I’m going to ramble a little about Champion Mage in a sec, but if you’ve been around here for just the past two weeks, even, you know that I’m all hopped up about the upcoming Kickstarter release of the 10th anniversary edition of my fantasy series, Saga of the God-Touched Mage.
You can check out the Kickstarter Preview here:
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I said about Apprentice Mage, that seeing the way the first two books came together was a major influence on the decision to repackage the Saga into four volumes rather than eight.
That remains true.
But I have to say that once the idea settled, I immediately saw how perfect the combination of Target of the Orders, and Gathering of the God-Touched was. I really, really like how these two worked out.
Aside: One of the main reasons I hated the idea of pushing these works together, though, was the “loss” of Glamour of the God-Touched and Gathering of the God-Touched as titles. Those two always rolled off the tongue so well, and I admit they had become firmly stuck in my mind. Storyline improvements or not, my internal fanish brain was unhappy with the idea of telling those two goodbye. Alas, and for the better, that part of me finally acquiesced.
Anyway, today I’m thinking about these stories and how they bounced into and through and eventually out of the Traditional publishing system. And, specifically, I’m thinking about how every person in that loop was focused on the idea that these books had to be three volumes—including, at one time, the idea that I would put the full series together into one huge book, and then two more books that go with it.
At the time, I was excited about the idea of picking up a three-book deal, but the problem here was that the story I had envisioned was done. There was no more. I could (and plan to someday) write a new series in this world that would use one or more of the characters from it, but it would be a new thing. Not a second act of a three-act story.
So, no. Even back then I knew that idea wasn’t going to work.
What does work, however, is to split this into either the eight-book series that it became (or seven at that time, remember?), or to split it into four parts. And, yet, NOT A SINGLE PERSON in the Traditional publishing grinder—all of whom are supposed to be story/book professionals—ever suggested that perhaps the story was better presented in anything other than three pieces.
I admit that annoys me.
Someone could have saved me a lot of time and heartache if they’d just said, “You know, this would really work better in eight parts.” Or seven. Whatever.
Anyway…the more I look at these books, the more I love the story inside them.
You can take a look at Champion Mage here: