Author's Notes (02/07/2015) - More continued ramblings from a tired and deranged mind...
"Devil's Bargain" was my fourth story and is still one of my favorites. At the time it was the longest story that I had written and seemed to be the deepest. I hadn't planned on writing this story originally, but I was still working out if I was going to do a story of Faith and Michael's daughter which became "Spartan Inheritance".
When I first started writing this story (I still have the original drafts) I wanted to get deeper into the characters and I wanted to go darker. The original premise was that Michael would do anything to get back to his wife and daughter...at any cost. The first few chapters were the same, but I had Michael going to work for the Mayor and trying to keep the younger Faith safe. It was hard writing as the story line was going very dark at some points. Michael wasn't going to reveal who he was until late in the story. To give a hint of where it was going, Angel would get "dusted" and Buffy would get badly injured. The relationship with Faith was rougher and more complex and I had Michael basically assuring that Wilkins would ascend with no interference. The vampires would slaughter everyone at the graduation ceremony with no Buffy or Angel around and Michael wouldn't interfere as a part of his deal. In the end there would be a finally confrontation and Faith would try to stop the Mayor and she would get killed and a badly injured Michael would kill the Mayor (in an earlier draft... Michael would nuke Sunnydale {again} to stop the Mayor).
I had the beginning of my story and end of my story, but I still had to write the middle part that would have Michael descending into darkness... The problem was the more I thought of it, the more I was bothered that I couldn't see Michael doing some of these things... He was doing all these things to get home and he had no consequences... (look honey, I just helped to kill hundreds of innocent people and now I'm home with my family). This was a Spartan that fought to protect the human race and now he was turning his back on them... I couldn't see how Michael could live with himself and his family afterwards.
It didn't feel right and the story didn't flow smoothly. He would do anything to protect Faith and Adriana, but the more I thought about it the more it seemed that he would figure some way to deal with the situation...
So after that I went back to the drawing board, keeping most of the early chapters and taking some ideas and dialog from the later chapters and started again. It took awhile but I eventually finished the story and I was happy with the results.
If there was anything to be disappointed about the story was that it wasn't read and reviewed as much as my other stories. I guess one of the reasons I like this story the most was that (the original version) was the first time I felt I had grown as a writer and was getting more out of my character and plot development. The story seemed deeper and fuller than my previous stories.
Again as in my previous notes you are probably asking, "Why are you rewriting this story again? Haven't you had enough?'
The simple answer is...no. I enjoyed writing this series so much. Developing the characters can make it hard to say good-bye. After "Spartan Inheritance" was finished, I swore to myself that I was done with this series and would go back to work on my original novel (which I have done some - first four chapters are now posted on my DeviantART gallery page).
As I have said before, I am rewriting some of my stories, so I can print off into book format and that is still my plan.
As I have said before, if you had a chance to read my original version of "Devil's Bargain", I am sure that you can read/see the difference between both versions in terms of story content, style and format as I switched from the 1st person to 3rd person perspective.
This was my last story that I wrote using 1st person perspective. I will be going back and reviewing "Into the Breach" and "Spartan Inheritance" but that will be more for doing some editing and clean-up to tighten those stories.
To all those that have had read the original version of "Devil's Bargain", please take a look and let me know what you think of this "new" version. Hopefully I haven't disappointed those people who had previously favorited and followed this story.
I hope (and think) with this rewrite that I have made this a deeper and richer story that you can enjoy.
I want to say a most appreciative THANK YOU to you for reading my stories. I also want to say a another THANK YOU to all those that favorited, followed my stories or me and also sent me messages and posted comments.
Even though the Faith/Michael storyline is over (for now...who knows what the future may bring), please do not hesitate to drop me a message with comments or questions. For those of you that aspire to write, I encourage you to write. Do it because you want to. It doesn't matter what you or anyone else thinks. If you have a story to tell...then tell it. I will end off with the words that my instructor in my writing course told us "You are all better writers than you think your are... You will always be your own worse critic."
All the best :-)
PS: Take a look at my poll on my profile page. Let me know which of my stories you liked the best.