Forum: Lost Stories

From his blog: "The primary difference is that the re-posted version eliminated the first two chapters, and two related conversations in subsequent chapters. More words were actually added in the revision than were taken out, but some of the subtext did change.

The story is enjoyable, but once he removed this alien element a lot of things stopped making sense. Like if you had a talent from when you were a baby and you grew up with it, you wouldn't find it weird. When the main character in the second book was relieved when the aliens took away the powers was very odd to me. Like being relieved somebody took away your right arm. He grew up with those talents, they were part of him, he's not supposed to feel that way about them.

A nice example of something similar was in this Sunday's episode of Ray Donovan. Ray asks a woman 'you remember things from when you were four?' and she gives him a puzzled look and answers 'I remember everything. You don't?'

Why would anybody question how they are themselves?

I thought the original version with aliens and the transformation made a better story, although the writing in that first chapter was terrible.

I thought the original version with aliens and the transformation made a better story, although the writing in that first chapter was terrible.

I agree. I'd like to re-read the original.

I thought the original version with aliens and the transformation made a better story, although the writing in that first chapter was terrible.

I prefer the current version. You have a bit of tantalizing info about the possibility of aliens right at the start, then he's got some odd abilities which show something odd. When the dog turns up you really start to wonder about alien involvement. I feel a lot of the tension is lost with the clear alien knowledge up front.