The Healer of Stonebarrow is a story I sweated over more than any of the others I’ve had published so far. I worried more, perhaps because my first four novellas were well received, and I was gambling by not immediately writing a sequel to one of those stories.

As it turns out, I realized that I’m writing what I think is interesting and hoping that other people will find it interesting as well. They don’t have to think everything I write is interesting, but I hope that somebody out there does. I am working on sequels and prequels and completely unconnected stories as I go forward, and eventually the right stories will reach the right readers if I’m lucky and keep at it.

With that in mind, I let go and kept the story purposely a little vague about who the Healer is. Is it Queen Mirela? She certainly did a lot of hurting and could stand to do a lot of healing, both of herself and others. What about Gaic Ko? He’s come back from the dead to see justice done, or something that looks like justice if you squint your eyes just right.

Can one person make another person choose to be better?

Can you ever really change another person?

Do you even have the right to try?

I let the story brush up against those questions, and then I decided to leave it to the reader to decide what the answers are. Somewhere in the back of my mind, maybe I was healing myself as a writer. That sounds a little corny as I write it, but I’m going to leave it there. If I had an infirmity, it was indecision and doubt. For now, I choose to believe the positive reviews, the thoughtful comments, and the praise of people who know me in person and joke about me being a “famous writer.” I’m not, but if I am to a couple dozen people I know? That’s all the medicine I need.