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Designing Death

And then there was Book 4. My husband refers to it as my concept album. From the start of my worldbuilding there was a resurrected race of men and women that were dedicated to not only protecting all magickind (and eventually shifters) but eradicating crime. That race became the Order of the Fallen Knights. They needed a leader and thus Reverent Knight Drystan Kempe was (sort of) born. He intrigued me from the start and even before I wrote Dra’Kaedan and Brogan’s story I had already penned my ideas for his previous life.

Drystan wasn’t just a fallen knight, he was an enigma. Although the others in his race had no memory of who they were before their deaths, Drystan wanted me to know everything about him. There was a man he loved and that was something I couldn't ignore. The first D’Vaire scene I ever wrote was that moment when Drystan died but how could I start a book like that? I set everything about Drystan aside and decided I needed to do more thinking.

Originally, he was going to be Book 3 but then Lorcan’s loud mouth wouldn’t go away so Drystan had to wait. Once I was done with that ornery elf, I started thinking about how I could tell Drystan’s story so that the reader understood what his mate meant to him. I handed the death scene I wrote to my husband and when he was finished he was unmoved. My first instinct was to roll my eyes and tell him he had obviously missed the damn point, but I had to ask myself if it would fall flat for everyone else too.

What to do? That’s when I decided to approach Resurrection of the Fallen in two parts. I got so excited when I started thinking about discovering who Drystan was in both lives that I knew this was the right tactic for him. When I sat down to write it, I was taken right away with both Drystan and Conley. The farther into the book I got, the more I realized what a big problem I had ahead of me. I had tossed out my original death scene. I wanted to do better.

However, that meant I had to destroy these two beautiful men so in love with each other. I wrote chapter by chapter all the while trying to manipulate the ideas in my head so that somehow, someway I didn’t have to do it. There was no real way around it. Drystan was in the first three books. How could he be the leader of the fallen knights if he had never died? So I girded my loins and they were gone. I cried like a baby but at least I got to resurrect them!

Part two of Resurrection went even quicker than the first. And honestly as difficult as it was to kill them, it was even harder to end the book. I definitely did not want to let Drystan and Conley go. I consoled myself with the prospect of all the other people in the D’Vaire universe who were patiently waiting for their stories to be told and I was able to put Book 4 in the finished category.

Resurrection of the Fallen is different from the other D’Vaire books and I don’t know that I will use the format again, but it is still one of my absolute favorites. I can tell you I’ve probably read it more often than any of the others. Yep, I definitely read my own books! I write them because I love these guys. My hope is that others take a chance on their stories and feel the same way.

The playlist:
“The Dance” by Garth Brooks
“Million Years Ago” by Adele
“When We Were Young” by Adele
“The Dream Is Still Alive” by Xandria
“Stars (Cinematic)” by Sixx A.M.
“I’ve Been Waiting” by Sixpence None The Richer
“Forgiven” by Within Temptation
“My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion

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