Zack was an asshole. No, really...

So, a lot of you know that Seek is Zack's story.  For those of you not familiar, I've been writing this story since I started the Pierce Securities series.  He was initially book three, and he didn't come, so I moved him back to book four.  I kept bumping him back until he ended up being book seven.  SEVEN!  There weren't even initially seven books planned for this series.

What happened?

My brain happened.

So, if you've read the Pierce series, you know Zack is visually impaired.  I have a cousin who is also visually impaired, and so I bought him a twelve pack of beer, invited him over, and interviewed him.

My cousin is a funny guy, so I warned him I would be basing some characteristics off him for Zack as well.  You know.  This is a writer thing, giving characters flaws, humor, quirks, stuff like that.  It makes for interesting stories yes?

Well, Zack's story was crap.  I wrote it.  I sent it to some critique partners, and they ripped it to shreds.  Like.  to.  shreds.  It was awful.

In my own form, I put it away and worked on something else.  I wrote some more Pierce Securities, I wrote another series, and meanwhile, my cousin is telling the WORLD I'm writing "his book", like it's a biography or something.  *sigh*

I told him to quit doing that.  I had to tell my husband to quit referring to it that way, as "his" book, all of it.  It got to where I couldn't even think about Zack or Seek or this fracking book in any way, shape, or form.  I had my brother calling with advice and he doesn't even read my books.

It just got to where everybody knew I was writing it, and everyone had something to say about it, and NOTHING worked with what I had going on inside my head.  From my critique partners, to my family, to random strangers emailing for this book in particular, EVERYONE wanted a piece of it.

And I have no idea what happened.  It was like I just woke up one morning with the solution, and I fixed it.  Seek happened.  I was so nervous when I sent it out again, because I was afraid the feedback would cripple me again, and I'd be stuck again and have to start all over.

But no.  For some reason, this time it all worked the way it was supposed to.

And Seek finally came along.

Yay.  And now I never want to see Zack again.  So I sent him off to Pamona Gulch, and he won't make another appearance until the epilogue of Echo.  Because he's just such an asshole.

If you haven't read his story yet, and you're interested, you can find it here:  http://www.anneconley.com/pierce-securities