Last year, I had a hell of a fun time writing all three books in the Demon Spring trilogy. It was an interesting premise for me: Write all three books before the first one was even published. Even this blog post, going live in July 2018, was written way back in September of 2017. (Boy I hope we all survived the orange one’s presidency) Writing the books together gave me the space to make the hard changes I might not have made if I was a bit more rushed. From name changes to adding entire scenes, I had plenty of time to make these books perfect.
Name Adjustments
More than just scenes, I made some significant changes to names throughout the book. Most notably–Jack was called Ben in the first draft. Once I pick a character name, I generally stick with it. Ben and Bael, however, was too much. So I changed it to Jack and Jackson.
The Division was also called The Agency at first. Horrifyingly, I found an “Agency” in the first proof copy of Resurgence. But I really liked having a full, acronym-heavy name for the demon bureaucracy. It made my former-US government-consulting-heart happy.
For the demons themselves, I really wanted a global mythology, but also to be very careful to not appropriate any currently-practiced religions. And even as careful as I was, I still managed to veer too close to reality with the first iteration of the noxes. Thankfully, I was early enough in the process where the change wasn’t a big deal. So the noxes, while based out of Mexico, are wholly made-up creatures.
And even with Lotan, whose name now comes from the Ba’al mythologies, went through a few iterations. At one point, he was Quetzalcoatl. After discussing it with a few folks, I decided against using him. I ended up preferring Lotan more as a character name. Again, because I had time and space, I could adjust and tweak before anyone really saw the story.
Would I Write Three Books At Once Again?
If you’ve been around my world a while, you know there are two kinds of book series in the noggin: The Old Kids and the New Kids. The old guys–Razia and Lexie, along with a few others–have been thought and re-thought for decades. I’ve already walked through all the intricacies and plot hang-ups. So I don’t see the value in writing them all together.
But the newer kids, your Empaths, your Madions, and now, Demon Spring, those guys may benefit from this process. After all, I only got deeper into the origins of demons when I got to the third book. But pausing all publishing activity for almost a year is not something I’d like to repeat. I’d hope that now I’m far enough ahead to keep up a pretty decent pace of releasing one book per quarter.
Buy the first book in the Demon Spring trilogy
Demon hunter Jack Grenard’s life changed three years ago when his wife was brutally murdered by the very demons he’d been hunting. At the urging of his partner Cam Macarro, he’s starting a new life in Atlanta, hoping he’ll find the man he used to be. But on a routine hunt, they come across a new type of demon–one that saves instead of kills.
Meanwhile, demons across Atlanta are preparing for the quadrennial uprising of their Underworld brethren. Worse yet, there’s a rumor the so-called king of the demons, Bael, will appear for the first time in over a century. Jack and Cam must uncover the truth about the mystery woman before all hell–literally–breaks loose.
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