A Word from Author Dr. Craig Mueller
Same Characters, Two Stories: A Literary Alternate History. What's Next?
After writing Jackpot, I received a review that got me thinking about what other stories these characters might tell. The review itself is immaterial now, but it sparked a fascinating question:
What if I took the same characters I’d grown to love and placed them in a completely different reality? Could I transform them from a romantic thriller into a medical thriller centered on a cancer cure conspiracy?
This was literary alternate history—the same DNA, but a different organism entirely. The Assignment became my answer to the question: “What if their lives had taken a completely different path?”
Same characters, different circumstances. Same relationships, different dynamics. Same core personalities, but facing entirely new challenges that revealed different facets of who they could be.
I found myself asking: Would readers enjoy this kind of reimagining? Would they find it as fascinating as I did to see familiar characters navigate an entirely different story? The creative process was a bit otherworldly—like being given permission to play “what if” with my own fictional world. I was essentially creating a parallel universe where the same souls inhabited different lives, faced different choices, and revealed entirely new dimensions of themselves.
Rather than choosing between two versions of the same story, I’d created two distinct stories that happened to share remarkable characters. Each book stands alone, yet together they offer something unique in literature—parallel narratives that explore the infinite possibilities within the people we think we know.
I hope you’ll read both and share your impression. I’m also curious: which story do you believe has the most cinematic promise as a movie or series? The romantic thriller of Jackpot or the international conspiracy of The Assignment?
What’s Next?
Of course, the story doesn’t end in Atlanta. The Marchitello Estate in Italy beckons, where ancient vineyards hide secrets—and everyone has one. What’s brought Gina back? A secret revealed—or threatened too. Will Gus stay or go? That depends on how many secrets he can stand.
If you thought the conspiracies in Atlanta were complex, wait until you see what—and who–the Marchitello family has been protecting since World War II. Some secrets are buried so deep, they’ve become part of the soil itself. And when the past collides with the present, even the most loyal families must choose: Will the truth set them free, or destroy everything they’ve built?
Because when Gus follows Gina to Italy, he’ll discover that some family histories are worth killing for—and some are worth dying to protect.
