Meghan asked Jonathan L. Howard:

As Cabal's creator, you've probably come up with a fantastic amount of backstory and detail for him and the rest of his coterie. Is there any amusing (but non-spoilery) trivia you edited out, but wouldn't mind divulging?

Jonathan L. Howard I tend to add rather than cut material, so there's not a great deal of deleted stuff. The most notable, I suppose, was the old preamble to JOHANNES CABAL THE NECROMANCER, which went into some detail about one soul out in Limbo, that of the failed bandit of the Old West, Dan "Mad Dog" Clancy. I was fond of it, but two readers I trusted said independently that it blurred the focus of the book for those vital first few pages -- Who is this "Mad Dog" guy? Is he the protagonist? -- and I should cut it. So I did, and instead used an opening culled from an unfinished Cabal short story that had a terrific start but then stalled. That scene is the summoning of Lucifuge Rofocale.

flag