What Took You So Long? What Is Coming After? #ValespianPactQandA #CostantVP3

I debated whether or not I would add this topic to this week’s posts simply because I’ve talked about it in small pieces here and there. I also added an Author’s Note to Constant explaining so people would know, but there hasn’t been anything on the blog, and it felt weird not addressing why it took so long for me to write the next book in the Valespian Pact.

Part of the reason is the length. It took me two years to write the 250,000 words that makes up Constant. In reality, the word count is higher because Constant went through some grueling re-writes and I threw away content/chapters right and left. Some things I learned in that two years: Never write another story that shares a timeline with another book. Never, ever again, Lexi. 250k is a killer manuscript to edit in a timely manner. We are talking about months and months of edits and I’m positive things were missed that I’m completely blind to. 250k, when printed out, makes a very nice fire and burns longer than I thought it would. After so many words, I am done, done, done with all the people in the book. They need not darken my muse’s doorway for a very long time. The characters are like family that has stayed way too long, and I just can’t talk to them right now.

Another reason it took so long to write the next book in the series is because I was working on the wrong book. In the winter of 2016-2017 I was writing Bespoken, and my best friend got sick and I spent three weeks with her in hospice until she passed away. Grief hit me harder than I was braced for. My father had passed two years earlier and at the time I had to put off working on Dragon's Eye for almost a year. I remembered how difficult writing had been back then, but after Molly passed, it was like the words had packed up and moved to the Caribbean, vowing never to return to the frigid north.

Not all my creativity left me high and dry. I world built like a champ on all the projects I wanted to write on but couldn’t. I started plotting (which is not like me because I'm 80% pantser) all the books in the Valespian Pact and the side series of Sumeria’s Sons. I have worlds built and stories plotted for a half dozen series I haven’t even spoken about. Since the world notes for the Valespian Pact was getting out of hand with an ever-growing stack of notebooks, I moved the world building notes into an electronic format. I still hoarded the spiral notebooks that I liked to create my worlds in and bought so much research material and then forgot I bought it only to purchase another copy. LOL! In fall of 2017 I went back to Bespoken, and then I thought I would jump things off with Mestor’s and Sohm’lan’s romance with a couple of flash fictions. Remember how I said that I plotted the books in the Valespian Pact? Their romance was a side plot throughout the rest of the series. I had a plan, but when I started those flashes, I began to think that their romance would fit into a novella of 35k… I blogged about that period of delusion last month, and you can read about it here.

Constant was at times frustrating to write because I am a strongly linear writer. I have a great amount of difficulty when trying to write around pieces or scenes of a story written out of sequence. I should have just scrapped the first draft of Constant and started over after realizing the many issues I was having, but there were certain scenes that I wanted to keep and I thought it would be easy to slip those into the narrative as I went along. I won’t do that ever again either. Trash it all and start over is what will happen if there is ever a next time. Please, don’t let there be a next time.

There was one advantage to writing Constant when I was partially through Bespoken Lost (The change in the title is a whole other blog topic.) Bespoken Lost is a step back in history and is the story of how Prometheus became… you got it, Lost. Since that history was set, it allowed me to write some characters with more ease because I already knew them. Also, I know exactly where Constant connects to Bespoken Found and I had an opportunity to show it and give the details in Constant which would have only been summarized in Bespoken Found. (I have a secret(s)! Secrets are so hard to keep.) So there were some things about Constant that were easier to write and were enriched by the knowledge I wouldn’t have had if I hadn't been so far along in the Bespoken’s timeline.

Do I have any more surprises up my sleeve? Why, yes, I do! I’ve added books to the Valespian Pact’s list. I’m currently working on Cherish which is basically a prequel to the series. It is set on the GyrFalconi’s homeworld, Aries 7, one year after the Terrens were kicked off the planet and back to the Milky Way. Then I’ll be working on Beloved, which belongs to Princess Athena. I thought about making it a “X.5” in the series, but since it furthers the plot arc, it will come before Bespoken Lost, meaning there will be a story between Bespoken Lost and Bespoken Found. The rest of the series is still the same, but this is the order of release (at this time, ‘cause Lord know how quirky some things are and they change without warning.)

1. Alpha Trine – Zeus, Dargon, and Alpha

2. Striker – Zeus, Dargon, and Alpha

3. Constant – Sohm’lan and Mestor

4. Cherish – Destin (prequel)

5. Bespoken Lost – (secret, not telling. It’s not Prometheus because he is only a youngling in this book)

6. Beloved – Athena

7. Bespoken Found – Prometheus, Malek, and Vipre

8. Chosen – Axis, Phoenix, Cilix, and Cadmus

9. Boundless – Star Eater and Madux

10. Legends – (secret)

Ten (10) books all together… Some days I wonder why am I adding more books to the list? I had planned to see how many books I could make my way through before I hit burnout. But now I just have to pace myself because the series cannot afford for me to get sick of it. Luckily, I have other stories waiting on me. 

Thank you for stopping by and reading!!