The F. Paul Wilson Interview: Outtake (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

WARNING:  If you have NOT read Harbingers in the Repairman Jack series, DO NOT read the following question and subsequent answer.  It contains a GIGANTIC spoiler.  If you wish to read it, having been warned, please scroll down:

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The Accidental Author: I remember a point in the Repairman Jack series where Jack's impending fatherhood decidedly took a turn for the worse, and I remember being very disappointed.

FPW: [The pregnancy] was actually something I threw at myself. I can't remember whether it was in the outline stage or it just came to me. I simply had Gia tell him she was preggers, and I had no idea where I was going from there. I asked myself, “Do I want to do that?” Yeah. To keep the series from getting stale for me, I figured I'd just go with it. And from there, it became part of the story...a very big part of the story.

Then, I realized in the next novel, I had to deal with the question of how does [Jack] even become a father. He has no official existence. So that became a subplot that ran for a couple of books. And so it was a good thing. But then, I didn't see Gia with a baby in Nightworld. Without the baby present in Harbingers, I could have simply hurt Gia and Vicky. But with the baby in the story, there had to be a sacrifice.

It's strange. I'll be at a signing or a bookstore, and somebody will pick up Harbingers and say, “I've never read one of your books. Should I read this one?” And I'll say, “NO! NO! Do not read that one. Read any of the first nine, but do not read Harbingers until you've read the first nine.”