Completion

I started The Kingdom of Malinas when I was seventeen and self-published it several years later in 2008. The second book in the trilogy, The Empress Graves, needed a rewrite and a whole sub-plot adding before it could be published on my birthday in 2010.

The third and final book in The Power of Malinas trilogy, The Barbarians' Key, has now finally been written. I started it years ago, after finishing the first draft of the second book, but I only got to chapter sixteen before I went on to do other things.

I picked it up after completing The Empress Graves and worked hard trying to remember what I had intended the resolution of the series to be! Luckily, I kept notes, so I looked through those - keeping some ideas, abandoning others, even deciding not to add in two new characters I'd created. The plot is far more complex than in the other two books, there is more happening and the action takes place throughout the country of Aldenland.

I have been through my first draft, tweaking and editing and correcting mistakes, and now the book is with a lovely beta reader who will let me know exactly which bits work and which don't.

I will then work on it again. And soon, I hope, I will release it on Lulu.

In the meantime, here is what the cover will look like:

The Barbarians' Key Progress!

I'm almost done. Sorrel and co are ready to face their final hurdle. I keep thinking about the ending and I have a vague idea of what's going to happen. I'm not sure how it will work but the only way to find out is to write it and see.

Once it's written it's still not finished. First, I'll go back through and look for mistakes. Sometimes our brains tell us we've written what we were supposed to write, when in reality we've used the completely wrong word. I'll look for missing words, typos and grammar problems.

Then, I'll make sure everyone is where they're supposed to be. And that certain objects haven't suddenly disappeared from a character's hands, and that the weather is consistent. I'll check that characters with accents keep those accents. I'll make sure that personalities aren't suddenly and dramatically altered. I'll add things, take things away, tweak sentences and make sure that everything is as good as I can make it.

And then I'll format the document. Change the fonts and the spacing and the page numbers. I have a cover all ready to go, so I'll simply get myself an ISBN and then, hopefully, put the book up for sale.

The Barbarians' Key, and the Power of Malinas trilogy, will be complete.

Hopefully before Christmas.

The Barbarians' Key Progress!

Ok, so the goal of finishing The Barbarians' Key for my birthday has been missed. But, I'm now at 58 thousand words. I've written 8k in two months.


I kinda think that sounds okay. But then again, I completed the NaNo challenge of writing 50k in one month so... Probably not so good.

This manuscript is already longer than The Empress Graves and I think I'm about two thirds of the way through. This will probably end up being the longest book in the trilogy. It has so much more going on and a lot of the action takes place at two different parts of Aldenland. It's more complex too and I'm having to keep notes in my file so I know who's doing what, where, why and with who!

But, The Barbarians' Key will be finished this year. It will. :)

Writing The Barbarians' Key

I started my Power of Malinas trilogy when I was seventeen. The first two books, The Kingdom of Malinas and The Empress Graves, were finished within a couple of years of each other. Book one I polished up and published. Book two I re-wrote, adding some scenes and another storyline before publishing.

Book three... Book three is The Barbarians' Key. I started it, but only managed about sixteen chapters before I got distracted by, well, life I guess!

Several years later and I'm trying to finish writing this book, telling myself to work on it every day. It's far more complex than the first two books with more plot lines and 'grown up' characters. I'm determined to finish it. Once it's written, then comes the task of editing and re-writing!

I'm currently at 45000 words and think I'm about halfway through. My target date is May. My birthday.

We'll see...