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When I was working on the outline for Maelstrom (The Frozen Flame, Book Four), I wanted the story to overlap with the events of my other series, Power Ascending. Having just completed writing Temple Captain, it was easy to tie the stories together as it occurs in the Duchy of Reinwick. This area is featured prominently in the history of Ludwig Altenburg, appearing in both Warrior Knight and the upcoming Warrior Lord books.
As a result, I have an area rich in local history, not only derived from my own history of Eiddenwerthe, but from the events of a previous book. Does that mean you need to read Temple Captain before you read Vortex? Not at all, but you may get more out of it if you do. One of my intents in writing all my series was to introduce a dynamic world where the actions of individuals have a lasting impact on the world at large. I could have simply written a book and explained the region's entire history. However, I think it’s far more interesting to witness the events as they happen. Until next time, Happy reading!
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One of the things I like about writing is the idea of threads tying different series together. I’m in the middle of writing Vortex (The Frozen Flame - Book 6), and this story, more than any other, is directly influenced by the events of Temple Captain (Power Ascending - Book 3).
It was quite intentional and shows the effect one person’s actions can have on the world at large. In this case, Temple Captain Charlaine changed the entire political situation in the north, which Athgar and Natalia (The Frozen Flame) are now discovering for themselves ten years later. There’s much more to come, of course, but you’ll have to wait a little longer to see how Ludwig makes his mark on history, when Warrior Lord goes live (Power Ascending – Book 4). Until then, suffice it to say there’s a major shakeup coming to the land of Eiddenwerthe! Many aspiring authors begin by writing just one book, a story that starts and finishes in a single volume. Then there's me. I wanted to tell a larger story about a kingdom's rise to greatness. There are plenty of books about such places and heroes who are already skilled at swordplay, but I wanted to tell how they got to those heights. Thus, the Heir to the Crown series was born.
From the very beginning, the characters would grow and evolve. How did Anna become queen, and why does she rule the way she does? Why is Beverly so good with weapons, and how did Albreda become the most powerful mage in all the land? I also saw the plotline developing over many books—fifteen, to be exact. The first saga, consisting of the first five books, tells how Anna became the Queen of Merceria. The second saga, books six to ten, reveal the consolidation of her power and the rise of Merceria and their allies as a powerful military force. The last saga, books eleven to fifteen, will expand their horizons, bringing them into contact with the kingdoms of the Continent. All of this also ties in with my other series. The Frozen Flame deals with the eventual re-emergence of Therengia as a military power in Eiddenwerthe, while Power Ascending covers the rise of two of the most influential leaders in all the Petty Kingdoms: Charlaine deShandria, Temple Knight, and Ludwig Altenburg, eventual ruler of a military dynasty. Not to be forgotten are the Chronicles of Cyric, about a Temple Knight of Saint Mathew who acts as an investigator for his order. Though his stories are, for the most part, smaller in scope, his influence is felt not only in The Frozen Flame but also in Power Ascending. And all because I didn't want to write a stand-alone book! Until next time, Happy reading! I've just started writing Into the Forge, the working title for my next Mercerian Tale. It concerns the exploits of Herdwin Steelarm and Kasri Ironheart, two characters taken from the pages of the Heir to the Crown series.
This time they're not marching to war. Instead, they're going on a more personal journey to the place of Herdwin's birth—the Dwarven stronghold of Stonecastle. It seems the past has finally caught up with the master smith of Wincaster, and now he must deal with the repercussions. Ah, well. At least this time he has Kasri along to help him out. With Triumph of the Crown releasing on the 22nd, I’ve been spending some time outlining future installments of the series. Triumph marks book ten out of fifteen volumes, but more importantly, it brings a large story arc to its conclusion.
Heir to the Crown was always imagined as a “Grand Trilogy”, consisting of three long story arcs spread over a total of fifteen books. Of course, that doesn’t include the Mercerian Tales. The first story arc concerned the rise of Anna from lost little girl to Queen of Merceria. The second group of five, starting with Burden of the Crown, began the next installment, that of securing the throne against foreign threats. Naturally, that’s an oversimplification of the plot, but you get the idea. Now, the third set of stories is all about…sorry, I can’t reveal that just yet. You’ll have to wait and see. Until next time, Happy reading! I've been putting my mind towards creating a board game that covers the events of the Heir to the Crown series. At the moment, it's only designed for two players, but if it works out, it should be easy enough to add additional players. My inspiration for this was an old Avalon Hill game called Kingmaker, in which each player controls a faction of nobles struggling to gain control of the crown.
