QUEST OF FIRE FRIDAY: ABOUT AN ARC
Hello there,
It’s another (late) #QuestOfFireFriday! I hope this finds you well and thoroughly enthralled with the season of Lent as we count down to celebrating Christ’s resurrection at the end of the month! I know for some Easter means candy toting bunnies, fluffy chicks, and baskets of eggs; but I like to remember that every fiber, every cell, every atom within every bunny, chick, and egg yearn for the restoration of all things. And every day brings us one day closer to that longed for era because Christ is risen indeed!
As promised, I’m sharing the title for the penultimate book in Quest of Fire. Book 6 is titled QUEST OF FIRE: DEVASTATION.
There are a lot of arcs in Quest of Fire, for individual characters, couples, and even the sides in each era’s central conflict. For the novellas, I had originally planned to do one off stories centering on individuals who happened to be in the midst of the central point of conflict at that moment. They would flesh out some of the story world that couldn’t be seen in the novels and tell tighter, more personal stories. I knew Devastation would feature the point in the War for Restoration hitting its ultimate snag, which drags everything Viceroy Ecthelion and those supporting him were building into ruins and pushes everyone into the final battles in Book 7. Monarch Ilyron is going to majorly tip his hand in this one and start bringing into perspective some things that have been left unanswered since The Gathering Dark (Book 1). So, this title has been with me pretty much since I wrote Succession (first novella and companion to The Gathering Dark).
I decided on the personal story I wanted to tell was going to be for a character familiar to those who have read the series who may not be as cared for as he deserves, especially given he was really critical to the whole thing. If you’ve read any of my posts about my method of writing, you already know, I’m not a plotter and I’m not a pantser. I prefer the term explorer. I know where I’m headed, but I like discovering things along the way. But this time, I thought I needed to plot it all out. It would save time, come out cleaner, and I wouldn’t be stressed. I wrote up a nice treatise with my mapped out story and set it aside so I could focus on finishing Resurgence of Dawn and Silent Stars. Sometime after they were both submitted to their publisher, I sat down to start writing the first chapter of Devastation. It immediately began pouring out as a story about completely different characters! A continuation of Thomas, Mia, and Gregor’s story. The more I pushed and strained at it, the more theirs just felt like the right story to tell now. It completes an arc across the novellas I hadn’t originally seen, so that all three almost have a mirror effect from start to finish.
I love it when stories show you the ending in the beginning and the beginning in the end so-to-speak. It looks like Devastation is going to do that for the Quest of Fire novellas, so I’m really excited for where the story is going to take everyone. I learned that style of story development from the greatest Author. And I don’t think it’s a stretch to say my love for stories that reflect the beginning and end on each other is 100% because I, like all the rest of Creation am yearning for the ending that resembles the beginning. The promise of eternity in perfect fellowship with God, glimpsed in the Garden of Eden, promised across the ages by prophets, and made possible by Christ’s resurrection. The LORD said in Isaiah 46:8-10:
“Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose…’”
As much as I long and look forward to sharing the closing books of Quest of Fire with everyone, I’m looking and longing even more to getting to see the LORD bring the story He began in Genesis through to its culmination in Revelation which climaxed in the focal point of Lent, Christ’s resurrection.
Thank you for joining me today and reading to the end! I hope you have a wonderful Lent that is completed with an impactful Easter. He is risen indeed and because He is we all can have hope for a tomorrow ever fair, which is my deepest desire for you. May the Lord bless and be with you always.
