Hello, family, fans, and friends!
With the successful release of "Ginger & Klaus: A Brittle Liberty" back in July and the upcoming release of "Ginger & Klaus: A Hitch in the Harvest," I thought it would be fun to share some facts about the second and third books. I believe that some of these are interesting, some are funny, and some are just plain weird. Here we go!
I. Ginger & Klaus: Of Mice and Love
- The book's subtitle was nearly "The Elusive Valentine." I felt that was a little too magniloquent, so I spent some time thinking of an alternative subtitle. At the time, my wife was reading "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck. I thought, "Well, my book is about mice and Ginger's love for one mouse in particular...." I decided to go with "Of Mice and Love," as the reference to such a famous work also felt right. Plus, I knew that Ginger's love would not be reciprocated in the end, whereas Klaus's and Ingrid's love for each other is mutual.
- Originally, I planned for Molasses to fall in love with Agapa. I changed my mind for two reasons: one, because I believed that the plot would become spread too thin; two, because I liked the idea of Agapa being more of a personification of love and the catalyst for others to fall in love, rather than being one who could find romantic love herself.
- Most of the stories I write are pretty well outlined in advance, but the beginning of chapter two--in which Ginger and Molasses lead the other Cookies of Theo in repairing a bridge--came to me spontaneously. This was a major decision for me to execute, because I could either continue the micro-view of Ginger, Molasses, and Klaus, or I could expand into a macro-view of the other cookies. My idea from the beginning has been to write seven books in this series, and I knew that sticking to the micro-view was not feasible. We need to see how other cookies relate to Mr. Theo in the long run. I hope to explore certain themes and storylines involving these other cookies in the future. Are all of them truly Cookies of Theo? Are some among them impostors? Maybe there are some who think they are following Mr. Theo, but they end up turning away, toward their own selfish desires! I think including other cookies opens up many opportunities.
- I juggled the idea of having Agapa sacrifice herself in the almond orchard at the end of the book. This did not sit right with me, as Agapa was a new character, she seems to be a solid companion for Molasses, and because I had an inkling of an idea that she would one day cause Ginger to fall in love with the right individual (spoilers, kind of, maybe).
- This book was much more challenging to write than "A Christmas Adventure," and not only due to its greater length. In "A Christmas Adventure," Ginger goes on a quest to stop her brother. The townspeople are at risk if she does not stop him. She has a clear enemy and a clear goal, and the stakes are high. In "Of Mice and Love," there is a little more nuance: the greatest enemy of the story is not Shol or Limerence, but Ginger's own unholy desires; the goal is to reach a location before sundown; only the lives of three mice are on the line. I also had to convincingly show the growth of Ginger's affection for Klaus in just five chapters!
- King Shol was named thus for two reasons: "Shol" is a minimal pair with "Saul," the corrupt king of Israel immediately preceding David; and "Shol" sounds a lot like the Hebrew "sheol," which is used to refer to "death" or "the grave."
- Agapa was named thus because of the Greek work "agape," which means "love." I ended it with the letter "a" to give the word a more feminine slant.
- Limerence was named thus because of the word's definition in Collins Dictionary: "a state of mind resulting from romantic attraction, characterized by feelings of euphoria, the desire to have one's feelings reciprocated...." Of course, this is Ginger's great struggle in the book. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/limerence#google_vignette
- In the first book, I had not given names or personalities to any cookies besides Ginger and Molasses (Reinhard the reindeer cookie also makes an appearance, but he was unnamed at the time). Therefore, I originally portrayed the two cookies who help Molasses lift the window as "gingerbread men." I decided later that I wanted these two "generals" who had served Molasses to be brother and sister, and to have the names "Sugar" and "Clove." The idea was for them to be living examples of what Ginger and Molasses would have looked like had they never been redeemed by Mr. Theo. Sugar and Clove are "shadow images" of Ginger and Molasses and warnings to them against walking down the wrong path.
- My original plan was to ramp up the action in chapter 4 by having an epic battle take place. While Ginger, Klaus, Molasses, and Agapa were traveling, they were going to take a rest in a bare area and start a small campfire to keep warm. Several of King Shol's mice followers were going to jump out from the grass or bushes and attack them. Molasses was going to fly into a rage and start bashing mice left and right with his mace, and Ginger was going to remind him of his new nature and the dangers of his old life. As I went into chapter four, however, it did not seem logical for King Shol to lure Klaus to a yard and also command his followers to kill Klaus on the road. I figured that Shol would prefer Klaus to waste away or be made a spectacle for his insurrection. Also, I thought it a better idea to highlight Ginger's shortcomings this time around as opposed to Molasses's flaws; having Molasses go berserk and be chided by Ginger would not help accomplish that goal. Instead, I flipped my original idea on its head and had Molasses chide Ginger for falling in love with Klaus. I also decided that it was better to revisit the sneaky Cupid cookie who had attacked Ginger at the end of chapter 1, thereby reinforcing this as a Valentine's Day story and giving the new villain a face and a name.
The book was almost titled “A Brittle Independence,” but I thought the tongue twister of “A Brittle Liberty” was too much fun to pass up. Also, the words “brittle” and “liberty” are almost anagrams!
I had an inner debate as to whether Sugar or Clove would die at the end. I felt that Clove was a bit more unhinged, and that he would be a more dangerous antagonist in the future if his sister were to be killed, so I decided that it would be best for Sugar to die. I also have other ideas with Clove and how Molasses relates to him.
In 2019, singer and songwriter Marty Sampson—former singer of Hillsong, a band I was once very much obsessed with—announced his apostasy on social media. I was shocked, as he had been something of an idol to me for many years, and I even strove to match his singing prowess. It is because of this man’s apostasy that I had the gingerbread man, Crumble, join Frostina in rebelling against Molasses and rejecting his leadership. In book two, Crumble had shared a tale that he had learned to sing songs to Mr. Theo by listening to the birds on Mount Oniz. In “A Brittle Liberty,” it is stated that Crumble taught songs of praise to his fellow cookies. Molasses asks himself something along the lines of, “If someone like Crumble could fall, who is exempt from that danger?”
Weeks before I had finished the book, I knew that Ginger and Klaus would not escape until the final chapter. It was important for me to relay the message that things often don’t happen according to our timing or our plan. There are even times in life when it appears that a door has opened—when our gumdrop button keeps the cell door from closing all the way, and we think that the coast is clear and that the time of waiting is over—and we “jump the gun” and dash out of our cell…only to find that there is more waiting to do.
In my original outline of the book, Limerence was going to be killed at the end of chapter two. Although having the story unfold this way would not have had an immense impact on the ending, I also wanted to plant seeds for future stories. One of the ideas I wanted to tap into early on was, “Are all of the cookies on Mount Oniz truly obedient to Mr. Theo?” Spoiler alert: no. There needed to be something that happened that would create a schism between some of the cookies and serve as the catalyst for some cookies to turn away from the faith. I believed that Molasses making the unilateral decision to release Limerence was a good way to go about this. I also have some significant plans for Limerence himself.
In the first draft of chapter one, Clove used a power screwdriver to drill a hole in Ginger’s arm. This felt a bit off and a bit too violent, but I was going to keep it in until I came to the end of chapter four. I thought that it would be perfect if the Colony Behind the Cabinets captured Clove and found Klaus’s knife on him, and that the knife was returned to Klaus at the end of the book. I returned to chapter one and swapped the screwdriver for the knife.
