Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: I love writing the Strange Days of Odyssium series...but it is one of the more challenging things I do in this little universe of mine. First, a brief recap for those jumping onboard. The Strange Days series follows Croe Kidson, a "head-in-the-clouds" sort of kid at the threshold of so-called adulthood who's dreamed of a life working on the ocean. However, a sudden turn of bad luck that turned up during his brief appearance in THE 13th PARAGON Part I: SCRAPPER has more or less pulled up a couch and made itself comfortable.
Despite this, Croe took to the sea to give it one more chance in SQUIRM (from IN DARKNESS AND LIGHT: Odyssium Collection Volume 1), but that went about as nightmarishly bad as you can imagine. Heck, even in the real world, Croe's been getting the shaft. He had a bit part in THE 13th PARAGON Part II: FROM ASHES OF EMPIRES, but some big jerk went and cut him out of it when the book got revised a few years back.
Yes, you.
Now, here we are with KNOCK-KNOCK, and poor Croe is land-bound, living with his dad, and working food delivery. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's safe to say Croe's big dreams are...a little smaller these days.
At a glance, the Strange Days series must sound like a downer, or maybe even sadistic as we watch life beat this hapless dude into submission. Far from it. Strange Days is where the Odyssium series lets its hair down and gets a little weird. These odd, ODD things keep happening to Croe, and its only this kid's ever-replenishing wellspring of perseverance that keeps these comedies from becoming tragedies.
I say the Strange Days series is tougher to write because of its tonal shift. I'm never going for outright comedy in them since I'm not sure that's among my strengths as a writer, so I cop out instead and just go for an off-kilter tone that's lighter and stranger than my normal fare. Perhaps because of that, KNOCK-KNOCK is one of the two stories in this collection where I could have gone on tweaking it until the end of time. Like I tell my son, there's no such thing as perfection, and if I kept striving for that, this collection would never see the light of day.
So, that's KNOCK-KNOCK: Strange Days of Odyssium Volume II. Oh, and WHAT LIES BETWEEN released this week, so hop onto Amazon, buy a copy, and support your local (or not so local) indie author!
Till next time, take care.
-C