Sunday, April 14, 2013

Dan Wilds & David Wymack

+ What's on: Gothic Messiah, by Future World Music

All of the impossible things of the Foxhole stories, all of the liberties I've taken, all of the convenient, self-indulgent bloodbaths--and Wymack is still one thing I find the most unbelievable. In the best of ways, but still. He is probably the only positive father figure I will ever write.

I can't tell anymore how strong his presence is in the book; I've rewritten the trilogy so many times I can't always tell how much has been left on the cutting room floor. I read and reread but I read between the lines to the dozen-odd backstories, the hundred-odd scenes I've pulled and set aside. All I can do is hope he shines through as the one piece the Fox line cannot exist without.

One Fox in particular would be nothing and no one without him. I've always loved Dan & Wymack's relationship, but every draft pushes it further and further into the background. A couple years back I tried to write Dan's story for NaNoWriMo. I never got far, just barely far enough to win NaNo, and I regret that. I wanted not only to have a "girl power" sports story but to have more time to explore their relationship. It's too personal to be father/daughter, too devoted to be coach/captain. D.W. & D.W.

Also: Dan is also the only Fox who knows Wymack's story. Wymack and Neil touch on Wymack's family in Raven King, but only in passing. Dan is the only Fox Wymack's ever felt compelled to explain himself to in full.

Here's how they first met. It's a little rough, because I've never properly edited it, but. Also, it was written so long ago the timeline is off a little bit, but the general idea is still the same.