Previously I’ve talked about how Distant Horizon got its start as a role-play game between me and Isaac. Many plot points changed, but many stayed the same. In today’s post, we talk about how, in Fractured Skies, Jenna and Lance met Anna…
Who had a few changes along the way.
I’m pretty sure Anna started as a way for Isaac to keep my character, Jenna, from getting herself hopelessly captured. Let’s set the stage, shall we?
In the game, Jenna and Lance have returned to their hometown in search of her parents, who she knows might be in danger. Security guards have started to notice Jenna looks really familiar (she’s the granddaughter of a rebel leader, so they’ve been given her profile), there are a set of conspicuous mercenaries on her tail… and she is very good about demanding information in a not-so-subtle way. Not a good combination.
So Anna, an old friend from her high school, shows up and manages to (unintentionally) whisk Jenna and Lance to safety.
This despite shouting “Jenna! Lance! It’s you guys!” across the same room with said guards and mercenaries.
Needless to say, I can only assume the guards failed their notice rolls or smarts rolls.
Anyway, Isaac and I realized that wasn’t going to be very believable in the actual novel, so we made a few changes.
One, we gave Anna powers.
Surely Jenna and Lance weren’t the only one who didn’t take their daily pills in a huge city, right?
Two, we decided Anna isn’t an old friend… at least not that Jenna remembers… and that Anna knows more than she first lets on… allowing her to get them away from the guards a little more naturally while still arousing their suspicion as to her real intentions.
Here’s an excerpt from Fractured Skies:
One of the guards looked toward us—the one who had examined our IDs earlier, but before he could question us again, a young woman our age plopped into a seat across from me. She had shoulder length brown hair pulled into one of the few “stylized” cuts the Community allowed, and she wore a pale blue shirt and pale gray pants, nothing that stood out.
I blinked. “Uh… hello?”
“I can’t believe you’re back! Chris… Kate…” She propped her chin on her knuckles. “So good to see you again.”
I stared at her, dumbstruck. How did she know what our fake IDs said? Was she a Special Forces agent in disguise? A telepath?
Lance chuckled nervously. “I’m sorry. Do we know you?”
“Of course!” She laughed. “It’s me, Anna. Don’t you remember? We shared chemistry in high school.”
I tried picturing my classmates from chemistry, but honestly, I couldn’t remember more than a few of their faces. I certainly didn’t remember this “Anna.”
Lance and I exchanged glances. Quin seemed to be fast-talking the guards toward the exit, both groups too busy to worry about us. Was Anna a merc? If so, she fit in way better than the others.
She gave us a mischievous grin. “Now that you’re back, there’s a question everyone wants to know—are you two dating?”
I blinked. Why would anyone care about that?
Lance shrugged. “Sort of.”
I froze. What was he doing?
Anna’s eyes popped open. “Seriously? Oooo… just wait until I tell everyone! I told them it was bound to happen.”
“Yeah…” I shuffled uneasily in my seat, suddenly wishing we were dealing with the mercs. At least it was clear what they wanted.
“That’s so exciting!” Anna clapped her hands together and glanced over our shoulders. She quickly diverted her eyes back to us. “You should totally see my room here. It’s great. I’ve been living on my own ever since I moved from my parents’ house.”
“I’m not sure—”
“Sounds cool,” Lance said smoothly. “Why don’t we go check it out?”
I glared at him. What if this is a trap?
Lance flinched. “It’ll be fun,” he murmured, his voice forced.
Dear Community—
This flower charm was obnoxious. Technically, it was a telepathy artifact—artifacts were objects enchanted to mimic certain powers—and I’d accidently used it to project my thoughts. At least I had directed the thought rather than broadcasted it across the room. That would have been terrible. What if everyone thought they had theophrenia? I shoved the charm between my shirt and my coat, where I wouldn’t have to worry about accidently using it.
“Come on!” Anna grabbed us both by the wrists and yanked us from our chairs. Since I didn’t want to cause a scene and attract more guards, I didn’t resist. She dragged us through the hall and into an apartment room a bit bigger than our old dorm rooms combined. Her walls were covered in pictures of similar people with similar hairstyles—all smiling like cheerful leaders on cheesy self-help brochures, except these were beauticians’ posters.
If I took off my hat, it would be painfully clear I did not fit in.
Anna’s come a long ways from the original campaign.
Right now she only shows up in Fractured Skies, but she’s an example of some of the changes we made along the way. 😊
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Read the series that started as a role-play game…
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Happy reading and writing!
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 