Today finds me still in the process of editing my first political thriller, Eleventh Hour Covenant. Being a fairly long work, there is a high degree of synergy necessary to keep the story flowing and the excitement building. For this reason I am committed to making sure that every element is as it should be, every nuance in keeping with the direction of the composition. Everything must enhance the depth of engagement with the reader.
As a writer, I want to ensure that the now Eleventh Hour Covenant Thriller Series will always provide great satisfaction to the reader as individual works as well. I believe that I have already achieved this to date, , as the first book was not intended to be part of a series.So my goal is to create novels which can stand alone, and, because of this, future readers may desire to hunt down the earlier titles. Not only because they want to know the big story – what came before – but that they have been happy with the craftsmanship of whichever book they have read.
They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Perhaps the individual who coined the phrase was also reflecting on the way in which a large composition in some respects takes on a life of its own. Now that the story is in its final editing stage, it is funny to think back on the way I actually related to the book at various stages. At one time it was an arduous task and I felt that, if I actually finished writing it, it would definitely be my last. Next thing , as I was approaching the completion of the final chapters, almost by itself it morphed into the basis of a series.
This is what I mean about the inexplicable aspects of story writing. The same kind of reaction can also be shared by those who are knowledgeable about the project but outside the actual creative process. When I was about 15 years of age , the story that I had submitted to my English teacher came back with a perfect mark. A high mark would have elicited comments about favoritism but a perfect grade induced a state of total shock which only lasted to the extent of a number of groans of disbelief. Strangely, this did not lead me to pursue a career as an author, however, I have recalled the event ever since embarking on the path of writing fiction.