The Countdown has Begun!

Are you guys ready for Part Three? The finale? The End? The Conclusion? The Adios of The Unfading Lands?! 
I will admit I am rather torn. Part of me is ready to wrap it all up in a tidy bow and move on... but the other half of me wants to dive into it more and more. There has to be a line though, and how am I to focus upon other projects when I am constantly wanting to write for The Unfading Lands? It's a dilemma. One I face daily as I try to wrap up the work on Redemption Rising. I love, love, LOVE writing this series. It makes my heart happy. :) 
That being said, I am also beating my head against the desk as I try to wrap up everything in the series to where it all makes sense. You never realize how complicated that is until you sit down to do it. 

This is my first mappings of Book 3. (Purposely blurred so you can't peek too much) :) I spider web it all out and then I tape it to my window above my desk so that I can look at it constantly as I write. Then I break down each individual character and write where they were at in the ending of Darkness Divided, what I expect from them in Redemption Rising, and then key scene ideas that I wish to use for them so that I don't forget. And those character profiles are also a checklist for me as well. I mark off the items as I go, making sure I touch upon everything I hoped to. So where does all the extra writing come in??? That is the beauty of writing. I just sit down and let the words flow. I do not have a plan from how to get from point A to point B until I actually sit down and start typing. So I know how Redemption Rising starts. I know how I want it to end. I know key scenes for some of the characters, but the flow from one scene to another... added scenes... extra snippets of information, that all comes just whenever I sit down and start typing. It's pretty neat to see the progression. Right now in the manuscript, I have only written two of the pre-planned scenes, and eight unplanned scenes that help navigate the story forward. It's an interesting process, but one that will hopefully wrap up our time in The Realm of Queen Alayna quite neatly. 

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(Please disregard the messiness of the desk) See there it is... on the window... just waiting for me to sit down and write it out. :) 

One thing that has been interesting writing this series is the feedback from the readers. You guys have no idea how much I take your input into consideration. Throughout Darkness Divided, I purposely wrote a certain character the way I did thinking I would kill/dispose of him in Book 3... however, majority of the readers LOVE his character! What?!?! So now I am left to decide whether or not I want to dispose of him or keep him. For the sake of not ticking off ALL my readers, I will probably keep him and work an angle to rid ourselves of a different character. I mean, someone has to go, right? ;p 
All I can say is that I was super surprised at the feedback you guys gave on Darkness Divided and it made mapping out Redemption Rising SUPER difficult! haha. But fun. So I thank you for that. 

On that note, I STILL want to hear from you. Redemption Rising is not completely finished yet. A lot can happen in this phase. Rewrites, edits, additions... you name it, this book is not set in stone yet. So let me know your thoughts on what you would like to see.
Who are your favorite characters and why?
What are you most excited about finding out?
And what do you think will actually happen?
​I love hearing your theories. They make me smile and sometimes laugh because you guys are deep thinkers... and I like that. I like that you read into the text and interpret multiple/different meanings. :) That's the point for me. I want to leave you guys thinkin'. :) 

Now that we are already in March of this year, I intend to be posting updates regularly for you guys to check the status of Redemption Rising. There will be giveaways, much like the last two book releases. There will be a cover reveal that will knock your socks off. And there will be character quotes as we count down the days until release day! 

Thank you all so much for following the series and for the support you have all shown me. 
If you haven't already, and you have read the first two books, please, go to Amazon and leave a book review. Reviews help authors out SO MUCH, and it will also set the stage for an incredible release week for Redemption Rising when the time comes. Thank you, thank you, and thank you.

​Katharine

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