Chumpty Dumpty : The Final Word

First of all, the third book is published and ready for order. You can find it in the bookstore now.

Speak of, I hope the new layout of the bookstore is working okay? It will look different depending on if you are on mobile, tablet, or desktop, and sometimes the scrolling buttons need a second click to get going. I dunno. I like the look of it better than the old one, but the functionality is bit of a step down, I think.

As for Chumpty Dumpty, it’s finally done. All of it. I said goodbye last night to Chumpty, Art, Betty and an assortment of other characters they found along the way.

I’ve had to say goodbye to characters before; it’s part of finishing a book. I remember when I finished the six-part King Arthur series, thinking how hard it was to say goodbye to Merlin. It’s probably why I keep bringing him back in subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) ways in other books. Still, it’s tough when you fall in love with a personality to write the last word that will express it.

In this case it’s was doubly-hard because the core-trio of characters at the heart of this story weren’t made solely by me. Chumpty, Art, and Betty came, originally, from the combined mind of me and my friend Phillip. I won’t retread the story of how I pitched Chumpty Dumpty to him, laid out the big picture, and then worked with him over a furiously-paced two day stretch to write the screenplay. Suffice to say, there’s as much him in those three as there is me. Saying goodbye to them was like saying goodbye to Phillip all over again.

The second and third books in the trilogy were done entirely by me, but Phillip’s name remains on the cover because those characters wouldn’t exist with the quirks and personalities they have without him. Phillip was the one who said Betty should be the natural leader, Chumpty should the reluctant one who is braver than he knows, and Art should be the one surprises us. We wanted Chumpty to obviously grow over the story but we wanted Art to grow in the background, making his heroic action in the end (when he conquers his fear of heights) a surprising act. All that I tried to bring out as I fleshed out our screenplay into a novel.

I tried to evolve those character traits in the two sequels, asking myself what internal and external challenges I could put the trio through in order for them to grow and develop beyond the story Phil and I first told. I think the two I wrote worked out okay; I know I was always cognizant of Phil and his writing style, which was very different from my own. I tried to be a bit more saccharine and put the emotions a bit more on the sleeve than I might otherwise do; that’s Phil’s lingering influence, and it’s what I loved most about writing these books and what I’ll miss the most as I lay them to bed for good.

Who knows, I might get the itch to write a book or three about the Fairy Defenders.

Time always tells.