So, after years of procrastination, ASLAM is finally under development. Like for real! No kidding. Cross my heart, warlock’s honor, and all that; though not including ‘hope to die’.
I’ve gone back to the technique I used extensively when writing Keaen; done serious strategizing using my hand-drawn maps for mapping out journeys, place names, travel times and environments, as well as making handwritten flow-of-thought notes to make the whole thing hang together and have ASLAM into a worthy full-stop under the Tethys story. One that makes sense, provides closure—not entirely complete, because life doesn’t allow for that anyway, but satisfying enough to my mind—and solves what always seemed to be an intractable problem for those trying to protect Tethys by stepping back into history, at least to some degree, to the time before the events in Coralia. Now, that I’ve figured out the only viable solution, it all makes sense to me. No idea why it took me so long. I guess it’s the price I paid for committing ‘serialization’ without having a big picture end in mind. Well, I have one now; even though—and this will only make sense for those who have read Tethys—the fate of Ailin and Caitlan, two major characters threading through the whole series, will probably remain a mystery.
Anyway, ASLAM is on the way. As for how long it’ll take to finish… Well, this piece of string should not stretch beyond the end of 2025. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