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This week, I noticed on Facebook that we released the cover art for Servant of the Crown two years ago. My, how time flies. It seems like just yesterday that I was fretting about the release of my first book and now, two years later, I’ve written ten books.
Perhaps the most challenging task of all was making the jump from part-time writer to full-time author. I’m not ready to retire any time soon, but we are at least we are making a living, doing something I really love. Of course it’s made even better by allowing me to work with my wife, who acts as my editor. The response over the last two years has been tremendous, and I find it encouraging to read all the positive comments on my first series. Now, of course, I’m about to embark on my next series, The Frozen Flame, which goes live shortly. Don’t worry though, I’ve still many more tales to tell in the land of Merceria. Until next time, Happy Reading!
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Summer seemed to go by quickly this year!
As I write this, I’m hard and work adding a myriad of details to the series outline for The Frozen Flame. There’s lots happening as our heroes, Athgar and Natalia, navigate the difficult politics of the eastern kingdoms. As with the Heir to the Crown series, there are multiple subplots, and so I’ve decided to take few days to detail these out before commencing work on Embers, the second book of the series. In this way I can weave the stories together, giving them a more epic scale. Of course I can’t really divulge what these plots are, that would spoil the fun of reading the series, but let’s just say that little clues will be revealed as the stories progress. Most of the groundwork has already been laid, and now I’m in the process of planning out when those seeds will come to life! I’m quite excited to bring this new series to life, for, unlike Heir to the Crown, there are only two main characters. Their actions will have a dramatic effect on what’s happening in the Petty Kingdoms. Until next time, Happy Reading! Well, I’m back from vacation, and I must say it’s a little tricky getting settled into my regular schedule. When I left, I was halfway through The Making of a Man. I started out by re-reading what I’d written, which helped to refresh my mind. Now, the words are starting to come back to me, but I must admit to still being partially in vacation mode. I’m sure things will settle down in a day or two.
As I write, I’m often thinking of other possible story-lines. Even on vacation, I jotted down some interesting plots. Who knows if I’ll ever get around to using them. I find things like that have a way of simmering in my mind. As time goes by, I add ideas to them and, before I know it, I have a full-fledged story. In the meantime, I’ll have to contend myself with telling Fitz’s origin story. As I do that, Carol is hard at work editing Burden of the Crown, with additional chapters hopefully going out to the BETA readers this week. What did I do on my vacation? Canoed, Kayaked, visited Algonquin park and played Minecraft on my laptop. Oh yes, I also came up with an idea for a story on Herdwin, but I don’t want to say too much about that at present as I’m still ruminating on it. Until next time, Happy Reading! We had a busy weekend as Carol and I went to Toronto to see a Michael Buble concert. It was very entertaining, and in addition to being an incredible singer, he made an excellent host, chatting with the crowd and bringing people up on stage. Monday, however, it was back to work.
I’ve been outlining some additional changes to make to Baron Fitzwilliam’s origin story, and I must say it’s looking quite promising. I had originally intending to make it a novella, but I believe it’ll actually end up being a full-blown novel. I also revisited Burden of the Crown, rewriting the ending somewhat. I felt it need some extra punch to it, but also a little humour (thank you, Jack Marlowe.) Tomorrow, I look forward to returning to The Making of a Man. I’m currently only about 6,000 words in, but I have extensive outline notes. I drew some interesting parallels to Sword of Crown. I like the idea that Beverly’s childhood was similar in some ways to her father's, and yet in other ways quite different. In any event, I think his story will quite clearly explain why Fitz is the way he is and how he became the epitome of nobility. Until next time, Happy Reading! Having complete Burden of the Crown last week, I found myself at a bit of a crossroads, with too many stories on my mind. I have thus spent the last two days working on rough outlines for not one, but two stories. The first is Embers, and forms the second story in the Frozen Flame series, the other is called The Making of a Man, the origin story for Richard Fitzwilliam, the Baron of Bodden.
Embers now consists of a chapter by chapter breakdown, but The Making of a Man had caused me some concern as I struggled to come up with the main plot. The answer came as Carol and I were walking the dogs. Now, I need only fill in the details, then write it. I’m hoping it will be similar in length to Albreda’s origin story, The Call of Magic, though it may take a few more days to structure it to my satisfaction. And what else have I been working on? Believe it or not, another series! I’ve been making some notes on Temple Knight, though it is still a very rough outline. Why am I giving myself all this work? Because one of the characters in Temple Knight plays a significant role in Embers! All of these stories have a certain amount of overlap, with secondary characters showing up in multiple series. Well, that’s all I have time for now, Until next time, Happy Reading! Today I released my new short novel, entitled Mercerian Tales: The Call of Magic, and it got me to thinking. Without giving too much away, it has some wolves in it, a topic which has always fascinated me. Please note that this does not mean I’d ever want one as a pet, they are wild animals and should remain so, in my humble opinion.