My game, however, will be quite a bit different. I'll use a map of Merceria broken down into regions, some representing cities, others wilderness areas. The idea is that the players struggle to claim the Kingdom's throne by either a military victory (destroying the other player's armies) or by holding enough nobles to control the Nobles Council (in this case, two-thirds of the nobles' votes) Even though it uses cards to represent the major characters, players are not restricted to having a particular hero from a specific faction. Thus, for example, the character of Gerald or Beverly could just as easily be employed by the King's side should the player draw the right card.As the game is meant to be enjoyable, it may result in extra characters needing to be created to help balance things out. I have a very rough draft at the moment but have yet to print out the markers representing the various companies of warriors. I must admit, though, the map looks fantastic! Until next time, Happy reading! (or perhaps I should say happy gaming!) This week my computer decided to sabotage my writing. Well, to be exact, it was OneDrive that caused the problem. I was halfway through the afternoon and sixteen hundred words into writing a new chapter, when a message popped up indicating that OneDrive wasn’t responding. The problem, of course, is that OneDrive is my primary storage for all my stories. Moments later, Scrivener errored out along with my work in progress.
This by itself is not a catastrophe because the program backs up regularly. I rebooted my computer, opened up Scrivener and rapidly discovered that the entire afternoon’s work had mysteriously vanished. OneDrive was now working again, but my automatic backup had failed somewhere along the line. It was frustrating, to say the least, especially since I had been deep into an important scene that I now had to try to recreate. (Yes, we did try looking for backup files, but they were nowhere to be found.) I did manage to get out another 1500 words, but the result wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. The next morning, Carol discovered that OneDrive automatically makes backups, though they are only available through the web-based interface. Through her diligent work, we recovered the missing chapter, and everything is now looking much better. She has once again saved the day with her determination and perseverance when I was ready to throw in the towel. I shall ever be grateful. Until next time, happy reading. This week marks the four-year anniversary of publishing my first book, Servant of the Crown. Back then, I wrote part-time while still working as an IT instructor. It wasn’t my first stab at writing, for I’d been trying to finish a novel for years, but I always ended up losing my way in terms of plot. Servant of the Crown was a big turning point for me because I actually developed an outline first.
Using this as a roadmap, I was able to finish the tale, though I didn’t publish it immediately, moving on, instead, to Sword of the Crown. It wasn’t until I’d completed book two that I went back and made some changes to my original story. The most significant development, however, was my wife, Carol, agreeing to join me as editor & marketer. Together, we were successful enough that two and a half years after releasing Servant, I quit my job and became a full-time author. Now, here I sit, four years later with twenty-plus books to my name, and I’m having the time of my life! I finished Temple Captain last week, and it got me thinking. Cyric’s origin story introduced the character of Captain Giselle. Giselle, in turn, became a mentor to Sister Charlaine, thus setting off a chain of events in Temple Knight.
In addition, Giselle’s actions in that same origin story come back into focus in Temple Captain. Not only that, but A Midwinter Murder, another Cyric story, introduced yet another character who plays a prominent role in Temple Captain! It seems the Temple Knight of Saint Mathew has more influence on the world of Eiddenwerthe than I had thought. I can hardly wait to see what else he’s been up to. I was doing some research this week and found myself reading about the history of playing cards. They appear to have started in China, sometime around the 9th century. There are also references to Mamluk cards in Persia and Arabia. Perhaps of more interest, though, are the suits used, with some examples being coins, clubs, jugs, and swords.
In Europe, the first reference seems to be 1367 (some say 1377 is the first). These were likely adapted from the Mamluk cards, with the suits now consisting of cups, coins, swords, and polo sticks. Interestingly enough, polo sticks were a relatively unknown item in Europe, so this evolved into batons or cudgels (or clubs, as we now call it). This is, of course, a quick overview. The actual history of cards is far more interesting than my simple summary. Until next time, Happy reading! |
AuthorPaul Bennett, Writer of Epic Fantasy Stories. Archives
June 2022
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