Why the Point Five Books?

The Wildfire Cycle is something new in Fantasy publishing (or at least as I have seen). The cycle will include four main books with a point five book in between each release. The point five books, such as Tales of Kingshold, are collections of shorter stories that link into the main story in various way.

Why have I decided to do this?

Well, I wanted to have both my cake and eat it too, so that I could tell a better story. I wanted to be able to show the depth to the world and the characters that I have created without lengthy exposition or flashback and still have 'tight' stories. Now, point five books are nothing new, you may have seen them from your other favorite authors, and typically they are ancilliary to the main series, often published after the fact. So you may be wondering if you really need to read them? In my opinion, you do!

The Timeline So Far...
https://i0.wp.com/dpwoolliscroft.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Wildfire-Cycle-timeline-e1552161070946.jpg?w=2000

For the first time ever, I have laid out the stories I have published on a timeline, leading up to Book 2, Ioth, City of Lights.

Here you can see how Kingshold takes place over roughly one month of elapsed time. Ioth begins three months after Kingshold and then covers about three months of elapsed time.

The Tales of Kingshold though are spread throughout the timeline. Four stories occurring years before the events of Kingshold, two concurrently and three in between  Kingshold and Ioth.

https://i0.wp.com/dpwoolliscroft.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Wildfire-Cycle-timeline2.jpg?w=2000

The Tales of Kingshold stories highlighted in red are particularly important to the story told in Ioth, City of Lights. Either introducing new characters who have an important role to play, or in the case of From Father To Daughter and Circles, revealing important plot points that are picked up immediately in the events of Book 2.

https://i0.wp.com/dpwoolliscroft.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Wildfire-Cycle-timeline3.jpg?w=2000

And then there are the stories highlighted in blue that very much related to what happened in Kingshold but also sow the seeds for things that will happen in books 3 and 4.

This pattern will continue in Tales of Ioth, where stories will bridge books 2 and 3 as well as continue to weave a broader web. The feedback I have gotten from this approach has been positive, even though I know it is quite different than the norm. Hopefully at the end of the Wildfire Cycle you'll look back on this as being something special. But in the meantime I'd love to hear what you think.

Recent Comments

  • Bjørn Larssen
    March 12, 2019 - 5:17 pm · Reply

    You must have spent so much time planning everything! This is mindblowing. I’m really looking forward to reading the complete Wildfire series – or rather re-reading, because my memory is… eh… I forgot what it is, but it will require a re-read when the last book is out. And it will be a pleasure, too.

Leave a Comment