I love reading the works of authors with deep backlists, going back through time with them and seeing how their work changes, turns, and flourishes. Sometimes it contracts for a while, and then new life or new ideas suddenly flare, or they dig deep into a theme. Even though we, as readers, don’t know the author like a personal friend, we know them, in a way. We read the ripples at the top of their souls.
There are stories that can only be written in the after. Whatever that after is for the author. After growing older. After losing a loved one. After surviving. After witnessing something. After falling in love. After falling out of love.
Each story that I’ve ever written has only been possible because of an after. And many stories can only be written in a certain way as long as they are before whatever is coming. Sometimes I write with speed to capture something before I’m no longer the person that can pen those words. Words are said to make us immortal, but the formulation of words, the painting of stories, has made me acutely aware of existing in a river of life that flows through the ever-changing landscapes of oneself. So as I read the words of authors, I appreciate those words were caught in a moment and held still long enough for me to meet them.
Collin, my first serial in The Residency Boys Universe, was the result of so many afters. I love him as he was the moment he met Mr. Reevesworth in that cafe, confused and anxious, quietly desperate in a way he didn’t even recognize because it was his normal. I love him in every stage of his pain and confusion as he’s offered a place and a home, a dom and a sir, and lovers. I love him in his beautiful HEA. Collin is a love letter, to him, to myself, to my readers.
When I finished his arc and knew that the next cycle belonged to Damian and Jun, there was a little sadness, but also an understanding that I needed a few more afters to understand Collin’s next steps. I’d written myself dry and given him everything I had. But he’s growing again. There will be more love letters, woven into all the stories in which Collin appears and into his own episodes as they come.
Ciara Darren 