Shadowdancers

Shadowdancers (1994) Post 331

Shadowdancers is another one of my favourites; one of a loosely-connected series of four books. The other three are Amy Amaryllis, Wintersong and Candle Iron, pictured below.

Shadowdancers has a lovely cover. It's not a strictly accurate depiction of the main characters, but it catches the spirit of the book. I have the original painting hanging on my wall.
When I was writing this story, I named it Pirry Merimba, because it was a sequel of sorts to Amy Amaryllis and because it also involves a body/personality switch between two girls. I had recently been doing some work in NSW, and took a liking to some of the place names, so I called the Raven sisters Merimbula and Eden. For some reason (never did get to the bottom of it) my editor didn't like Merimbula for a name, so I changed he to Pirimba. For a while, the book was called Pirry Pirimba, but them we changed the name to its final incarnation; Shadowdancers. Pirimba Raven is a rebel, and goes diving from a high cliff when she should be at school. Her sister Eden is plainer, younger and better behaved, but she is as appalled as the rest of the family when Pirimba breaks her back and becomes quadriplegic. Later, Pirimba gets pneumonia and falls into a coma, leaving Eden bereft, and with survivor's guilt.  
Pirimba has been experimenting with astral travelling, and when she seems gone for good, Eden is surprised to find a young man named Craig who believes her theory of where her sister really is. Why wouldn't he? His own sister is the Amy from Amy Amaryllis. Meanwhile, in the land of Rargon, Pirry of Midpoint, an acrobatic dancer, or Valourn, has lost her mind. Her dance partner, ShuMar is amazed and frightened when his friend wakes from her daze as someone else.  While Pirry is "absent" from her perfectly functional body, Pirimba is delighted to use it, but what will happen is Pirry ever wakes and wants it back?
I originally intended to make Pirimba paraplegic, but after some research I discovered some paraplegics can function pretty well on their own. Therefore, I had to do more damage for poor Pirimba than I intended. The things we do to our characters! So, what happens to the characters after the credits roll? There are some clues to be had in the sequel, Wintersong.

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.