As said in a previous post, I'm taking a break from writing this summer, and it may extend into autumn and possibly the end of the year. Since I started writing The Ardwellian Chronicles in March of 2005 I've had literally no breaks other than a few weeks between books when I was editing and preparing for publication. And once I completed Book Four, Kaanan's Way, I began to realize it had been seven years since I started.
That's quite a stretch to write continuously, and it's been a great ride, but I needed a break, and I'm only now beginning to understand some of the reasons.
First, of course is, it's been seven years. Secondly, I have finally admitted to myself these four books (Secret Fire, Dark Way of Anger, Secrets of the Second Sun, and Kaanan's Way) are the books I really wanted to write. They contain the characters I love most, the relationships I've nurtured and fed and coddled, the bad guys I thoroughly love to write, and the land of Ardwel grown in all its glory and adventure. And I have also realized, I'm not sure exactly how to continue.
This is a situation all writers of continuing sagas face eventually; at some point there comes a time when they look at what they have created and ask themselves "is it enough?". My answer is "no", but to continue I must set aside something dear to me; the love of what has been created, the history and legend, and the characters as we left them at the end of Kaanan's Way. For there is darkness in the future of Ardwel, and disdain, and little regard for what has gone before, by new characters to be introduced for the story to continue.
And this, too, is a trying time for authors of sagas; when they take their creation in a new and different path, forsaking all accomplishments and snuffing the torch that lights the way. I gave hints of this at the end of Kaanan's Way, and readers who have perused the pages have asked "now what?".
Indeed.
So it's going to take a bit of time for me to change the mental gears and set my mind on a new course; one of darkness and deceit, treachery and self-serving, politicing and back-room deals, things I have not explored in Ardwel. Still, it could be fun.
Be patient; it will be a challenge to set down the words to come, as it will to accept what now follows with the families Calidriil, Lahai, and Vincent.
I hope I don't dishonor the triumphs of the past in Ardwel, but more; I hope I don't disappoint the readers who have been so loyal.
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