A story always starts with an idea. It may be a simple one, uncomplicated and straightforward. It could be a story huge in scope, involving scores of characters and interweaving plotlines. Other times, it starts as one and evolves into the other.
So it was with the story of Mace, the Houseman. It began its life as a straightforward story of loss and revenge. But as I began building the world in which Mace lives, its culture, history, and the interactions between its characters, it started to grow into a tale that couldn’t be contained in a single book. There were too many threads that couldn’t be woven into a single package. The fates of the characters needed to be explored. Why and how things had happened needed to be better explained and fleshed out.
Expanding an evolving story leads to a lot of editing. It also means that some of what has already been written has to be supplemented to include foreshadowing, backstory, or to show why things happen the way they do in the story. Some of the old ends up on the cutting room floor as the direction of the story changes, warping into something different. Important things might become less important. Trivial things take on added weight.
Thus, The Houseman evolved into the first book in The Pentad Archives. Then it became Deceit – Book One of The Pentad Archives. When my cover designer began asking me specifics about what I wanted the cover of the first book to feel and look like, I realized that The Pentad Archives just didn’t give the reader any hint of where the story was going. After running through dozens of trial names, I finally settled on Deceit – Book One – Masks of Discord. The story is humming along, still evolving, but getting closer to what I hope others will enjoy as much as I do