah. I know. It’s confusing. Because they’re coming from THREE different publishers, I can’t even list the different stories on the flyleafs of the novellas coming out. So when someone commented that the characters in “Guarding the Vampire’s Ghost” were “too much like the Little Goddess stories” I had no way of telling this reader that this was because they WERE THE SAME PEOPLE. I just wanted to tell a small part of the story from the point of view of someone that Adrian had helped. (Since Adrian made it a point of helping people as a vampire, it was only fitting that he kept it up in the afterlife, right?)

My overall concept for the Green’s Hill and Little Goddess stories is that Adrian, Green, Cory, and Bracken are the main players–in Wounded I described their actions like Guenevere, Arthur, and Lancelot. Their actions impact the kingdom, their mental and emotional health is the kingdom’s health, EVERYONE has a vested interest in seeing them happy.

But that doesn’t mean they’re the ONLY thing doin’ in the kingdom, right? Like I told one reader, think of it like a really big apartment building. Yeah–we’re interested in the really popular kids who own the place, but that doesn’t mean the shy people in 5B (like, say, Whim) don’t have really fascinating stories of their own.

So, since I have the pencils of “I Love You, Asshole” and will VERY SOON have the colored cover (and *EEEEEEEEEE* it’s going to be purty) I thought now was a good time to “unwrap” the timeline and the basic sense of main players in each series going down.

Let’s start with the basic timeline.

I Love You Asshole starts before Vulnerable and wraps up during Waiting
Litha’s Constant Whim starts before Vulnerable and wraps up during Rampant.
Vulnerable
Guarding the Vampire’s Ghost starts after Vulnerable and wraps up after Rampant.
Wounded
Bound
Yearning, Waiting, Reaching, Changing, Becoming
Rampant
Being.

Vulnerable, Wounded, Bound, and Rampant are the main Little Goddess books–they tell the story of Cory, Adrian, Green, and Bracken. The first three books are the first full length novels I’ve ever written–and they are self-published. The typos are annoying–I do have a re-edited version of Vulnerable but it is not yet published. I am working (SLOWLY) on the fifth Little Goddess book. Since these books in their entirety do not have a publisher, and since they’re pretty long for the publishing venues I’m working right now, this one is all me, and it’s all indie. I’m getting used to it that way:-)

I Love You, Asshole!, Guarding the Vampire’s Ghost, and Litha’s Constant Whim are the Dreamspinner Press novellas. “Ghost” deals with Adrian in the afterlife, “Whim” deals with Bracken’s little ‘brother’, and “Asshole” deals with Cory’s two second in command vampires (inherited from Adrian), Marcus and Phillip. The ending scene of “Asshole” is also a different take on a scene from Waiting, which leaves us to the Green’s Hill Werewolf novellas, my newest endeavor from Torquere Press.

Yearning, Waiting, Reaching, Changing, Becoming, and Being are the Green’s Hill Werewolf stories–they follow Jack, Teague, & Katy (who also show up in Rampant) as they are introduced into the hill and Teague becomes important to Lady Cory. The main hero in these stories is Teague–Teague is, in his own, tortured way, similar to Adrian (not TOO similar–but the way the things in his past have damaged him almost beyond repair is VERY haunting) and Green, Cory, and Bracken take it upon themselves to mentor Teague into the leader he could be. They lost Adrian because he came into his self-hood too late–they want to see a trio (like Green, Adrian, and Cory had been) live and thrive. It will heal something in them to know that this is possible.

I tried–and this is ALWAYS difficult, for any author out there who writes on a large scale– to give enough backstory so that the novellas could stand on their own. The Werewolf stories are dependent on EACH OTHER, but the reason I thought they could sell and do well independently, is because when they were posted on my website, MANY people wrote to tell me that the Werewolf stories were their introduction to Green’s Hill–and that they haven’t regretted it once.

“I Love You, Asshole” is coming out–and I love it very much a lot. I worry– Marcus and Phillip were big players in the big novels, and much of their romance happened “behind the scenes”–and reading it independently of The Little Goddess series is a lot like reading “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” without having read Hamlet–or at least the Cliff’s Notes version. Now, fortunately, “Ghost” and “Whim” and even the Green’s Hill Werewolf novellas are sort of like the Cliff’s Notes version–so I hope that helps. Either way, this world means a lot to me–and I’m grateful for every fan, every reader, every soul who has written me to tell me that they’ve been moved by it.

Now I just need to move my ass and get a little more done on Quickening, the fifth novel–we all deserve to see what happens next.