Sunshine Walkingstick's continuing story has been on my mind these past few months as I prepare to write Book 6, Vampire Alley.

Much of Sunny's tale involves loops upon loops of family misfortunes and secrets. In the first novel (Greenwood Cove), Sunny's description of her family revolves around the dual tragedies of her son's and her father's deaths:

That pooka? I sent it straight to Ol’ Scratch, quick as I could find it, with my heart all cold like the great sea of ice on top of the world. I followed it for three days, no food in my gut, nothing ‘cept a hunting knife and a bottle of water to get me through. My daddy taught me that before he run off with that vacuum cleaner salesman. Not much else, but by golly, he taught me how to track.

My mama? She in prison now. Was her what taught me how to kill. She sure done a number on my daddy. I never could look on her straight like again, not after seeing what she done to him. That didn’t stop me none from doing the same to that pooka. You mess with my baby, you gonna pay.

She revisits her father's death again in Cemetery Hill (Book 3), when her uncle Fame is arrested for the deaths of his wife and brother:

Unbidden, my mind lunged back to the day Mama come home with my daddy’s blood on her hands. He run off the week before with that vacuum cleaner salesman. Reckon it took her that long to track him down. One night she left me with Fame and her eyes was feral, like a rabid coon, dark and greedy and vengeful. Fame fed me and the boys, then sat us down on the couch with a movie, and that’s where we fell asleep, Trey cuddled up on one side of me, Gentry on t’other, like they knowed something was coming, something so bad, it’d eat us alive, bone, skin, hair, and all.

Mama woke me up the next morning, and her eyes wasn’t wild no more. They was peaceful, calm, but the stench of blood lingered, a coppery tart sting in my nose, and the awfullest feeling enveloped me.

“What’d you do, Mama?” I asked, but she just shushed me and carried me home, and tucked me in bed like she done when I was no bigger’n knee high to a cricket. Not like I was then, on the cusp of being a woman and in full possession of the knowledge that the world weren’t always a fair abode.

Was Sheriff Treadwell what come for her, back when he was still a deputy. Was Chip Treadwell what stood in that shabby living room with its puke green carpet and water stained ceilings, and told me the DFACS people was coming to get me.

Fame come for me instead, my uncle. My friend. Fame saved me from the hell of revolving foster homes and state welfare and the shame of knowing my own family betrayed me.

Here, we feel Sunny's childhood fear, and her later shame and anger. This is her story, and Sunny's never been shy about sharing her feelings on a matter, so of course she gives us an intimate view on one of the keystone moments of her life. This is what she knows of her father's death, based on what she remembers, what others have told her, and the assumptions she's made over the years.

And these are her feelings on the matter: the abiding love for her father and sorrow over his death; and the equally strong love for her mother, made distant by the commission of what Sunny views as an unspeakably horrific crime.

----------

Sunny's perspective of the events surrounding her father's death isn't the only one. We could easily look to Fame or Sheriff Treadwell for a different take, assuming either would share their thoughts.

Or we could look to someone who has first-hand knowledge: Sunny's mother Claudia.

I left Devil's Branch (Book 5) with Sunny receiving a letter from her mother, and immediately knowing that something was wrong.

If you then guessed that Vampire Alley involves Sunny's mom, you'd be absolutely correct.

In fact, it's very likely that we're going to get a very intimate look at Sunny's relationship with her mom. This includes a reckoning between the two that I can't go into because it's a major plot point along their journey together.

I hate dropping spoilers on the unsuspecting.

But just know that this is coming and it probably won't be what you expect at all. And, like everything in Sunny's life, it's going to be a real humdinger. That's pretty much a guarantee.

Before I wrap this up, here's a tidbit I'd hoped readers would catch long before now: In Witch Hollow (Book 4), Sheriff Treadwell sits down with Sunny and recollects some fond memories of her mother, including this:

His gaze dropped to his plate and he sat back in his chair. “Later, after your daddy died, Ann talked me into letting your mama come over and cook for the inmates. That was before she was convicted, back when the old jail under the courthouse was still in use.”

“And you let her?”

“Ann trusted her, and she loved you. I think she would’ve done anything for you.”

“Mama?”

“Ann, but your mama, too..."

Has no one ever wondered why Sheriff Treadwell, a man known for his strict adherence to the letter of the law, would allow someone he knows committed murder into his house to cook for the other inmates?

Did no one ever wonder exactly what he meant by, "I think she would've done anything for you.", or to what extraordinary lengths Claudia and Ann would go to protect Sunny?

----------

Speaking of Ann and Claudia...

The limiting factor of using a first person point of view for narrating a story is just that: only one perspective can ever be shown.

Well, not quite.

The story is told from one person's point of view. Other perspectives can be shown, if the narrator has a way to explore those perspectives.

Unfortunately, some of the most important perspectives are still lost. I sidestep this by writing stories from other perspectives, or at least visiting those other perspectives during planning of future projects or during the development of an entire story world.

I don't have time to write every story that waltzes across my mind. That doesn't mean they're not worth pursuing, especially when those stories relate directly to the events underpinning an entire story world.

The relationship between Ann Treadwell and Claudia Carson Walkingstick is one such story. It's doubtful that I'll ever have time to explore this in depth, but their relationship is so very important to Sunny's life. There are so many things Sunny doesn't know or understand about her own life, let alone the events taking place in the background that shaped it.

We know that Ann and Claudia knew each other long before Riley and Sunny were born: Sheriff Treadwell implies as much when he shares that he met Ann while she was dating Fame.

We know that Ann took care of Sunny when Claudia disappeared during summers, because Sunny herself said so.

Sunny always thought it was because she saved Riley at the lake that one summer.

But was it?

What are the chances that something else entirely was going on between Ann and Claudia?

These are some of the questions and situations I've been pondering while constructing Vampire Alley and future stories involving her father, the elder Henry Walkingstick. There's definitely so much more going on in the background of Sunny's life, things that are hidden from her because she doesn't have access to other perspectives.

Or rather, because she hasn't been given a reason to question some aspects of her life, she's never thought to pick her own beliefs apart the way she had to in The Deep Wood (Book 2), when she learned some of the secrets Fame hid from her.

So, there's your food for thought. Have fun with it. 🙂