The Hope of Elantris (4 page)

The Matisse in the story doesn't act like the real Matisse. I
didn't KNOW the real Matisse; I'd never met her. (Though I did have
Pemberly describe her so that I could make the character look like
her. Matisse was one of my wife's favorite students, as you might
imagine from her doing fantastic projects like the Elantris
book.)

After writing the story, I sent a copy with Pemberly to give to
Matisse as a gift and a thank you. I can only imagine how surprised
she was to turn in a project based on one of her favorite books,
then get back a short story written by the author including her as
one of the characters in the world. This is the kind of nifty
little thing you can pull off once in a while as a novelist, and I
just couldn't pass by the opportunity.

(Of course, the fact that I'd just put one of Pemberly's
favorite students into a story for her, then let Pemberly give the
gift, did not escape me. I can't help but think it got me a few
bonus points. After all, we DID start dating exclusively just a
short time after that. . . .)

Matisse gave us the original Elantris-ology book she had made as
a wedding gift. She still comes to a lot of my signings, and as far
as I can tell is still one of the most awesome people alive.
(Though I'm biased toward anyone who says nice things about my
books.)

So there's the backstory. Now, the question comes up, what do I
think of the story itself?

Well, it's hard for me to separate the backstory and history of
the story from the text itself. For me, this story is a piece of my
history with Pemberly, and is intertwined with a lot of the
emotions and experiences of that crazy year from summer 2005 to
summer 2006 when my first novel was released and I met and married
my wife.

Looking back at this story, I think it might be a tad on the
sentimental side. (How could it help but be, considering. . . .)
I'm bringing a lot from my own experiences to the characters, and
Dashe and Matisse became full and real characters to me. However,
I'm not certain I justify their relationship and characters enough
to earn the emotion of the short story.

I hope that it doesn't come off as too melodramatic. (Read
outside the context of the ELANTRIS novel, I think that it might.)
I wrote it quickly, and I'm afraid it's not as polished or as
intricate as I might have otherwise been able to do. I realize it's
not the finest piece of work I've done, and I certainly wouldn't
suggest it to anyone who hasn't read ELANTRIS itself, as the story
doesn't work at all (emotionally or plot wise) if you aren't
familiar with the novel. It's also not a good introduction to my
work, I think.

But for what the story is, I'm quite pleased with it.

Thanks for reading!