How the story progressed - Quests

An autographed copy of Quests will be given to one person who lets me know how to reach them.

Quests is the third book in a series. The quests in the story are three. The now nine young teens now must find more of the gems that enhance their affinities, the remaining young people iwth affinities to round out their group of sixteen, four in each affinity and the remaining talismans they use with their affinities, fire sword, flute, scrying cup and staff of living wood. I happen to like casts of thousands. Somehow at least for this story I needed all these characters, though the four plus one are featured in the story. Multiple viewpoints in the book allow me to show what's happening and to move from one event to the other. Makes writing a bit complicated since one is switching characters.

During each of the quests the characters face different problems and find their solutions using their affinities for the elements. One group must face rain and more rain bringing dangers of damaged bridges and sink holes. Another group faces the desert and an underground area with rasis and scorpons. Not very nice creatures. The third group must find a new viewpoint character and her sister who are being pursued by two groups of bad guys. This story has action in plenty.

Part of the interesting thing to me was in having the characters mature. They are facing danger and there is the evil Dom Senet and his minions to avoid. A group of these are four boys with affinities subverted by Dom Senet. One is his son. This fact leaped out at me and pointed me to the ending in the fourth book. Still waiting to hear if it's going to be published by the one who has the other three.

Quests was a fun part of the series to write and devising dangers without repeating myself was a challenge.

18th July - Week ahead and week behind

A look at the past week saw me sending a Sudden Seduction off to the publisher and hope to hear from them soon. Now I have two stories, one a novella and one a book waiting to hear from editors. Have started and will restart The Pharaoh of Horu since my first start at a rough draft was falling short and want to have the hero and heroine together by chapter 3 so the book flows like the first of the trilogy. Always have false starts when I begin a book but I know where this is going. Do like quest books where people have to find things. Received the cover for The Henge Betrayed -- Quests. It's an interesting cover but I have no visual sense. I'm so glad I'm not an artist since I have no idea how things should look. Hope the artist isn't too upset with me but I'll live with the cover and so will the readers. Still don't have a release date but should be soon.

This week coming I'll be immersing myself in Egypt again and in the alternate world there. The hero is Seth, a name that could make trouble for him in his new world. The heroine is Merin who appeared in the first book. This should be fun once I get all the seedlings planted and sprouting.

My Writing life

Another interesting week. On Friday I signed the contract for Quests the third in the Henge Betrayed series. That makes four contracts in three months. I had a dry spell before so the last part of this year is productive. The signing of this contract means I have to get moving on the final book of the series. It's about 2 fifths done and hopefully before the end of the year I'll write finis.

Started a new bit on this blog on Saturday. This is the two sentence synopsis, something I do before I begin every book to help me stay on target. For me it works and hopefully other people will see that it might help them.

On the personal side, granddaughter has come for a visit and hopefully a stay with getting back to school and life in order. She's a Gemini with a multitude of talents and has a bit of trouble deciding what she wants to do with her life.