The sweet sadness of ending a series
I'm in Mourning
I have just finished writing Book 5, Angel Blessed, the final book in my Angel Caste series and I do not feel relieved and I certainly do feel like celebrating. I feel sad, bereft and lonely. It's like my best friends have gone overseas, or worse still, died.
I have very vague memories of feeling this way when I completed The Kira Chronicles, but not when I completed The Emerald Serpent, Heart Hunter or The Third Moon. These three books were shorter and stand alones. So is that the difference?
Emotional Connection
The Kira Chronicles and Angel Caste are both about 300,000 words in total which are a lot of words to spend with characters. It is also a long time. Angel Caste took from 2012 to write because I interrupted it twice to write other books, something I'll never do again. The Kira Chronicles had a longer gestation but a shorter writing time. One way or other, I spent years with these characters, and I felt for them, and in some cases loved them. I have laughed at my desk, sworn at my desk, and cried at my desk as I've shared their lives.
Plot Complexity
Angel Caste really stretched me, which is what I intended, but marrying the spiritual story line of the three angels with the daimon/human story line was difficult in Books 1-4, and then bringing the plot threads together in Book 5, exhilarating and exhausting. As a pantser, I have a lot of faith in the unconscious and was confident it held the answers, but the actual spade work of writing is via the conscious mind, and boy, was that hard.
I also had two very damaged characters who had to turn down the path of healing. Pulling this off required a lot of thought about motivations, actions and reactions, which again, stretched me. This is truly a Deep Fantasy narrative and one I'm proud of.
Saying Goodbye
While I'm still editing, the story is done. I have been privileged to share the journey with these characters, but now I'm leaving them to get on with their lives. Do I feel tempted to use my created worlds for other characters and other stories? No. Allogrenia, Sarnia and Kessom belonged to Kira, Caledon and Tierken. Ezam, Esh-accom and the Scinta-ril belongs to Thris, Viv and Ataghan. I have other worlds to discover, and other journeys to take.
I have just finished writing Book 5, Angel Blessed, the final book in my Angel Caste series and I do not feel relieved and I certainly do feel like celebrating. I feel sad, bereft and lonely. It's like my best friends have gone overseas, or worse still, died.
I have very vague memories of feeling this way when I completed The Kira Chronicles, but not when I completed The Emerald Serpent, Heart Hunter or The Third Moon. These three books were shorter and stand alones. So is that the difference?
Emotional Connection
The Kira Chronicles and Angel Caste are both about 300,000 words in total which are a lot of words to spend with characters. It is also a long time. Angel Caste took from 2012 to write because I interrupted it twice to write other books, something I'll never do again. The Kira Chronicles had a longer gestation but a shorter writing time. One way or other, I spent years with these characters, and I felt for them, and in some cases loved them. I have laughed at my desk, sworn at my desk, and cried at my desk as I've shared their lives.
Plot Complexity
Angel Caste really stretched me, which is what I intended, but marrying the spiritual story line of the three angels with the daimon/human story line was difficult in Books 1-4, and then bringing the plot threads together in Book 5, exhilarating and exhausting. As a pantser, I have a lot of faith in the unconscious and was confident it held the answers, but the actual spade work of writing is via the conscious mind, and boy, was that hard.
I also had two very damaged characters who had to turn down the path of healing. Pulling this off required a lot of thought about motivations, actions and reactions, which again, stretched me. This is truly a Deep Fantasy narrative and one I'm proud of.
Saying Goodbye
While I'm still editing, the story is done. I have been privileged to share the journey with these characters, but now I'm leaving them to get on with their lives. Do I feel tempted to use my created worlds for other characters and other stories? No. Allogrenia, Sarnia and Kessom belonged to Kira, Caledon and Tierken. Ezam, Esh-accom and the Scinta-ril belongs to Thris, Viv and Ataghan. I have other worlds to discover, and other journeys to take.
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