As some of you may know, I’m currently working on draft 2 of Alpha (and simultaneously draft 3, as Dame Rinda’s critiques come in chapter by chapter), so I’m thoroughly immersed in my own world. These are just a few of the thoughts I’ve had about the Shifter series in the past couple of days. Please forgive the rambling…

Yesterday, to verify a small detail, I opened up one of my shiny new UK copies of Rogue to search for the necessary bit of information.

And I was stunned by how different most of the characters are, both from what I remembered, and from what they are now, in this last book in the series. I haven’t read much of Rogue since it came out a year and a half ago, and I can’t believe the difference. It’s not that I think Rogue is a bad book (I’m still proud of it, for that point in my career) or that I dislike the characters. I just couldn’t believe how much they’ve changed. How much it’s all changed.

(And at this point, I really wish someone other than Dame Rinda and I had read Shift, so you’d know what I’m talking about.)

For Faythe, I think it truly started in Pride(book 3), when she met Kaci and came face to face with Malone’s machinations for the first time. When she understood how far he was willing to go to put her where he wants her. And that the same goes for Kaci and Manx. That’s when Faythe’s fighting and rebellion gained true purpose. When she realized she could make a real difference.

And from that point on, the stories got darker. Faythe became much more fierce. The stakes got much higher and the risks much greater. She fights with everything she has now, so her losses are devastating. And as her career starts to fall in line, suddenly her personal life seems much less clear.

By the time we get to Shift, Faythe knows where she belongs in the Pride, and in the werecat community at large. She knows what risks she’s willing to take, and what lines she’s willing to cross. And she understands now that there are always choices, even if all of them are very, very bad.

She has political pressure, familial pressure, personal life pressure, and internal pressure from her own self-expectations. She’s grown up, and in many ways she’s grown hard, and there’s no going back from some of the toughest choices she’s had to make.

But Faythe’s not the only one changing. Recent events (if you’ve read Prey, you know what I mean) have changed the men closest to her, and by the end of Shift, readers (and Faythe) will understand that all of the characters are flawed. Some are victims of circumstance, others of their own poor choices, but no one has an easy path through these last two books and no one will emerge unchanged, or even unscathed.

Sometimes, in the rush of adrenaline, it’s easy to believe that the moments that define us are those experienced in the violent throes of revolution and brutal justice. (After all, Faythe certainly sees plenty of both.) But they’re not. We are defined by our moments of mercy. Of forgiveness. Of trust. By our willingness to let go of the past and face a new future with those we love, even when the path twists far beyond what we can see.

And that’s where I’m trying to take Faythe and her friends and family. But I have to say, so far it hurts to think of letting them go. They’ve been a huge part of my life for years now.

But everything has a season, right?

Related posts:

1. A reason to celebrate
2. Because time moves slower in novels…
3. New Cover!

Tags: Rachel Vincent

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