Spoiler Page

Originally, Maria Castillo was going to be a bounty hunter working for Victor Hawthorne.  In fact, the reader was going to know this from the beginning, as she was going to be introduced at the end of the meeting scene in Chapter 1.  She was going to be attired in the exact same outfit that I ended up putting on Ms. Keym, and she was going to ask to join the Shallowhorne Gang in the same manner at the "Old Liberty" saloon.

I was thinking that Maria would start out working for the forces of evil.  Then, as she got to know Tom Shallowhorne better, she was going to fall in love with him.  By the end of the story, though, she would really join Shallowhorne and be fighting for the good side.  It was then that I thought, "Yuk!  That has been done sooo many times before!"

One night, I was eating supper, and I enjoy watching TV while I do so.  I was flipping through the channels, when I came upon a show I had never seen before.  The scene depicted an asian woman really whooping it up on a group of men.  (I later found out that the actress was Kelly Hu, and the show was Martial Law.)  Within 15 minutes, the last character created for West World came into being - Ms. Keym.

With the creation of Ms. Keym, everything fell into place.  While Maria Castillo and Ms. Keym have similar back stories, I split the original Maria into two separate characters.  The final Maria has all the good qualities of the original, and I gave Ms. Keym all the bad qualities.

So, my problem was solved; by having two lead female characters, I could have both endings to my book.  I quickly came up with an outline for my story.  Splitting the characters also allowed for the inclusion of a love triangle.  To accomplish this believably, I wrote Ms. Keym in a way that the reader wouldn't know from the beginning that she is working for Victor Hawthorne.  And, instead of telling Maria Castillo's history all at once in Chapter 2, it comes to the reader gradually throughout the book.

It all basically boils down to the fact that I didn't have to have Tom Shallowhorne completely and utterly depressed at the end of the novel.

It was then that I began thinking in a new direction.  Since everyone reading West World would expect Maria Castillo to fall in love with Tom Shallowhorne, why not do the opposite.  I thought about Maria being absolutely black-hearted, and having her die at the end of the story.  The concept was cool, but then I realized that this would be a really sad ending for the Tom Shallowhorne character.  You see, from the beginning of his creation, I knew that Otis Smith was going to die at the end.  So, if Shallowhorne's new love and his best friend both died at the end of the book, it would just be too tragic.

Up to this point, I didn't know what I wanted to do with the story. I hadn't even come up with a workable outline for the story, and I just kind of shelved it.  So what was I going to do?