The Young Sorceress

The Young Sorceress was the only book in the Senta and the Steel Dragon series that was difficult to write.  I came up with an overly complicated plot, again fitting it between two already written books.  This was more difficult than before because of the momentous events that happened in books three and five of the series.  Instead of following the characters and switching viewpoint with each chapter, I decided to follow the format in Brechalon and switch from character to character several times during a chapter. The result was that I really love parts of this book and don’t care too much for others.  One of the main goals was to tell the back story of Isaak Wissinger, who would appear in book five.  I really love that storyline.  Another was to set up Kieran Baxter’s return in book six.  I don’t think this worked out nearly as well, though I love the character as he appears in the later book.  The Senta story sections quickly became very unwieldy to write, though I think the reader can follow them.  I ended up cutting a lot of things that seemed cool when I thought them up but sounded silly once I wrote them. After editing, this was the shortest Senta book.

The Two Dragons

I was finally ready to publish The Two Dragons, over five years after I had written it.  It required much more revision than the two other parts of the original Steel Dragon manuscript had, because of the additional stories.  One of the biggest changes was the elimination of a long epilog that told the stories of every character for the rest of their lives.  I had decided now to continue the series on, so it wasn’t needed or wanted.  Instead, I wrote a new ending that jumped a bit into the future and set up the next book.  I had written this months earlier for fun, not really expecting to use it, but there you go.

The Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton

I was really tired of serious material after writing The Young Sorceress and revising The Two Dragons.  I decided before I was done that I would return to Eaglethorpe Buxton. I had gotten a lot of feedback on the previous stories and quite a few good reviews, so I thought I should continue Eaglethorpe’s adventures.  Rather than write a long story, I plotted out three stories, each as long as Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess.  Adding the three of them together with the two previous stories resulted in a pretty long book.  The first of the new stories: Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Queen of Aerithraine had been in my mind for some time.  It was a natural continuation of the story in Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress.  Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Amazons, I plotted out while writing the previous story.  I was completely done with both before I plotted out Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Day of the Night of the Werewolf, though I had already come up with the title.  I had as much fun writing the new Eaglethorpe stories as I had written the early ones.  I’m pretty happy with the book, but sadly it is one of my poorest sellers.