Every once in a while something you do turns out different from what you imagined, and it’s time for what we used to call out when I was a kid: I Call Do-Overs,” meaning you want to take a second shot at the target, another chance to make things the best they can be.
Such a situation has become necessary in my writing. My debut fiction novel, Phoenix Flower, is in need of a rewrite; not because it isn’t as good as it should be—because it is that good. Phoenix Flower was so inspiring, for me the author, it has opened my thinking to a greater purpose. Phoenix Flower will be rewritten to become one piece of a trilogy, working title The Barcan/Nomás Divergence. Of course, any rewrite opens the opportunity to enhance the original story in addition to making it fit cleanly into the complexities of a multiple-novel trilogy.
After Phoenix Flower was released, I received several notes and messages asking me for more information about the origin story of the Nomás tribe, and how the Barcans came to absolute power. At the time, I was also thinking that I might want to expand the story, to include the early days and the beginnings of Barca Corporation and how it grew to become an evil technocracy. It was a story that called to me, so much that I made the decision to answer, and Utopia’s Edge was born.
So, this might be a message to those of us who create - writers, artists, musicians, even entrepreneurs. Just because you created it, and declared it to be complete and finished, doesn’t mean there is no room for change - even significant change, as long as it’s for the better, or for a necessary purpose. Go for it.
