Veal & Venison {Tomione || 1940s/1990s}

Q & A

Q & A

For Patagonian...

What will you miss most about this book?

    What I will miss most is not necessarily the book itself, but the responses from my readers.  I swell with joy at all your kind words at and in-between each update; these words carry me through the week and leaving a smile on my face.  I will miss that feeling now that this story is over, but I am so very glad that everyone seems to enjoy Veal & Venison.

Will there be any spin-offs/sequels?

    Sadly, there will not be any spin-offs or sequels.

Why don't you do a spin-off for the kids?

    In order for me to plunge into a story and write a book, I must be passionate about the characters I am writing about.  Elsewise, I will come to hate the process and will be lazy in my words and plot.  In this case, I am not passionately attached to the characters in this later generation of children; I was not fully enraptured by The Cursed Child as I was by the Harry Potter series.  It would be unfair of me to write a lazy story of these children who deserve more credit than I can give. 

As for a sequel focusing on Tom and Hermione, I am fully satiated by how Veal & Venison has come to an end, and do not wish to write anymore.  Again, it would be unfair of me to write a sequel as my heart is no longer in it.  On the other hand, I may write another Tomione story in the future if I find the time.

Why did you name their children Abraxas and Clarence? Was it to remind them that their past will never be forgotten, or do they just want to remember the good that Clary and Brax did for them in the past?  And how did you choose the remainder of their names?

    Naming the children of Hermione and Tom was extremely difficult for such minute reasons.  I knew that Tom would never name his children after his mother or father, so that only left the name "Salazar" as a possibility from his side of the family.  But Hermione likely would never allow that, so that option was forgotten.  Regarding Hermione, many of the people she valued as mentors already had their names taken by Harry's children, so I was limited in that scope as well.  I cannot imagine Hermione naming her children after one of her friends, so those options were ignored.  That left Abraxas and Clarence, two of her greatest friends who had died long ago.  I figured she would name her first two children to remember them, and that Tom would accept this in order to make her happy.  Ultimately, it was Hermione wanting "to remember the good that Clary and Brax did for them" while Tom just likes to appease his wife.

    As for the remainder of their names, Percival obviously comes from the name of Albus Dumbledore.  Elizabeth, Clarence's middle name, is the name of Hermione's mother.  And Jean, the middle name of Eloise, is obviously Hermione's middle name.

How do you structure your plots?

    The first half of Veal & Venison was new territory for me, seeing as I have only written one original full-length story (Endotherm).  So--almost experimentally--I began with the most difficult aspect of this story: how Hermione was able to change Tom and make him fall in love with her.  I outlined all the major steps that needed to be taken in order for this to happen, and then I took to creating conflicts in the storyline.  I knew Grindelwald was large in the time, and I knew Dumbledore and Grindelwald's battle took place in 1945, so I created a conflict around this and added it to my outline.  After that, everything else fell into place and I was able to create a unique storyline of my own.