From the Author’s Corner: A Finished Series

Yesterday afternoon was bittersweet. I was in my computer chair, shoulders aching, eyes beyond a state of tired, fingers cramping. I was hungry, exhausted, my house was a mess, and I’d skipped the gym for the last four days because I had a goal and damn it, I was going to get there.

By about 3pm Arizona Time (which is sometimes PST and sometimes MST for all you Daylight-Savings-Having-States), I dotted the final i and crossed the final t on the last book of my Judas Curse series. It was a moment where I said my final goodbyes to those characters (well mostly– but that’s a spoiler for a little later), finished my formatting, and hit submit.

I’ve done this enough times now where the uploading process holds far less stress than when I started. I know all the tips and tricks. I know what file type to use, and on createspace, the bane of most self-pub author’s existence, I know how to put in my cover so it won’t get rejected, and which format to send my file in so there won’t be five thousand noted errors in the preview section.

Within 4 hours, The Rise of Apollo was live on Amazon. I woke up this morning to an email asking me to approve my copy on createspace. I went through the copy, checked out my 3D view of the cover, made sure my formatting was in line, then it was approved.

The Rise of Apollo came at a difficult time for me. Everyone has those years, I’m sure. The type of year where everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Right after Empty Vessel was published, I developed a medical issue which resulted in two surgeries over the course of the next year. On top of that my mother’s health took a turn for the worse, and a series of personal family issues kept us on our toes.

I tried to write. I got over 60,000 words into Rise of Apollo before my first surgery. During my recovery, though, I went back to read what I’d written, and it was horrible (at least by my own standards). My head and heart weren’t in it. So I did what I felt was best for the series, hit ctrl-A- DEL and the document was gone. The book needed a fresh start. It deserved a fresh start.

I think the book is better for it. I don’t regret for a moment starting from scratch. Even though the pain of deleting 60,000 words was almost physical, it was necessary.

And I am now, officially, the author of a complete series. I have told a story from start to finish about a series of characters, a plot woven through their lives, tense beginnings, climactic endings. I’ve birthed, raised, and watched characters I care about meet their untimely deaths in some cases.

Finishing a series leaves behind a strange sense of emptiness, I’ve noticed. A moment of disbelief. Am I really done with all of them? Is this truly over? Am I never going to sit down and tell their story again?

I feel accomplished in a way I thought I never would. I think back to when I first started the Judas Curse concept. Almost ten years ago, sitting at my computer desk with my notes from my Christology class sitting next to me. I had a few books on the Gnostic traditions sitting on top of them, and I was brain storming.

At the time I was a fresh writer with hundreds of ideas, about twenty first chapters of various novels started and abandoned on my word program. I wondered if I would ever have the drive to finish anything. Now here I am, one decade and eight full novels published later, and the possibilities seem endless. Where I would once be intimidated by my document full of book and series concepts, I now feel confident that my Amazon author page will some day extend several pages long with everything I’ve done.

For everyone who might miss this series, I’m taking the time now to announce it’s not “officially over”. The Judas Curse series is, yes. But every story hasn’t been told, and I think each one of them deserves their fifteen minutes.

I’m planning a stand-alone sequel to the series called Genesis. Thirty-four years in the future, we’ll see what happened to the world after The Rise of Apollo.

And there will be a companion series to the Judas Curse called Origin of the Gods. Each stand-alone novel will tell the origin story of various characters readers have fallen in love with. We’ll see what happened when Apollo first joined the Greek Gods, what was going on in Egypt when Persephone met Hades, and the Egyptian Gods were still the Portal Guardians. We’ll get a glimpse of Valhalla and discover the tense family dynamics of the Norse Gods and see how Thor became so enamored with the humans. There will be the story of Mark and Hypatia, and his time in the Library of Alexandra. And we’ll hit the road with Judas as he made his way into Renaissance Italy and formed a relationship with one of the most famous artists of all time.

I’m currently working on a new series, too. The Reaping is the story of a young girl who finds herself dragged into the supernatural world of Demons, Reapers, and Exorcists. I’m about 2/3rds away from my completed first draft, The Language of the Liar, and hope to have that finished by the end of the year.

Today, I’m taking a day off. Apart from this blog, I plan to spend the day hanging with my kids who are on summer break, maybe do a little cleaning, take the dogs for a walk, work on obedience training with my sprightly little pug. I might do a little packing for our vacation in a few days. Maybe I’ll have a netflix marathon and stuff my face with chocolate chip banana bread my husband baked up yesterday.

Either way, I’m walking into this morning, coffee in hand, puppy nibbling on my toes, feeling accomplished and proud. I finished a book series. Through blood, sweat, and tears, my words are now all over the world, and it’s one of the best feelings a writer can have.

Have a great day, from me and the Fitz-Monster