At one point Dawn was just one chapter of Part Four of Tamika Wood’s Birthday Party. It’s one of the reasons I decided to end Tamika at three parts and make the rest individual stories in the same world. I wanted it to be a story all on its own rather than one 5,000 word chapter.

A thing that annoys me in fiction is where you can see that backstory was written after-the-fact for a sequel. You re-read the first book and you can tell, somehow, that those past events hadn’t ‘happened’ yet. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want to go into this part of Scott’s trauma in the earlier stories… but whether you noticed the mentions of Dawn where she came up or Scott’s reactions when she did, I hope that if you choose to re-read the earlier stories you will see ‘oh, yes. Dawn was lurking there in Scott’s past the whole time.’

The reaction from someone who noticed these things aready was “FUCK”. This pleases me greatly.

As usual I will leave you to find these things on your own, but will throw links at you with the slightest provocation.

Fun Facts

• I wrote this whole chapter with my son sitting beside me playing a racing game on the iPad. The soundtrack to that racing game still makes me want to cry.
• Dawn has been mentioned three times in earlier stories.
• Don’t worry, Shell will return to the story when she sobers up.