If you ever get a chance to see a documentary about wolves, I think you’d be surprised. There is a definite social order to their pack, and the leader looks after the rest. In addition, they mate for life, which is apparently a rarity among many other species. Why am I interested in all this? Writing, of course. Albreda’s origin story might be complete, but there are plenty of other stories out there. This week, I was working on Burden of the Crown, and in the middle of the night, I came up with an idea concerning wolves. Of course, I can’t tell you what it is, so I’ll just leave it as a tease, but you might see one or more of these creatures in Burden, or the next book, Defender of the Crown (or the next, or the next, etc.). I’m sure I’ll get round to including them again at some point. Of course, I won’t have them just for the sake of throwing in some creature. They have to have meaning for the bigger story that’s unfolding. By the way, if you want to see an interesting movie that features wolves, I can recommend one called Alpha. It takes place during prehistoric times and offers a story about how wolves and humans learned to work together. I found it riveting, but don’t expect much dialogue, it’s not that kind of movie. I suppose if you don’t like that, there’s always the dire wolves of Game of Thrones, but I found them woefully underutilized, impressive as they were. Until next time, Happy Reading! I sit here, the day after Canada day, with a heavy heart. I have completed my viewing of all twelve seasons of Murdoch Mysteries, one of my favourites, along with the final season of Game of Thrones. Don’t worry, though, my binge watching of these shows has not slowed my writing in the least. (Well, okay, maybe it did today, but not most days.) I shall have to come up with some more creative ways of spending my evenings now. (Hmm, I do have that book on medieval knights to finish.)
Today, the editing for The Awakening, the short story prequel for Natalia Stormwind, was completed, and it’s now off to the BETA readers to get their feedback. Up next is Into the Fire, Athgar’s prequel, another short story. We still have to do a read-through on that and a little tweaking of the story-line, then it, too, will be sent off. All in all, not a bad day. Now, if I can just get the Game of Thrones theme out of my head… Until next time, Happy Reading! I’ve just started writing Burden of the Crown, and I’m over 25,000 words into it in just over a week. It’s nice getting back to the characters I’m most familiar with, and I’ve had fun writing where everyone is at the beginning of the story. This one sets up the next few books, so there’s lots of little tidbits of information that will be expanded upon in future books.
I can’t really say much more without giving away plot points, but I will tell you that Aldwin has more of a role in this book as do Albreda and Aubrey. Of course, the rest of them are accounted for, though a few are off on special missions for the princess. The nature of these missions will be expanded on in the next book, Defender of the Crown. Until next time, Happy Reading!  What am I doing this week? Well, I’ve been moving forward on Ashes, the first book in the Frozen Flame series. Today I had a scene where one of the characters enters a fortification, and I realized I needed a layout for it. (It’s used more than once, too, so the effort is worthwhile.) I pulled up MSPaint and created the land mass, then imported it into MS Visio to actually create the walls and such. An hour or so later, with a few adjustments, the map was ready to go. The intention is to have it included with the book, but it will be redone one more time to make it look more realistic, but what you see in the picture works for now.
The book itself now sits at just over 82,000 words, with a projected length of around 100,000 words. I am hoping to finish it this week, but I think end of next week is more likely. A new series takes longer to create than an existing one, since I have to create maps, characters and plot out the entire story arc. How long will The Frozen Flame series be? I have no idea. At least four books, but more than likely it will be higher as the more I write, the more I come up with other ideas. The first book, Ashes, includes another character, Brother Cyric. One day, I hope to spin him off into a series of mystery type stories. He’ll also act as a crossover character, appearing in other series that I have planned. (Yes, I know, sooo many series, but I’ll take them a few at a time.) Once I’ve done writing Ashes, it’ll be back to the world of Merceria. Burden of the Crown has been much on my mind of late, and I can’t wait for the story to unfold. Until next time, Keep Reading!
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AuthorPaul Bennett is a self-published author of Epic Fantasy books. Archives
September 2019
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