Introducing Heart of a Kingdom – Available Now!

Every novel series has its expansion story. Most start as a single book and expand outward as the writer develops them. This has happened to me so many times, I’ve ceased to be surprised. In fact, I expect it. And I nod sagely and knowingly every time I hear another author talk about the subject.

Most of my stories start as trilogies, at least in my head. Since a single book in my brain is often 3 on paper, that means most of my stories start with somewhere between 3 and 9 installments. So I was prepared for the Aruvalia Chronicles to be lengthy when I started it. Especially since it features one of my most talkative characters – Domerin – as the main character.

But something interesting happened after I conceived of the Aruvalia Chronicles. Rather than filling in the details of the story, the main character started telling me other stories. Stories that took place in different worlds entirely, though they featured many of the same characters.

I was expecting the story to grow outward, but not sideways. Even so, I happily embraced all the various incarnations of Domerin that arrived to flesh out the details of their stories. (That’s why he appears so often in my various blog shorts.)

But eventually, I looked with some dismay at my original outline and realized that it felt lacking compared to Domerin’s other tales. How could I expect people to embrace the secondary stories when the original incarnation seemed to lack the epic qualities found elsewhere? I considered skipping Aruvalia Chronicles all together.

But that would have been a mistake. Because it turns out, I simply hadn’t probed deep enough to discover the story’s best parts.

I judged my story too soon

Sometimes the only way to fully plumb the depths of a story is to prod at it. I knew I wanted the Aruvalia Chronicles to be 3 books from the start, which meant it was probably going to turn into 9. But I assumed that only the first 6 would follow Domerin. The last 3 were meant to feature other characters.

That meant I had a limited time to tell my story. But it also felt fairly contained – until I peeled back its first layer.

A few times I have mentioned that I had to re-write an entire outline because a minor character decided to become a major character’s love interest. Aruvalia Chronicles was that story. I thought I had planned Domerin’s long-term connections. But when I introduced a friend to assist him with his duties, the outline turned on its head.

Erasing my plans in favor of this new relationship worked perfectly. Not only did the new pairing fit the story better, the new love interest brought a more varied and interesting past into the mix. Instead of settling down into what was likely to be a quiet life of serving his duty, several new avenues of storytelling opened up.

And once I started looking into one character’s past, I couldn’t help peering into the past of others – including Domerin himself. I quickly realized I had overlooked a lot of untapped story potential and adjusted my plans accordingly.

Suddenly my 9 book fragmented series became 12 books with more concrete connections – and felt a lot more epic than my initial outline.

The picture was more detailed than anticipated

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that you can’t fully understand the shape of a story until you’ve reached the end of it once. This is why I try to wait until I reach the end of a novel’s first draft before I start working on edits.

But it turns out the same thing is also true of a series. Until you discover all of its interconnected parts, it’s hard to be sure how long it’s going to be or where the characters are going to end up. So it shocked me a little bit when I realized there was less of a time gap than I anticipated between the first installments of the Aruvalia Chronicles and the last installments. Rather than disconnected, the story flowed straight through every installment – I had simply missed a few of the connections when I wrote my original outline.

When I finally discovered the thread that ran through the center of my series, it surprised me. It wasn’t what I expected. But it also made perfect sense based on all the little building blocks that led up to it. And since I use draft cycling to move both forward and backward through the writing of my series, I was able to shore up all those little clues so that the details would provide a truly stunning reveal when the moment of truth arrived.

I’m glad I didn’t give up on this series. And I’m glad I didn’t force it to be minimal because I encountered a bunch of other shiny ideas along the way. Writing this tale has taught me a lot, so I’m grateful I stuck with it. I hope you’ll get an equivalent amount of joy out of reading it!

Heart of a Kingdom is Available Now!

When the truth has been buried
A warrior must expose the lies
Even if all other ears seem deaf

In order to safeguard Aruvalia’s throne and prevent the looming threat of war, Domerin has committed a heinous crime. His former work partner, Gregory Barrow, is aware of the transgression and hell bent on bringing him to justice. But that isn’t the indomitable warrior’s biggest problem.

In order to finish his mission and ensure his sacrifice isn’t all for naught, Domerin must infiltrate one of Aruvalia’s most notorious and dangerous criminal complexes – and he must do it alone, without the aid of a support team or even the powerful sorcerer who assisted him in Ebonhollow. Failure means death at the hands of Aruvalia’s greatest enemy. But success might mean exile even if he restores Aruvalia’s rightful heir to her throne.

Clara and her mysterious voice are determined not to let a terrible fate befall their precious protector. But in order to guide him through the worst of the challenge ahead, they have to accompany him – and Domerin is determined not to put Clara in danger a second time. Not after the horrors of Ebonhollow.

While Clara and her mysterious friend race to find a way to circumvent Domerin’s protective arrangements, Domerin descends into the lion’s den to face off against a powerful sorcerer, his crazed ex-boyfriend, and the tenacity of the man he used to work with side by side – all to determine the fate of his beloved kingdom. But can he emerge in one piece? And if he does, what fate will await him on the other side?

Grab your copy now!