Lou Aronica - Until Again: Prequel Novella to BLUE

Id like to thank all the readers of Blue who graciously wrote me with their good wishes and their interpretations. I loved hearing that the novel spoke to you in some way and I found the various perspectives on what it meant fascinating and illuminating.

Thanks to my children, Molly David, Abigail, and Tigist for their acceptance of the time I spend away from them trying to make books happen.

Special thanks to my wife for looking me in the eye and saying, You know that youre going to have to write more about Tamarisk, right?

Thanks to Shaina Amienyi at National Book Network for navigating me through the endlessly changing digital waters and for her continued good spirits.

Thanks to Barbara Aronica-Buck for her beautiful cover design and for absolutely not being Polly.

Thanks to Monica ORourke for her copyediting help.

And thanks to Ben Folds for being the first singer that came to mind.

This story jumps forward four years in Blue. In that novel, Becky and Chris have drifted further apart and both are experiencing significant crises. Chris believes that he has lost his daughter and he feels disconnected from his life while he pines for the past. Becky has bounced back from the pain of divorce better (Polly has remarried and created a stable home for her daughter) but shes starting to feel dizzy spells and other reminders of when she was sick.

Meanwhile, Tamarisk, separated from the storytellers who created it, has continued to evolve. Miea has grown into the role of queen, though the challenges of guiding a kingdom like Tamarisk are never easy. Her biggest challenge is that a blight similar to the Great Blight that nearly destroyed Tamarisk has been spotted. The kingdoms greatest scientists cant say whats wrong, and the blight is spreading.

At the height of their desperation, Becky and Miea reach out for answers and somehow discover each other. Miea finds a way to bring Becky to Tamarisk and Becky marvels at seeing the world her father and she created when things were better between them. She makes several trips to Tamarisk, each proving wondrous. The discovery that Tamarisk has come to life gives Becky and Chris the opportunity to reconnect. Eventually, Becky even finds a way to bring Chris there.

Circumstances, however, have not changed. The blight continues to ravage Tamarisk, and Becky is feeling increasingly sicker. Becky, Miea, and Chris have come together at this remarkable juncture but what does it mean for their future?

Im currently in the process of revising my first two novels, both of which had been published under the name Ronald Anthony (Ronald for Aronica and Anthony in honor of my father). The first, The Forever Year is the story of Jesse Sienna, a man in his thirties, and Mickey, the elderly father Jesses never really gotten the chance to know. When Mickey shares a story with Jesse from his distant past, Jesse learns things about his father that none of his siblings are aware of, and he learns something about romantic love that he never believed possible. New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas called it, Wry, tender, beautifully written, and the novel has been translated into several languages, but I frankly think it needs work. Im planning to have a cleaned-up version of The Forever Year out under my name early in 2012.

The other Ronald Anthony novel that Ill be republishing under my name is Flash and Dazzle. This is the story of Rich Flaster (Flash) and Eric Dazman (Dazzle), two guys in their late twenties who have been best friends since college and who have become emerging stars in New Yorks advertising world. Things could not be better for them, until Eric gets sick. Then they discover how much they truly mean to each other while also discovering how little they really knew each other. Im planning to have Flash and Dazzle out in revised form in the spring of 2012.

Neither of these novels has any magic of the Tamarisk variety in them. If thats the only part of Blue or Until Again that youve liked (assuming, of course, that you liked anything in these stories at all), then The Forever Year and Flash and Dazzle arent for you. However, many of the themes Ive explored in the Tamarisk stories are in the earlier novels as well family dynamics, relationships put to the test under difficult circumstances, dealing with crises, and redefining connections, to name a few. If you get the chance to read them, Ill be interested in your thoughts.

As always, you can reach me at laronica@fictionstudio.com with any questions, comments, or interpretations.

Thanks so much for reading.

Chris had been reading the same page in his book for several minutes now. Hed always been able to drop into the world he was reading about so easily, but this had become a futile exercise over the past couple of weeks. He could only remember being this preoccupied once before in his life, and at the end of the day, that had turned out okay. Was it even remotely possible that he was going to be able to say the same about this at some point in the future? And if so, why couldnt he feel even a hint of that optimism in his heart?

The clock on the family room wall read a couple of minutes after nine. Polly and he had bought that clock in a craft store in upstate Connecticut while she was pregnant with Becky. Shed scoffed at his wanting to buy something so rustic when all of their furnishings were so refined, but she didnt protest his decision, and when he put it up in the family room she admitted that the clock had a certain off-kilter charm. They hadnt discussed his taking the clock with him to his new apartment, but he assumed that if he left it behind, it wouldnt stay on the wall for more than an hour after he was gone. Polly would certainly feel that the clock, like Chris, needed to be tossed out as part of her housecleaning.

Hey, Beck, its bedtime, he said, glancing over at his ten-year-old daughter who was in the middle of reading her first Ray Bradbury book. A few months ago, Chris had given her his signed hardcover copies of The Martian Chronicle and Dandelion Wine, telling her how thrilled hed been to meet the writer at an autographing back in the nineties. The books had sat on a shelf in Beckys room since then, but surprisingly shed brought Dandelion Wine down for reading hour a couple of nights ago. The sight of his little girl enjoying one of his most precious possessions nearly brought him to tears, but that was hardly an uncommon experience right now. Hed practically misted up over the rice pilaf theyd had with dinner tonight.

Becky looked up at him and then over at the clock. Yeah, she said, bookmarking the page and rising from the couch she was sharing with her mother. Chris stood up from his chair as Becky leaned over to hug Polly goodnight.

Polly squeezed her daughter, closing her eyes as she did so. Have a good nights sleep, honey. Ill drive you to school tomorrow so your project doesnt get smashed.

That would be great, thanks. Love you.

Love you.

As Chris crossed Pollys path on his way up the stairs with Becky, their eyes caught for an instant, and his instinctively narrowed. Then he looked away and followed Becky to the second floor.

As Becky entered her bathroom to brush her teeth, Chris continued on to her room and sat on the bed. He patted the white bedspread. Theyd bought it just after Beckys eighth birthday, when she decided that the butterfly spread that had been on her bed since she was four was now too young for her. Shed surprised Chris by choosing a white-on-white geometrical pattern. Considering the level of imagination expressed nightly on this bed, he would have expected the covering to be more ornate. It certainly was more grown-up. She could probably take the thing to college with her someday and no one would think it was out-of-place. The thought of college made Chris shudder. Another separation hed rather not think about.