Grim Reaping Introduction

[ashkent]

For old and new readers, this is a new introduction to the novel that has become Grim Reaping.

Grim first appeared in my mind after I watched American Idol and began to formulate a plot about Death wanting to retire but needing to find a replacement. This replacement has to be found in some way and Grim decides that the most universal way of doing this is to enlist the help of a media icon who seems to have the touch for finding talented people.

The story has a complete synopsis written and of the dozen chapters written introduced the characters of Grim, Jimmy DeVil and threw in mention to the Business of Life, Johnny B God and other entities within Grim's world. Around the time of writing the currently last chapter of "Grim By Nature", I wanted to write a short story featuring the same character. As usual of the time, I couldn't write anything without it turning into something larger than intended. "Grim Reaping" was the result - currently standing at 45,000 words (so much for short) - and has in effect taken over "Grim by Nature" as the first Grim novel.

Since then, I have managed to write 3 short stories featuring Grim which fit into the chronology of the continuing story.

The Chronological order of the stories is currently as follows -

Grim To The End
Grim Reaping
A Grim Business
Dreaming of A Grim Christmas

I'm not sure where "Grim By Nature" will, at one time or another, fit into this but it will somewhere.

As the final note to the Grim series, it was only a few weeks ago that I finally found the voice of Grim that I had been looking for - British actor Stephen Fry. Hearing his voice reading out what I write makes the words flow much easier than before. For anyone who doesn't know what Stephen Fry sounds like, the clip below will help.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/W1St7sRFEEE&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1&amp;" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/W1St7sRFEEE&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1&amp;</a>