Happy Blog Day Everyone!
Today is a special day as I get to tell you that you can go and get Brennan and Riz Volume 2 right now! (Click here to get yours!). With it's release I want to talk about a tricky little thing called, continuity...
But first, the weekly comic!
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
This wasn't the Comic I'd intended to present this week. I looked through the script I'd prepared and realised two things. First, as written it would undermine the characters. Yes, these strips aren't serious but they hold true to themselves, while what I'd written, would have pushed further till that 4th wall broke down. Secondly, it committed a grave sin, it just wasn't funny.
With those factors, I shelved that particular script till I could make people smile with it. In its absence, I had to quickly brainstorm a new idea, and a simplish one at that. This is how Valarie’s Tips and Tricks was born.
As always, please excuse the quality, and the fact its crooked.
Anyway, onto Volume 2!
Brennan and Riz: Volume 2
That's right, 10 more Brennan and Riz short stories have been bundled up and re-released into the wild.
Wait...
Re-released?
Yes, it's true, these aren't brand new tales (though they probably will be to most people). Aside from Yeti in the Snow, all the other stories are taken from Harvey Duckman Presents anthologies 1-9. While it doesn't help people who already own those copies of Harvey Duckman, it does mean that people who just want the Brennan and Riz stuff, can get their fix. My original plan had been to release all the Harvey Duckman stories in a volume called The Harvey Duckman Files (go figure) letting the original stories have the spotlight. Honestly my publisher's approach is probably easier.
Anyways, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about tonight. What I wanted to discuss is continuity.
In the beginning, there was no such thing as a set order for the Brennan and Riz stories, they could all be read independently...Except that this has never been true. In the first 3 shorts (Girl in the Water, Goblins in the Tunnel, Ghosts on the Moor) all have Brennan living in his car. He only moves into the Office we all know and love in the 4th short story, Violinist in the Basement (which floats some of Brennan’s childhood to the reader). This isn't a drastic example of continuity, just a welcome one as the recommended list is simply the stories in order #1 to #10. Then came The Yeti in the Snow (the last short story to be numbered before Volume 2 came along). This short again was to be stand alone, till I mentioned Brennan’s mother in it. You see, this was the last short I wrote before embarking on Nanowrimo 2018, where I'd complete the very first draft on A Boy and A Rat...It largely still works on its own but is enhanced with having read the novel. This isn't a bad thing, but shows we're edging slowly to the point where prior reading was going to be an advantage.
Then the American Trilogy happened, while the three don't reference each other, they still were designed to be read one after the other (that way I wouldn't have to keep explaining why they were in America despite living in the UK). I suppose you could read them out of order, as long as you don't get hung up on why they're in the states...
This came to a head with the story for Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 8 (now #19 in Volume 2), where on thinking up a reason as to why the Japanese spirit comes calling to little old Teesside, I decided to bring Gallows in. Now, I tried to give him an introduction, but it's nothing compared to his origin in the A Boy and A Rat.
Floodgates were open at this point, even the stories I was working was drawing on the first novel and setting things up for the second novel! I'd gone off the deep end.
I've managed to claw some of this back (2nd novel being scrapped and restarted has helped). Only two of the newly written shorts mention Gallows or mention anything from A Boy and A Rat. Thus, if I had to do a reading list, it'd be publication order, with reading A Boy and A Rat between #18 and #19...A simple change really!
Well, I waffled a lot there but while I would like everyone to read all my work, I do want people to know that except a couple of instance so far, that the stories can be read in any order.
That's all for this week.
Keep on writing!
Peter James Martin
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