The Next Few Chapters

It has been a while since I published a new edition of The Crimson Alliance Universe newsletter.

There is a reason for that.

For most of the last six months, I have been spending my writing time looking backward. Not backward in my own life, but into the lives of characters I thought I already knew.

It started in March with an idea that seemed relatively simple.

A Demon’s Rebellion: The Rise of Lilith introduced the seven main characters of the Crimson Alliance, but the nature of an ensemble novel meant that readers met them after much of their lives had already happened. They had histories, families, cultures, successes, failures, and experiences that helped make them the people who eventually came together.

I wanted to explore those beginnings.

I also wanted to create another way for readers to enter the Crimson Alliance Universe. Instead of beginning with a 400-plus-page novel, someone could choose a character who interested them, spend a shorter amount of time getting to know that person and their world, and then decide where they wanted to go next.

That was the beginning of Crimson Alliance Origins.

They Were Supposed to Be Short

The original Origins were relatively short stories, generally around 7,000 words.

And they were completed.

Or so I thought.

As I continued working with them, I kept discovering things I wanted to explore. There was more to these characters than simply explaining where they came from. Their relationships mattered. Their cultures mattered. The worlds around them mattered.

The stories began growing.

In May, that process was interrupted when I underwent surgery. Writing and publishing slowed while I recovered, but once I was able to get back to work, the Origins continued to evolve.

Those original short stories eventually became books of 14,000 words or more.

What surprised me most was that I didn’t feel as though I was simply adding material to make the books longer. I was discovering things.

One of the richest parts of the experience was getting to explore the different worlds and cultures that produced these characters. These aren’t people who happened to grow up in different cities. Some come from entirely different planets and civilizations. Their traditions, environments, technology, beliefs, expectations, and ways of looking at the universe can be dramatically different.

The more I explored those differences, the more the Crimson Alliance Universe itself grew.

Freija: Learning to Harness the Storm

Freija was a natural place to begin.

She was one of the earliest characters I created for the CAU, and I already knew the fearless warrior readers would eventually meet. Her Origin gave me the opportunity to explore the younger Freija, whose extraordinary natural abilities could sometimes push her toward recklessness.

Her story became about more than learning how to fly faster or fight better. It became about learning how to turn raw ability into something greater. The young flyer who challenges limits eventually becomes someone capable of teaching others to challenge them too.

And exploring Freija meant spending considerably more time on Icelandia itself, its people, its royal family, its flying culture, and the institutions that helped shape both her and her sister.

Frigid: The Origin I Couldn’t Leave Out

There are seven main characters in the Crimson Alliance.

Frigid isn’t one of them.

But there was never going to be a Freija Origin without Frigid.

Frigid is Freija’s twin sister. They grow up together and share many of the same experiences, including their time at the Aerial Command Academy. But I didn’t want the familiar story of two siblings constantly competing with one another.

There is no sibling rivalry between Freija and Frigid.

They love and support each other. They simply have different strengths and different goals. Freija tends to attack a problem with instinct and audacity. Frigid observes, thinks, and plans. Even at their Academy graduation, their bond remains central as their lives prepare to take them in different directions.

Then Frigid’s story gave me an opportunity to explore something else that fascinates me.

First contact.

Except there are no humans involved.

To a human reader, Frigid and the Icelandians are already aliens. But Frigid doesn’t think of herself as an alien. Icelandia is home. Her people are simply people, and they have never encountered another intelligent civilization.

Then another civilization arrives.

That allowed me to explore first contact between two alien civilizations entirely from the perspective of one of those civilizations. I can’t recall encountering a first-contact story quite like that, and it became one of my favorite concepts to explore while writing these Origins. Frigid ultimately becomes a bridge between two worlds.

Frigid also changed my thinking about Origins themselves. If a supporting character had a story worth telling, why should Origins be restricted to the seven main characters?

Frigid opened that door.

And in an expanding universe, there are a lot of characters who might eventually walk through it.

Tala Redhawk: Before There Was Rainstorm

Tala Redhawk was one of the characters I particularly wanted to revisit.

Readers of A Demon’s Rebellion know her as Rainstorm, but I came away from that book feeling that I had not given her as much time and attention as I wanted. An ensemble novel can only go in so many directions at once.

