Destiny’s Gambit: The Book that Almost Was

So, today I want to muse about a book I almost wrote as the seventh installment in The Adventures of Sam Hain: Destiny’s Gambit. That’s right, the original plan for the book that became Carmilla’s Gambit was to focus on Destiny’s mental and emotional struggles with her past as she returns to the field to rescue Sam from Dracula’s clutches. (That’s not a spoiler for Carmilla’s Gambit; it’s literally the plot point mentioned on the back cover). So, let’s talk for a bit about what was originally planned.

I’ve mentioned before the original plan for the series was an episodic serial where each book was its own independent story, and I’ve largely maintained that feel. Yes, the first seven books have had an arc that I would describe as a “season’s plotline,” and that’s the most I’ve ever wanted the series to have as an ongoing narrative. I want the series to be something that readers can pick up an individual book if it suits them or can read the whole series. I want them to read the whole series, but some books may align with a particular reader’s interests more than others do. I recognize that.

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Once I realized I was building toward something, I went back to Liam’s Doom, where it all began, to see what I could work toward in the long-term. And the one aspect of that story that stood out was the trauma Destiny Grimm struggled with as a result of her first case as an agent of the Veiled Knights of Wilhelm and Jakob, a case where there was no choice but to end the threat a werewolf posed to the populace of Berlin, but in so doing, she realized she had killed someone younger than she was at the time. And so, I built toward that, baby steps—her providing intel and doing field research, her moving to do recon work, and then…we hit the point of no return.

And I started to plan out how it would go. Sam would get captured. Carmilla would ask for help. Destiny would struggle with the decision for at least one full chapter. And then, knowing she would risk major punishment for violating international law, she would venture into Dracula’s castle to save Sam. The plan was for it to play out like a stealth mission of infiltration, assassination, and extraction. And the logical end to that was Destiny’s imprisonment for violating the law (execution was stayed due to her father’s actions, but a father’s love and use of his political power can only go so far).

I knew it would be a downer of an ending, but it would push the series in what I thought would an interesting direction. And I was satisfied with it.

However, sometime between The Magician’s Child and Blue Moon, the thought crossed my mind that I set up a perfect arc in Carmilla’s Ghost. Yes, in that second-chance, Gothic, Hallmark Christmas Romance/Murder Mystery, I set up a better and more fitting end to the arc. What end was that: a woman wrongly accused of a death she didn’t commit, forced into an arranged marriage to preserve her family’s honor where she was tortured and humiliated, struggled to free herself and build a life for herself after her escape, finds love once more, and then becomes the object of obsession for the vengeful, petty little warlord who tried to destroy her to solidify his own power and authority.

And so, instead of Destiny’s solo stealth mission, I began planning Carmilla’s revenge. And the novel maintained some of the ideas from its original plan, but it became one of forming and maintaining political alliances when one leader goes severely rogue. So, it became an urban fantasy/political thriller dealing with how vampire politics would begin impacting the modern world (which will be far more apparent in the next few books).

And I’m happy with the change. I think it ultimately made for a better story and for more interesting worldbuilding that I can play with in the future. It might be a while before I begin working on the next book, because I do have to figure out some implications for the changes to the world before I move forward. But I have an idea, and the direction will lead to a major confrontation within the next two books where at least one main character will not survive.

In the meantime, I’m working on my second Louisiana Gothic novel, and this one will be personal and dark.

That’s all I have for this post. If you want to check out Carmilla’s Gambit, it’s available now all over the internet! Please buy from independent booksellers if you possibly can. Let’s all support each other instead of the major corporations.

-Robin