This novel was my first sequel. I wrote it because there was still a lot of stuff the characters from DAMIANO wanted to say. While writing it I discovered that although the characters may be the same people who prodded one to write the first story, the narrative voice would never remain the same.
The narrative voice is the person who is actually telling the story, not to be confused with the writer’s name, or pseudonym. The narrative voice has its own vocabulary and syntax. In fact, it has its own views on the story, and the person who sits down at the keyboard has little to say in the matter. During first draft, nothing at all.
For me, the narrative voice wakes up after about thirty pages, which is why a book, even in crude first draft, has to be rewritten from the ending page and through the first section again, or else it seems the beginning was added on by a different, and less confident, writer.
The narrative voice in DAMIANO’S LUTE was edgier, more biting and less sentimental than the voice who wrote DAMIANO. Different influences took over, and some different musics – as it was set in different countries than the first.
I also killed off, not the dog this time, (I’d learned THAT lesson,) but the protagonist. It was the second volume of a three book series, but I killed off the main character. Both the characters and the story seemed to demand it of me. Besides, there were other major characters to take his place.
I think it was Sam Gamgee who first said this to me, about the story going on even though people drop out of it. But Sam himself didn’t invent the idea.
Funny – I didn’t get a single death threat about killing off my hero. He wasn’t, after all, a dog.