Well, well, well. And so here we are. The big “reveal” of what’s to come next for the Marcuria series. There are a couple of points I would like to get to, but let me start here: I don’t like to read long, drawn-out series, so I don’t want Marcuria to be one of those. I would like it to go four books maximum, maybe five. Of course, I will go wherever the story takes me, and I will do whatever the story demands. If I can’t bring about a satisfying conclusion after five books, then I will go longer with a series. The last thing I would ever want to do is a hasty wrap-up—that’s not fair to you, the reader. Your time is valuable, so I wouldn’t want you to feel like you wasted even a minute reading my stuff. All I’m saying is that I’d like to avoid writing long, drawn-out series. Are we done fighting here? Okay, good. Moving on.
Unfortunately, I can't get into specifics concerning the direction of the Marcuria series since I don't want to spoil any upcoming surprises. Just know that I do enjoy reading / writing several genres of books, so you may see more genre-blending and the application of varying writing styles to create highly entertaining reads.
Okay, I’m done cryptically explaining what's to come. I want to talk about what I’m working on now.
I just finished draft number two of a standalone companion novel to the series, and I'm letting it rest for a couple of weeks before diving into the final draft. This novel, tentatively titled A Reason to Hope covers completely different subject matter than the rest of the series, yet it bridges volumes one and two. Since I don’t want to spoil anything, I won’t reveal how it ties in; you’ll have to just trust me that it does.
What I will reveal is that the genre of this novel is quite different from the rest of the series in that the fantasy elements are minimal. First and foremost, it is a contemporary story examining a topic I’d wanted to write about since working on the first book. People who don’t understand me (which is everyone) will be rather shocked that I even have a tale like this in me.
I am very excited to get this book done and show it to you. Readers who aren’t necessarily fans of the fantasy genre will be sucked in by this one, just as I believe they can be sucked into Marcuria’s End, by the overall themes and the insights into my earliest struggles with debilitating mental illness, if they are willing to give it a chance.
When will A Reason to Hope be published? 2014. I’ll keep you posted.
As for additional companion novels that bridge volumes in this series, I’m not sure if there will be more than this one. It depends on whether the story adds anything of substance to the universe I’ve created or not. Something I’ll have to think about. I can tell you that with certainty that if I feel a particular story has to be written and it can’t wait (as was the case with A Reason to Hope), then I’ll write more companion novels for sure.
Since the world of Marcuria is so ripe and full of compelling history, intrigue, hidden and secret things (artifacts waiting to be dug up, ruins to be explored), interesting and compelling characters, there is a lot to “novel” about. A lot to chew on there.
On another note, since Marcuria’s End begins at the beginning of the end of Marcuria, I would be thrilled to write a series of prequels featuring the mysterious characters of this series, and others briefly mentioned, whose backstories include accounts of the world- and universe-shaping events they were involved in: amazing adventures, daring feats, and all that.
If I do prequels, there are a few characters I’d love to focus on that have really interesting backstories. Stranger is one of those characters for sure (he is a lot of fun to write). I would love to discover who he used to be and how he came to be the crazy, messed-up being he is currently in the series. He must have done a lot of horrible things to himself to gain so much power; I’d like to find out why and how. And I think Silent Wolf, the leader of the Saplings, would be intriguing to explore as well. I would love to learn who he was before the Saplings, how he came to be, the sacrifices he had to make to become a Sapling, and why he chose that life instead of continuing to dwell among mankind.
Besides these types of novels, a few Indiana-Jones-style adventure novels set on Marcuria might be awesome. There is a huge artifact gathering effort underway by a particular group I won’t mention, so it would be fun to write about someone sent in to disrupt and sabotage those operations and to steal the artifacts that have already been discovered before they’re lost to history. “They belong in a museum, not in the hands of Nazis!” (the crazy, dimension-hopping main character’s catch phrase). Kidding about that last part. Would be fun to write a book like this though. Hmmm. . .
All right, so that’s it for this blog post. Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for the next entry where I will go over my writing goals for 2014 and beyond (just so you know when to expect new books and stuff).
