As I write this, I had a great day improving the draft I have a prequel to the Herezoth trilogy.

It’s a redemption story. I love it so much! I think I love it as much as any of my other stories.

It’s the first novel I’ve written since The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope with a single point of view character, for one. I’ve enjoyed that.

And I’ve REALLY enjoyed spending more time with Zalski! He’s just my favorite of all my villains, by a long way. He’s dynamic and engaging and deliciously evil in his way, as well as principled.

Anyways, I’ve been concerned with the last sections of this prequel for a couple of reasons.

First, there were scenes that were fine in and of themselves but (when considered in light of the trilogy) cause some continuity issues. If things happen here in the prequel the way I wrote them in the first draft, there are moments in the trilogy where characters would make other decisions than they do.

Second, I feel like it had pacing issues. I pass over a good period of months, almost a year, and I wasn’t sure it worked well.

Well, today I realized that if I took one scene from the start of that end section, moved it closer to the novel’s actual end, and changed the location in which it occurred, I would pretty much solve the continuity issues I was concerned about completely.

It worked GREAT.

It even helped somewhat with the pacing issue. Also, it was fun to switch out one of my favorite characters who played a sidekick role in the scene (Lanokas) for another favorite (Laskenay) and see how I had to tweak the dialogue and action beats a bit, given their different personalities.

Luckily, the role of Lanokas (now Laskenay) here is mainly to ask questions and receive information, so it was a relatively easy swap to make that didn’t cause any major issues plot-wise.

I also have an idea for a new scene I can add within that “jumped over” year. Not only will this help further to even out pacing, but it will also:

• add more context and clarity regarding a scheme the League has
• help show more of the sibling relationship that is the main focus of the redemption story
• give a chance to show (rather than tell) some of protagonist Verony Staid’s growth and maturation at this point in the story

So basically, the prequel is going well. Thanks for asking 🙂