Behind the Scenes of The Wind and the Void

I hope this finds you all doing well!

First of all, I wanted to apologize for my silence on the website as of late.  I think I’ve broken almost every resolution I made at the beginning of the year, and that’s entirely my fault.  I will be trying to get better!

Today I wanted to take a moment to talk about The Wind and the Void, the third and final book of the Nightblade Trilogy.  It’s been quite a while since World’s Edge was released, and everyone has been more than patient with me waiting for the third book.  But for those of you interested in how the series has developed, perhaps this will be interesting reading.  It will hopefully also explain why the book has been so late in coming.

The Nightblade Trilogy began back in 2011.  At the time I had written several novel-length stories (all of which were beyond horrible and will never see the light of day) and had an idea for a great story, a story about a boy who discovered he had the power to be an amazing swordsman.  From that single seed the story grew, and I wrote while holding down a full-time job, writing about a thousand words a day for about 150 days.

When I was finished, I was proud of what I had written, but at the time I was writing simply for the sake of writing.  I had no greater goal.  I set the first draft aside and moved on to other projects.

In 2014 I made the decision to attempt to publish my story as the first part of a trilogy.  My first step was to try to write the first draft of the second book.  Then I went back to Nightblade and worked a second draft.  In the summer of 2015 I wrote the first draft of the third book.  Then, knowing how the series would end, I went back for the final draft of Nightblade.  Don’t worry if that all sounds confusing.  It was for me too, and I’ll not do that again.

The important piece of all of this was that while I had the entire trilogy written, it wasn’t as close to done as I thought it was.  In my head, I thought I would have all three out by December of 2015, which now seems foolish.

In August of 2015 I published Nightblade and started editing World’s Edge.  But as I edited, the story changed, substantially.  I won’t put any spoilers on the page, but Moriko’s story was originally half as long and didn’t have her going into Azaria.  Needless to say, the final product is a far cry from the first draft.

I published World’s Edge in October of 2015, still thinking there would be a chance of finishing the trilogy by December.  But as I re-read the first draft of The Wind and the Void, I knew I was wrong.  The story had changed so much there was almost no connection between the second and third stories.  It took me a few days of deliberation, but I decided to scrap the entire book.  I saved a few sections I knew would still be good in the new book, but I figured it would be faster to just rewrite than try to edit what was there.  In the end, I threw away over 130,000 words.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t that disappointing.  I thought I’d be sad to lose so many words, but I knew I was doing the right thing.  I’ve lived and breathed the world for six months, and I knew I could do better.

And that’s the reason why The Wind and the Void has been so far behind the others.  I’ve written the entire book twice, but I’m very happy I did so.  It did mean I pushed myself pretty hard to get it done in a reasonable time, but I’m happy with the book right now.

The book has been with the editor for a while now, and if all goes according to plan, the book will release on March 25.  It’s not a promise yet, but it is my goal.  I can guarantee, and will promise, that at the very latest, the book will be published by the end of the first week of April, but I’m hoping it’s done sooner.

Moving forward, I’ll try to be in touch more!  Take care, and keep reading!

Ryan