The Killing Hand (27 page)

The very first publically accessible version of The Killing Hand appeared in early November 2012, during National Novel Writing Month. The first couple of chapters were uploaded to FictionPress. A couple of months later I decided I hated the site and removed it. During the same month it also appeared on Wattpad, frequently disappearing and reappearing until the publication of the Second Edition. Up until the publication of the Second Edition, the novel also appeared on sites such as Authonomy and Goodreads.

  The story was frequently taken down and reworked whilst on these sites, and as such the term First Edition actually refers to any versions of the work that appeared throughout this period, as opposed to an actual specific version.

During this period of drafting, the following changes were made to the story:

• The original draft was set in third person. I reworked the entire thing to first person.
  
• The character of Lilly was was originally attributed to the prostitute working in the brothel. In the first few drafts Eric kept returning to the brothel, presumably for pleasure, but from the reader we mostly received snippets into the conversations they had, where he confided with her the situations in his life. It appeared he was falling in love with her. Towards the end it was intended he was going to use her to lure Jack out into the open, but by that point her part had been removed and their discussions given to Lilly.
  
• On the subject of the brothel, it was revealed in one scene tha
  t it was joint owned by Lucius and Palmer, who openly mocked Eric at the meetings when he was discovered visiting.
  
• Lilly has originally married to an American soldier who had settled in England.
  
• As a consequence of the above, the part of Gilbert went through many changes. At first, Gilbert was Eric’s older brother, who refused to give Eric a get out of jail free card. Eventually, the characters of Gilbert and the American soldier merged, forming Eric’s Father’s former business partner.
  
• In the very fir
  st draft, Jack’s identity remained ambiguous. The end was so unrealistic that there was no plausible solution other than Eric was making the entire thing up, suggesting his mental instability and opening up the possibility that he was Jack. In subsequent revisions, I made this more obvious.  At the midpoint of the book Eric begins reading letters from his Father’s chest and discovers the various doctors letters from the years, discovering that his time in Europe was actually a façade whilst his parents institutionalised him during a particular bad breakdown. Eric, as Jack, managed to break free and murder his parents, before fleeing for a while and eventually reawakening as Eric, who simply joined the dots. The final struggle was meant to be a representation of the fight going on in his mind, with the unrealistic happy ending suggesting Eric has actually lost and regressed into a dreamlike state within his own consciousness.
  

   The cover art for this edition was shamefully stolen from a Spring-heeled Jack website I discovered whilst researching, the source of which I’ve unfortunately since been lost. I wasn’t concerned at this point about the ramifications, with the draft not being commercially available, but made sure to change the art for the commercial release.

   Feedback was limited, but positive. Many people actively followed the story on Wattpad, enjoying the mystery of Jack and the nature of the meetings. I received praise on Authonomy, where the writ
ing style was commended alongside the fresh twist on an old legend. The other websites provided little to no feedback. No agents or publishers were queried during this period.

The Second Edition is marked from the novels publication via Kindle Publishing on 2
nd
July 2014.

The Second Edition contained the following changes:

• The character of Arthur Shaw was introduced. Previously, Shaw did not exist as a character and therefore is appeared that Lucius did all his d
  ealings with Jack directly. This never sat well with me. Lucius is a businessman down to the core. He’ll happily talk murder and deceit, but only if you’re wearing a suit. The concept of Eric picking a target to try and catch Jack existed in the first draft, where a rough version of Shaw who acted as Gilbert’s business competitor existed. Ultimately, Eric failed to even put anything into place to capture Jack and the entire situation was squandered, as was the plot idea.
  
• C
  hanged Eric’s parents being murdered by Jack to just Eric’s Father. The historical accuracy of a woman being in charge of a business was sketchy at best to begin with, and additionally both their murders bring in too many red flags in. Eric’s Mother had few parts in the original draft (which is why I found cutting her out so easy), and those that did exist were transferred to Eric’s Father.
  
• E
  ric is no longer the killer. This is the biggest change. In the first draft, the novel ends with Eric being beaten and left for dead by Jack. The idea was none of this was really happening, it was just a mental struggle between the two in Eric’s head, and Eric losing the fight was meant to represent Jack fully taking over his body. As the second draft progressed, the revelation that Eric was the killer was revealed partway through, which was interesting, but ultimately it bored me and I scrapped it.
  
• A
  scene near the start of the story had Eric and Lilly cleaning their Father’s house and removing a weighty chest which contained notes and diaries. In the first draft some of these letters revealed Eric’s state of mind. In the second draft they had much less relevance, and were eventually removed altogether.
  

The Second Edition was released without cover art. Too many book cover artists seem to regurgitate the same dire designs (Here’s a woman with her cleavage showing whilst sucking a rose, and a vampire in the background! Teen angst! Breasts! Werewolves! Buy! Buy! Buy!), and it was through trawling through God knows how many dreadful book cover galleries that I decided I was simply better off going without until I could secure something. A publisher may disagree, but screw them right? Digital age, I want it my way. My vision, maaaaan.

Throughout the period of writing this novel I was constantly throwing ideas back and forth and butting heads with those about me who I felt could help breathe the story some life and guide it (and me) on the path that I felt it deserved to be on. It is here that I feel that I must thank the following for helping me, for without them I have no doubt The Killing Hand would still exist as a mass on unrealised ideas.

   Bud deserves due praise
. Not only did he help nurture the original concept in my college days, but he met frequently with me during my brainstorming leading up to, and including, the first draft. He also leant a critical eye to the original script work of dialogue.

   Thank you to Tom, who
helped greatly during the draft process. We would frequently pass drafts back and forth and hammer it until the point where we were both happy. As we both had very different approaches to prose this was an often arduous and counterintuitive process, but the final piece greatly benefitted from this hardship.

  
A great thank you to Lou, who read through The Killing Hand upon its inception and provided critique which helped shape it. I’m quite bad at cobbling original drafts together and pretending those gaping plot holes don’t exist. Lou was detrimental in telling me they did and to screw my head on and do something about it. She also helped greatly with the redrafting process. As much as I detest the site, I miss the days of us critiquing each other’s work via Wattpad.

   Thank you to Gemma, who gave the work some major quality
control in its final hours before publication. It’s amazing how many little plot holes and gaping spelling errors you can leave in after staring at something for so long. Gemma was the one who stood outside the woods and told me which trees to tear down.

  Thank you to Steve Parolini, who is currently acting as my editor for the third draft of the story. He initial feedback has been extremely helpful, and I cannot wait until the Third Edition lands as a result of his suggestions, I’m sure it’ll go from strength to strength.

   And additional thank you to those who provided words of support in my hours o
f need, or were simply there for me. I would not know how to start to word such praise for those who understood the need for me to disappear for large lengths of time and hammer at a keyboard undeterred, however selfish it may have appeared, but at the very least I can do this: thank you Aidan, Rosie, Lori, Simon, Matty, Parker, Elliott, Jake, Suki Saturn Fio Smith, Clyde the shrimp, Mr & Mrs Tishyfips the pearl gouramis, Russell the bristle nose catfish, and of course the greatest thanks to my parents, who have provided me with the freedom in life, without ever letting me stray too far from the path, to enable me to chase and achieve my dreams.

   So yeah, ta!

Andrew Bishop lives
alone in West Yorkshire, UK, where he wastes his days playing board games, editing instead of writing, and being pawed at by his cat, Suki.