Six years ago I began work on a story I’d previously promised to deliver to a friend. The first stage of that project manifested itself while walking on frozen trails in a Maine winter. I was given an anchor by that location. Topics in the world news provided a focus. My newly developing characters introduced themselves almost effortlessly from that cold walk.

My original outline included a very small sequence of events, interleaving actions from two sets of characters, with the intent of unifying forces for a conclusion. Only one issue: it was just too stinking long. Who starts a series with a 700+ page monster!

As I chopped and shifted around sequences, those cuts and adjustments soon led the characters to tell me they weren’t done with what I’d planned. What was supposed to be one book was easily molded into two; a setup and a resolution. As a result of the left over sharp edges from the cuts, simply more was needed. My characters and I now found ourselves in a five-round fight.