Even the most powerful of creatures fall before a canon. No, not a cannon. A canon. Or, more specifically, being declared non-canon.
An example of what I mean is Agents of Shield and Agent Carter from Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once considered integral to the storytelling alongside the movies from which they sprung, these shows have been declared non-canonical.
Believe it or not, this kind of scenario happens with prose fiction at times. I recently had a minor case of this occur with the new Deadwood anthology contribution. (By the way, yes, there will be another Deadwood anthology, and yes, I’m contributing another old west fantasy with a love story to it. Look out for more details in the coming months.) Specifically, whether this story was at all connected to my previous one.
There’s no reason they couldn’t be canon with each other. They take place in the same town, albeit some years apart.
At the same time, there’s no reason they have to be. They feature unique casts from each other, look at differing aspects of Deadwood from a historical perspective, and have very different stories.
So, to canon, or not to canon?
If I make these stories canon with each other, it honestly doesn’t change much in terms of what’s on the page. These are stand-alone stories in two separate anthologies, not entries in an ongoing series. There aren’t going to be cameos or any big tie-ins between the plots. Making these stories canon to each other really just means that readers who have read and enjoyed both get to speculate on all the ways off-page that they might be connected.
Don’t get me wrong. If I decide to make these stories canon to each other, there will be off-page connections that I’ve thought through. That’s just how my creative mind works. Whether or not I will tell you what they are is another matter altogether *laughter of evil commences*.
What have I decided on the matter thus far? Nothing. I’ll come to a firmer decision on this during the editing phase of the contribution. For now, I’ve inserted a reference to “For the Love of Gold” into this new story, which may or may not be considered canon. It may stay at that, or it may lead to more. We’ll have to see.
Before I sign off this blog post, because I know I’ll get questions, yes, progress is still getting made on Roc Rider Three. I did decide to take a break from it to work on this, partly because this story has a deadline coming up and Roc Rider Three doesn’t, but also because I needed to get some space from Roc Rider to break the creative logjam I found myself in there. Don’t worry, it’s coming, and I think you’re going to enjoy it.
