Five Questions in the Crown of Blood (author interview)

Thaddeus White has completed his excellent Bloody Crown trilogy. I've read the first two so far and I rated both of them highly.  So when he asked me to spread the word on the third one I gladly agreed. Here are Five Questions for "Crown of Blood" and its series.

___________

1. What was it like writing the third book of a trilogy?  Describe for us any challenges or joys that came with it.

 

Kind of odd. I’ve been working on this trilogy for a long time now, and it’s significantly more challenging than three stand-alone novels because there’s a need for additional planning in order to keep the plot lines consistent across three books. At the same time, story arcs have to be of varying length, some trilogy-long, others starting and ending within a single book, or two, so that each book, whilst part of a great whole, is also a complete entry.

 

On the plus side, the greater size of the trilogy means that characters can have more depth and the story itself can have more ebbing and flowing. I’ve enjoyed the development of characters like Stephen Penmere and Sophie Hurstwood (the unofficial subtitle of the trilogy is ‘In Which Terrible Things Happen To Sophie’).

 

 

2. Did you have all three books planned out ahead of time or did you improvise as the war progressed? Perhaps it was a mixture of the two.

 

I planned most things ahead of time, because I didn’t want to risk driving into a dead end and then scrabbling for a resolution. One thing I decided late on (and changed) was who ends up on the throne. That was deliberate, as I thought it’d help maintain the ambiguity as to the ultimate victor of the war. However, I did fiddle with things a little bit, mostly increasing or decreasing the amount of time spent with a given POV as felt natural and fit better with the story.

 

3. What about the trilogy's cast. Is there anyone you became particularly fond of or, conversely, anyone whose death scene you looked forward to writing?

 

Ha. You say ‘conversely’ but I actually quite like killing off my favourite characters. Nothing completes a character like their demise. As for favourites, I have a few. The female trio of Karena, Sophie, and Charlotte were fun to write, and I really enjoyed Sir James’ elegant sense of humour (in Traitor’s Prize he describes a nobleman he’s teaching swordplay as not requiring ‘further decoration’ after the pupil falls down some stairs and gets the day off training).

4. The Blood Crown Trilogy is just one of the stories that you've written in this setting, correct? What other stories take place in this world you've created?

 

Bane of Souls and Journey to Altmortis, which have a few recurring characters (including Fritigern, Anja, and their hound, who have small roles in The Bloody Crown Trilogy) but are mostly separate. Bane of Souls follows Horst, a Kuhrisch who visits Highford and is compelled to join the mage’s tower, much to his displeasure (which isn’t improved when he discovers the city’s being terrorized by a spate of murders).

 

Journey to Altmortis follows Thaddeus and Lynette Falchester, and a motley crew of companions, as they head deep into the snowy Kuhrisch wilderness to catch up with some old enemies and reclaim stolen family heirlooms. But they find rather more than they bargain for in the ruined, subterranean city of Altmortis…

 

5. What are your post Crown of Blood writing plans?

 

In shockingly productive news, the next Sir Edric story, Sir Edric and the Corpse Lord, is quite close to completion. I just need to finish the beta-reading phase, give it a final proof, and sort the cover, and it’s good to go. My intention is to have it released some time in the second half of 2019.

 

After that, I’ve outlined the next Sir Edric comedy. There are a few ideas bubbling away for more in Crown of Blood world, but after finishing the trilogy I’m going to give myself a little break.

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crown-Blood-Bloody-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B07PLFC2PB/ 

 

 

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PLFC2PB  

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/928094  

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________________


Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback