I have finished my first draft of Wolf Eye and I’m planning on jumping immediately into writing the second book in The Crippling Gate trilogy. I liked how Wolf Eye turned out in the end! It felt like I was watching a movie and recording what the characters were doing. There was one unplanned character who became extremely fun to write because he was so unpredictable and chaotic, I never knew what he would do next.

The arc in Wolf Eye that I had planned was the relationship between the main character Kirrin and her best friend Magdalia. I’ve aspirations for them for the whole trilogy and I do know what I want to say with them. I’m definitely a character-driven storyteller. The world building and the action is growing up around them. Now that I’ve finished book one, I could go and begin editing it, but I think I’ll jump straight into writing book two.

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For the last few years I’ve been reading a lot about trees, and the history of nature in Britain. I’ve always been fascinated with the legend of Robin Hood, and what it meant to be an outlaw in the forest in Medieval Britain. Here’s a fun fact worded by The Woodland Trust that blew my mind:

“While the words ‘wood’ and ‘forest’ are often used interchangeably, there is a historic difference between the two. The original medieval meaning of the word ‘forest’ was similar to a preserve, where the land was kept specifically for the purposes of royal hunting. Woods often formed part of these forests, which were a mosaic of habitats including open grassland, farmland and heaths managed for large game animals such as wolves and deer.”

Woods formed the hinterland of a city, supplying resources like timber and firewood, managed for economic productiveness. I was really interested in a book called The Wood That Built London: A Human History of The Great North Wood by C.J. Schüler about how South East London used to be a massive wood that supplied London, and this book really got me thinking about the function of trees and how it has changed over time.

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The next book I write is going to be set in the woods/forest that surround the city where Wolf Eye is set. I have not been setting out to research anything when I’ve been reading about trees, but seeing as I’ve consumed all this information, it’s going to be put to use now. It’s like I’ve been adding ingredients to the soup of my imagination for my whole life, and now is the time to start ladling it out.

I’ve decided to write all three books one after the other because of how I write: I don’t know how it will end! And once I do, I can go back on foreshadow throughout the trilogy, and it will be more satisfying for the reader. The first three children’s books I wrote were a trilogy, and I could see they were weak from lack of experience. Of course, I know that many published authors write like me and don’t write all three books one after the other, but I have the luxury of time. I’m not published, so can take the time now to work on all three at once. Then hopefully I’ll learn and gain the experience to write a series on book at a time.

For now, onto my eighth book!
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(Featured Image is “Autumnal Forest Feast: A Rustic Pot of Soup in a Charming Woodland Scene” by Trisna Ariska from dreamstime.com)