Like Putting Together a Puzzle

My progress on The White Thread continues to be slow, but at least it is steady! I am currently reading through The Oracle and taking notes on all sorts of seemingly (some of them) small details that I need to keep in mind and/or get right in the next installment. I know that personally, as a reader, I sometimes get so absorbed in a book that it takes on a life of its own and I almost forget for a time that somebody made it all up. It's like the "story" existed somewhere on a higher plane long ago and all the author had to do was "discover" it and write it down. Now, don't think I'm crazy, I mean, I know that this is certainly not the way that stories come to be, but I think it's the really good ones that cause the reader to suspend disbelief in that manner and view the story as "real" events. Along those lines, the suspension of disbelief, particularly in a fantasy tale, will be completely shattered if every single detail does not make perfect sense with the rest of the story. As an independent author, I don't have a particular editor whose sole job is to check for continuity, and it's one of the things that I worry about the most in the writing process. It's also amazing to me, however, how much the entire process is like putting together a puzzle; it's almost mathematical in nature. If I said that Darcy did X here and she did Y here, then those two things together have to equal a Z reaction to this scenario. When I was writing book 1, this was all very simple because it was brand new, and there were a few things that I put in the story that I wish now I had not (because I have to make them work with the rest of the story!). Writing book 2 was difficult in this manner, but manageable, and I think I was able to maintain good continuity, but it's proving much more difficult for book 3, here, which makes sense, I guess. The longer the series gets, the more details and fine plot points (and characters) there are to keep track of. So, all things considered, it's probably very good that I started the notetaking process early, because doing all of this come summer time may have busted my time budget!

On a sidenote, The Six and the Oracle are now available on Kindle for only $8.99 each! Just go the Amazon.com and search K. B. Hoyle.