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Monthly Archives: September 2013

While I was writing book three I had a feeling that some fans might be upset with the path of the story.  I wanted to take some time to at least explain my rationale for the structure of the third and last book in my trilogy.  I found that ending a trilogy was a very difficult thing to do.  There were so many paths I could have ventured down that it was difficult to pick one.  Finally I did, and for me it worked.  But, based on some reviews, I know a few fans were upset with the path I choose.  I’m sorry for that, but here at least are my reasons.

Spoiler alert:  Do not continue to read if you have not read the book.

Throughout my story I tried to entwine several main themes.  One of the themes was the difference between good and evil.  Besides the obvious, I wanted to explore the idea that one inherent difference is that “good” works together, while evil by definition cares only for power and personal gain.  With that theme always in my mind, my trilogy slowly  turned into a story about a handful of characters who were all moving towards the same thing, toward the final fight at Finarth.  I realized that I could not just continue to write about Jonas.  He could not do it all alone, nor did I want him to.  I wanted to show that all the main characters had to work together in order to achieve victory.  Each character, Hagar, Kiln, King Baylin, Durgen, King Kromm, Prince Riker, Tuvallus, Allindrian, Fil, Graggis, and even the scared refugees, had to join their power and strength to defeat Malbeck.  For me, that gave validity to the story.  At first, it was really hard not to be writing about Jonas.  But then I fell in love with Hagar, Tuvallus, and the others, and I enjoyed fleshing out their characters with the idea that they all would be a part of the victory.  I felt that I had to spend time on creating them, and in doing so I was hoping to bind all the parts of the story together.  In a sense, every character was a quilt square, sewn together to form the “blanket” of the Cavalier Trilogy.

Another difficult part of the story for me was who was going to defeat Malbeck.  The easy path would have been to choose Jonas.  For me that was way to predictable.  Then I thought of King Kromm, a likely hero to face the power of Malbeck.  But then I thought of a twist, and I really liked it.  I thought, why don’t I lead the reader into thinking that it might be Jonas, or Kromm, when all along it was Prince Riker, his son.  I liked the idea of a young, untried warrior, facing Malbeck.  But, staying true to my main theme, I would not have him do it alone.  I’m not sure if I achieved my goals in this regard, but that was at least my reasoning.

So the story is done and now the question is…what will happen with Jonas?  I always knew that I wanted to keep a door open in case I wanted to continue the story of Jonas and the others.  I’m really excited, in the future, to continue Jonas’s path as the “Shadow Night” to Shyann.  My goal is to slowly chip away at the youthful naivety of Jonas and turn him into the Shadow Knight, a cavalier turned night stalker, whose innocence was slowly pounded from him like a dwarven weaponsmith forging his most perfect creation.   I’m really looking forward to moving forward in the future with this endeavor.

As always, thank you all for your support and your willingness to take a chance on an unknown author.   I hope you liked my story, even if you didn’t agree with all my decisions.  Keep your eyes open for more literary works from TwiinEntertainment and thank you in advance for your continued support.

Jason McWhirter