If you’ve taken the plunge into Arlam and embarked upon the journey of 1,100+ pages which comprises A Sea Sought in Song, Wrath and Crimson Rime, and Loose the Sealed Tongue, you’ll be pleased to learn that the fourth and final volume of “The Heir and the Herald” tetralogy is now approximately 30% complete.
One of the methods I use to ensure stylistic continuity is meta-level symmetry. So for instance, each of my novels has the same overall structure: prologue, overture, sixteen chapters divided into two parts punctuated by a cadenza, epilogue. This symmetry isn’t something that’s apparent from page to page, and maybe not something readers would ever notice (without reading this blog), but I believe it helps to enforce a steady pace of action/reaction and rising tension.
Over the past five months I’ve written the following portions of Book 4:
- Prologue
- Overture
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
These sections comprise 30,000 words. I began at the blistering pace of one section every two weeks, but have since slowed by 50% due to the inadequacy of my initial outline to comprehend the plot’s rapidly-ballooning complexity. By the end of Loose the Sealed Tongue, the story had became a dizzying puzzlebox of interlocking conspiracies, and I’m afraid and excited to report that Book 4 begins that way, while occupying the expanded relational/emotional landscape represented by an additional POV character. Ideally, the outcome of all this meticulous plotting will be a proverbial unexpected-yet-inevitable conclusion to the series—a climactic resolution as satisfying as it is shocking.
In the meantime, Dear Reader, keep reading. The first three volumes of the epic saga of Hugh Conrad and Ilina Lightkeeper are available on Kindle and in paperback, and the first novel, A Sea Sought in Song, is available on Audible as read by the masterful Christopher Lane, narrator to Dean Koontz and Michael Crichton.
An immense adventure awaits you. And the best part is: the ending will be worth it.
Arlam Online 