The Blackstone Chronicles (63 page)

Rebecca—and Edna Burnham—were staring at it too.

a cognizant original v5 release november 24 2010

Dear Reader,

   For the past year I have lived in Blackstone, New Hampshire. Never before has a town and its citizens become so real to me. Far more than characters in a novel, the people of Blackstone have become personal friends, and as I write these words I feel an emptiness inside of me. I don’t want to say good-bye to Rebecca and Oliver. I don’t want to look in my rearview mirror and see North Hill and the square disappearing in the distance. I will miss my meanderings inside the library, the
Chronicle
office and, yes, even the Asylum. I shall truly miss dropping into the Red Hen for a piece of pie (pecan, of course) and a good dose of gossip. In short, I’m not sure I want to leave. But the story is over. Or, at any rate, this part of the story is over.

Writing
The Blackstone Chronicles
has been a marvelous and challenging experience. I loved being able to create a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end in a hundred pages. It was a constant challenge to sustain the suspense over a six-month period, and it was delightful to get to know my characters so well. Many of them turned out to have facets to their personalities that I knew
nothing about at the beginning. And I thoroughly enjoyed bringing back characters and references from other books. It was like getting in touch with old friends—even if they were as troubled as Elizabeth Conger (who finally, after all these years, got what was coming to her!), and Melissa Holloway, whose future had worried me ever since the unfortunate events that occurred in Secret Cove in
Second Child
.

But there was also an underlying apprehension that was always with me. What would happen if I got ill and couldn’t finish the series? What if I created a plot problem in an already published part that couldn’t be resolved in a later part? There were times when I was editing one book, writing another, and proofreading a third. Federal Express and my modem received a real workout. Artwork had to be reviewed, maps drawn, and chronologies and genealogies updated constantly. I’m sure there are those who are still wondering why it was Charles Connally rather than Jonas Connally who built the mansion on the hill. Well, it seems I goofed in the first part, and said that Harvey’s father built it, when I should have said his grandfather did. But as I’ve thought about it, I suspect that this was not an error at all, and that the mansion was built as part of the schism between Jonas Connally and his children. I’m sure there is a story there, though I’m not yet sure what it is.

I thank my lucky stars that I had a stellar group of people working close to me. My editor, Linda Grey—to whom I have dedicated the series—was forever helping me out. My agent, Jane Rotrosen Berkey, was on call to review every book to make sure the stories were holding together. My friend, Mike Sack, who has been involved in my career from the very beginning, stood by as always
and kept me moving in the right direction. Also, with his expertise in psychology, he kept the denizens of the Asylum exquisitely maniacal. My staff, Robb Miller and Lori Dickenson, spent hours maintaining detailed files that kept track of the minutiae of the people, places, and things in Blackstone.

The production of a serial novel is a major undertaking for a publisher. Far more major, I suspect, than any of us knew a year ago. A lot of the company’s resources must be funneled into the project for a very long period of time. Ballantine/Fawcett as well as Random House stood behind the project all the way. Alberto Vitale, Chairman of Random House, was supportive from the start, when only he and Linda Grey knew what we were about to attempt. Within months, the group involved in Blackstone quickly grew. My copy editor, Peter Weissman, performed beyond the call of duty in keeping track of the details of Blackstone from one volume to another, ready to review each book on a moment’s notice, as did managing editor Mark Rifkin. The advertising and publicity departments worked many hard hours to get the word out that Blackstone was coming, and the sales force worked with every book outlet in the country to assure that each book would be on the stands when it was due, so we didn’t have different parts popping up at different times and in different places, creating chaos at the Red Hen.

The booksellers themselves performed yeoman service in making sure you could get each new part as quickly as it was released, which is no easy task when thousands of books arrive in their stores and warehouses every month.

Very special thanks go to Ellen Key Harris and Phebe Kirkham, who developed the Blackstone Web site and thereby provided many of us, myself included, with a
unique experience. The Blackstone site has become a regular hangout over the last six months, and it has brought an entire new dimension to the form of the novel. Some of you may have noticed that our favorite waitress at the Red Hen diner, Velma Perkins, didn’t appear in the first few books. That is because Velma was Ellen Harris’s invention, and I didn’t meet her until the rest of you did. By the time I’d dropped into the Red Hen a few times, Velma had become totally real to me, and soon she began showing up in the books. (I guess I stole her from you, Ellen. Sorry about that!) There are a few others I met at the Red Hen, new people who have moved to town and who are now working at the bank or assisting Oliver at his office, who aren’t mentioned in the books, but you know who you are, and know how much I’ve appreciated getting to know you. I hope all of you keep your ear to the ground, because I have a feeling there’s a lot more going on in Blackstone than any of us yet knows. As you can see, the Web site has brought you, my readers, close to me, and I have enjoyed being able to talk to you, not only at the Red Hen but through e-mail as well. The cyber-Blackstone added a whole new dimension not only to the experience of reading the novel but of writing it as well. I thank all of you who participated.

   Stephen King not only opened the door for me to write a serial novel but has also been incredibly supportive throughout. When I felt overwhelmed by the complications, he assured me that I’d get through it and all would
be well. I cannot express how much that support meant to me. Thanks again, Steve.

I know that there are a few minor errors that I made as I wrote the novel; errors I couldn’t go back to fix since the parts in which they surfaced were already published. At one point, we actually called the printer to change a word as one of the books was in the midst of being printed. Sometimes, though, I was just too late, and a few goofs got through. Apparently this is inevitable when a book is being published before the last word has been written. Or maybe it’s just that the renewal of the form is so recent that we haven’t quite figured out how to do it yet.

Many of you have asked if I will write another serial. The answer is yes—if the story is right for the format. Many of you have also asked if there will be more of Blackstone. All I can say at this point is that I had a ball writing
The Blackstone Chronicles
, and while right now I’m not positive of anything, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if sometime in the future you glance up at a book rack and see the shadow of a building sitting up on North Hill.

Thank you all for going on a six-month ride with me through the town of Blackstone. I only hope you’ve all enjoyed it as much as I have.

—J
OHN
S
AUL
Seattle, Washington

J
OHN
S
AUL’S
first novel,
Suffer the Children
, published in 1977, was an immediate million-copy bestseller. His other bestselling suspense novels include
In the Dark of the Night, Perfect Nightmare, Black Creek Crossing, Midnight Voices, The Manhattan Hunt Club, Nightshade, The Right Hand of Evil, The Presence, Black Lightning, The Homing
, and
Guardian
. Saul divides his time between Seattle, Washington, and Hawaii. Join John Saul’s fan club at
www.johnsaul.com
.