Her Origin allowed Rainstorm to step out of the ensemble so I could get to know Tala.

Her story takes place more than ten years before ADR, when fifteen-year-old Tala is chosen to undertake a three-day vision quest.

For me, Vision Quest became a story about growing as a person and beginning to recognize your own strength. Tala’s quest tests her, but it also allows her to glimpse something about the path ahead. She doesn’t come away understanding everything she has experienced, and I didn’t want her to.

Sometimes we recognize the meaning of an experience only much later.

The young woman enters the canyon as Tala Redhawk. What happens there begins pointing toward the person readers will eventually know as Rainstorm.

Nefertari: Stepping Forward

Nefertari was the other character from ADR I especially wanted to revisit.

Like Rainstorm, I felt she deserved more attention than I had been able to give her in the original novel. Her Origin gave me the opportunity to make her the center of the story.

What emerged was a story about discovering that you may be stronger than you believe.

Nefertari does not begin her journey convinced that she is ready to lead. Then circumstances stop caring whether she feels ready.

People need her.

And she steps forward.

That became the heart of Birth of a Chantress. Leadership isn’t simply about fighting well, holding a title, or receiving recognition. Nefertari begins to understand it as accepting responsibility for others when that responsibility becomes difficult.

She discovers her own strength because the people around her need that strength before she fully realizes she possesses it.

Grilka: When Everything Else Has Failed

Grilka took me somewhere very different.

Tuff Enuff became a story about tenacity.

After a transport is destroyed during a pirate attack, Grilka is stranded alone on a hostile moon. Her resources are limited. Her equipment is failing. Her chances of rescue are uncertain.

There isn’t always another clever solution waiting to be discovered.

Sometimes the solution is simply refusing to stop.

That was what I wanted to explore with Grilka. What remains when the plans have failed, the resources are disappearing, and there is no guarantee anyone is coming?

For Grilka, the answer is tenacity.

Strength isn’t always defeating an enemy. Sometimes it is getting up again, trying one more thing, and continuing when quitting would be much easier.

Adrian: Before He Flew Alone

Adrian’s Origin allowed me to go back to a much younger pilot.

When we know Adrian later, we know the man and the pilot he has become. His Origin begins before that, when he is part of a crew and someone else occupies the captain’s chair.

That captain is Lisan.

Adrian learns from her, flies with her, and develops the skills that will eventually define him. He also gets his first experiences aboard the Starlight Shadow, initially sitting beside Lisan as another pilot rather than commanding the ship himself.

Then he loses his captain.

And eventually inherits her ship.

I wanted to explore that transition because owning the Starlight Shadow means much more when we understand how Adrian came to have her. The ship carries a history with it, as does the young pilot suddenly faced with figuring out what comes next.

Of course, this is still Adrian.

Things have a tendency to go wrong.

Six Are Finished. Two Are Still Evolving.

That brings the first six Origins to publication.

But the project isn’t finished.

Two more are still in production: Kimiko and Lilith.

I am deliberately not showing their covers or locking down their subtitles here because both stories are still evolving. If the last six months have taught me anything, it is to give these stories room to become what they need to become.

There are seven main characters in the Crimson Alliance, plus Frigid, whose story convinced me that supporting characters can deserve Origins of their own.

So what started as a fairly simple series of short stories has become something much larger.

And Next Come the Tales

Origins look backward. They explore beginnings and the experiences that helped shape these characters before the events we already know.

But there are other stories to tell.

That is where the upcoming Crimson Alliance Tales come in.

The Tales will explore stories involving or surrounding the seven main characters that take place before or during A Demon’s Rebellion. They give me room to explore adventures, relationships, challenges, and events that belong in the CAU but don’t necessarily belong inside one of the main novels.

And thanks in part to what happened with Frigid, I no longer see the universe as belonging exclusively to seven people.

There are supporting characters with histories of their own. There are worlds we have barely visited. There are events that happened before ADR, around ADR, and between the larger stories.

Six months ago, I set out to write some relatively short Origin stories.

Instead, I got to know my characters better. I discovered more about their worlds. I found stories I hadn’t realized were there, and I opened doors to stories I haven’t written yet.

Today, six Origins are ready for readers.

Two more are still taking shape.

And the Crimson Alliance Universe is still expanding.