I’ve really had one of those the last week.
On Monday I released “Key Pieces” (links are on the left side of the blog) and
on Friday, which is to say yesterday, I finished “Criminal Ventures” which will
be the first book in the Black Knight Agency series. I had good and bad times
with that book, especially while introducing four more main characters (Brock,
Frank, Edith, and Liam, since the Black Knight Agency is set in an alternate
universe, so I had to bring them in anew). On the other hand, the heists were
fun to write and I enjoy the slightly darker setting.
I did a lot of proofreading and editing on “Key
Pieces” last month, since I was preparing the novel for release (I will do my
very best to stick to a 4-novels-per-year release schedule for now).
I also was set on finally finishing the
beginning of the second series, the Black Knight Agency. The book was, however,
growing and expanding, demanding more and more scenes I had to sketch out in my
head first, which slowed my down. When I managed to finish the chapters for
Liam at the beginning of the week, the rest went well enough. I had known what
would happen towards the end since the very beginning, so I was well prepared
for the scenes coming up. Not that there were no new ideas or changes (that
tableau was created in my mind a day before I wrote it down). It was amazing
and a little scary to see how all of the threads came together towards the end
and scenes which might seem pure ‘entertainment’ gained more importance. To be
honest, even I didn’t really know that would happen in all cases. I wrote the
heist with the Florian Diamond because it was fun to write and I wanted to keep
the ‘one story a year’ pace, but that stone turned out to be important. Perkins
the younger proved to be a foreshadowing for the downfall of two organisations,
I had barely planned him in as a foreshadowing for one… My mind has weird way
of constructing the stories, but it makes it more fun to write them.
I’m already
running through ideas for the fifth Knight Agency novel, which has the working
title “Grave Keeper” and will put more focus on the past of Steven and Sir
Frederic. That doesn’t mean, however, that Cedric will disappear or the others
won’t play a role. A lot of fun and frustration ahead, that much is for sure.
