SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Do NOT read if you have not read chapter 19. Turn back now! Read the chapter first!
The truth: Chapter19 did not exist in the original plot. In the original plot, at the end of 18, after witnessing the transformation of the Sheriff, Rugby Boy steps outside the building, lights up a nervous cigarette, and suddenly has a gun to his head. It’s the Lieutenant, who utters a “take me to your leader” type statement and that’s where the chapter ended – not a Variant in sight.
Around the time I was writing chap 14/15, I realized I wasn’t going to have an opportunity to show off Vernon’s Variant power(s). I had plotted instances for the other two, but nothing was revealing itself to me as the moment to use Vernon. It was driving me crazy – why create a character I wasn’t going to use? Why was he even there?
I really wanted the Variants in West Virginia, with my seemingly merry little band of rebels, but I didn’t know how to get them there. I’d had some initial thought – long before I’d even considered a plot move – that the Great One wouldn’t understand or “like” the Variants, because they weren’t “pure,” and he wouldn’t allow them to participate in the Seeding. (Maybe he’d even reject them?)
But that made less sense than him using their powers to his benefit, which was way more in character for a Great One. So I began formulating this idea that they’d be “spies” for him, or some sort of secret weapons – it took me a while to convince myself I wasn’t forcing this idea, by the way, almost up to the point of writing it – because the three of them so clearly need adult supervision. And I don’t much like Mr. Mac – I find him to be a little creepy.
As far as I’m concerned, replacing Mr. Mac with Joe Lenoldi made the whole thing work. The sexual tension – the boys wanting it and Joe constantly rejecting it – gives me a level of humor and lightness we need at this stage of the story – and discovering that even though they’re a bunch of sex-hound twinks, they’re very confident in the knowledge and use of their powers. They really think of their powers as no big deal.
Whereas I still thought the whole “go to WV, use your powers and bring me the Sheriff” thing was a bit contrived, it worked. AND it would allow me to demonstrate Vernon’s powers (or at least the threat of Vernon’s powers) by putting Rugby Boy in danger – only to have Rugby Boy SAVED by the Lieutenant, instead!
So it was really a matter of restructuring chap 17 to include the Variants’ Mission (rather than ending on the HAIL GREAT ONE chant).
One does have to forgive them making a normal 19-hour drive across four states in less than 12 hours overnight – (especially when it took them multiple chapters to travel half as far earlier in the book) – but there are bigger hurdles for our suspension of disbelief in this story than that, so I’m pretty sure you’ll forgive me.
So, chapter 19 was birthed out of all that. I wanted to give the Variants a scene relating to Joe and then loop back in time and get the arrival of the soldiers, who are just in time to save Rugby Boy from Vernon’s clutches. Although it worked, the chapter was a little bit light, so I concocted the Tully/ Scientist scene in the middle – and the only information left for them to discover was the escape of the Soldiers, the little good it would do them to know it.
The characters all enter chapter 20 as it was already plotted – with one minor alteration in motive. (I’ll explain that when we get there.)
Now, it may seem upon reading 19, that the pace slows down – and it does, a bit – but in reading the ENTIRE series, I think 19 gives us a breather between one big event and another and perhaps lulls us into a false sense of security, as well.
