The Twisting Path Of Caina Amalas: A Somewhat Rambling Retrospective

I have to admit, listening to the CHILD OF THE GHOSTS audiobook has put me into an uncharacteristically reflective mood.

(Note that this following post contains !!!SPOILERS!!! for all 21 GHOSTS books.)

Though I do know why. I didn’t know this until last year, but if you listen to someone else read (or, really, perform) your book, it lets you see the book from the outside, as it were, in the way that you never could otherwise. Like, I’ve been writing about Caina in some form or another since 2007. The series has sold over 230,000 copies since I started self-publishing in 2011. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about Caina and her world and the characters (eleven years!), but this was the first time in those eleven years I really got to see it from the outside.

I’ve had a lot of people tell me that Chapter 4 of CHILD OF THE GHOSTS is the make-or-break point for them. That’s the chapter where Maglarion harvests Caina’s blood for her bloodcrystal and leaves her barren in the process. I’ve had a lot of people tell me (or complain at me) that they threw aside the book in disgust at that point. Or they deleted it in disgust from their Kindles, since Kindles are expensive and throwing them is unwise and wasteful. That said, if people do get through Chapter 4, they’re usually hooked, and they’re so hooked that in a few weeks I’m going to start the 22nd book about Caina.

Some of you already know that I wrote GHOST IN THE FLAMES (book 2) and GHOST IN THE BLOOD (book 3) several years before I wrote CHILD OF THE GHOSTS (book 1). That’s why there are little bits of continuity drift between those three books. I thought I got them all but you always miss something. But, that’s just like life. The 2018 version of Jonathan Moeller weighs 120 pounds less than the 2008 version of Jonathan Moeller who wrote GHOST IN THE FLAMES? Clearly the writer got lazy and forgot details!