Beginnings

Stories are a little like children. We writers spend so much time raising them up, teaching them the way that they should be, and then we let them go out into the world and face it for themselves.

I may have used this illustration before, but that doesn't make it any less true. *wink*

For many writers, novels are simply born out of nothingness. We don't spend a lot of time thinking about it or stressing over what story we're going to start writing: they simply come to us, and we get to write them down.

That, my friends, is what we're talking about today.

It's true, I have no idea where I get all of my ideas from. Most of them simply pop into my head, and it's all I can do to keep them from bursting out of me while I'm in public. Fortunately, I spend a lot of time at home and my family members are accustomed to random bouts of writer in any given conversation.

The Druid saga, however, is one where I distinctly recall how it began.

I even know how it morphed into a series, well after I'd happily claimed that I'd written my first standalone.

Coetir was the first book I wrote in the series (therefore it's going to be the first released), and for once I remember exactly what I was doing when I started it. I was sitting in my Viking Mythology class, and the teacher was talking about druids in Wales. Suddenly I had an idea. The funny thing was, I was currently editing a different novel, and I didn't want to start writing a new book. So I only let myself write in that class, twice a week, until I was suddenly too hooked to stop.

After that, I was in a spiral. I finished writing Coetir in under six months, and for about a month afterward I was very pleased to have written a standalone novel.

But it was not to last.

I had millions (and I do mean millions) of new ideas. I was storing them all up, hoping that I would be able to use them in new and different series.

I didn't want the Druid saga to be a saga. I wanted it to be a standalone novel called The People of the Woods.

Obviously, I failed at that.

I'm now working on the fifth of six novels in the series, and I can't wait to see what all of you think of the series. It's been, by far, my favorite series to work on. Soon enough, you'll all get to meet my favorite characters--and I hope you'll love them as much as I do.

[love]

{RD}