When Stories Take a Twist

So, my latest project was supposed to be another novella and then a short story. I'd just finished up "Shades of the Fallen," a novella that takes place after "Ascent of the Fallen" and the arch angel Nathanial's tragic story was just waiting to be told. We learned a little bit about it in Ascent, but I was sure there would be more to it than just what Nathanial told Rue. I was right.

I decided to set the story in Ireland during the Christianization, after St. Patrick's death. So, I dove into research and decided that it was going to be a nice little twenty page novella. Then, I thought, hmmm... the dark angel Semiazas who we met in Ascent is a very interesting character. I wonder what his story is? What could drive one of the first of the angels, and Simeon's brother, to make a deal with the devil and found the Fallen Isles. Well, then Semiazas's story and Nathanial's started to weave around one another. Then the demon Asmoday stuck his nose in and things got really complicated.

It's interesting when a story takes a turn like that. I thought I was going to have a nice little novella and a short story. Well, at 23,000 words I think I'm about a third of the way through. I keep finding all these loose ends that need to be tied off and ways to weave them back into the story. I know where it's supposed to go. I know how it's supposed to end and that's half the battle. It's a much more interesting and complicated of a story than it had been. It's actually changed titles as well. It was supposed to be called Trials of the Fallen because Nathanial was going to face a trial. Then when Semiazas stuck his oar in it became First of the Fallen and Trials got pushed back into a later book. Actually, this story gave the idea on how to wrap up this entire Fallen story arc. I have seven books total planned and it's a glorious and heady thing. Well, I have seven books planned right now. We'll see if I actually stay on that track. These books seem to always start out as novellas and have a tendency to get away from me. What a wonderful problem to have.

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