What Might Have Been: An O’Connell Agency reunion

Over the years of writing In the Company of Shadows, we learned to be very fluid with our plot. There were some things we planned to do but when it came to that time in the story it just didn’t work anymore. Other times, we pushed a scene forward or back, or had to remove it altogether. Some plots were nixed, some were expanded. Some characters were supposed to reappear but the story was too compact to fit them. And more than once, I wrote multiple versions of the same scene well in advance of something I knew was coming, and by the time it appeared that scene changed dramatically.

Any post labeled What Might Have Been or WMHB is a sneak peek into what was planned but didn’t end up happening.

For the first post:

Caoilfhionn O’Connell, aka, Keelin

My favorite model inspiration for her so far is Anna Lutoskin from storm models.

Keelin is Owen’s younger sister. She shows up in his side story -somnia, but that wasn’t supposed to be her only appearance. Keelin was going to end up working at the Agency. Most likely, she was going to become a civilian. There was also talk of her first appearing in the main series by meeting Hsin on a bus, probably in Afterimage.

One of the things that would have been interesting about her was how it would have not only shown a civilian’s adjustment to the Agency, but also how it would have affected Owen to have his little sister so close. And how she would have dealt with the same secrecy and lies already keeping Owen apart from his family.

But when the time came when she could have appeared, it didn’t work to add her into the plot. There was too much else going on and Boyd and Hsin both are far too focused on themselves and their own problems to have noticed any shenanigans she was up to in the background. And doing an Owen POV just to have her involved would have broken up the flow of the story too much.

So, in the end, she only showed up in -somnia and was mentioned briefly in Fade. Someday, I might write a story focusing on her. I had been looking forward to writing her so I was a little sad when it turned out she didn’t properly fit into the main plot line after all.