As the novella Survival I: Slaughter At Ghastar becomes imminent for release, a question needs answering... Since Era Of Darkness and the Short Tales tell the story of the demon invasion, why write about another village under attack?
The answer is, that the Survival series is a new direction. Era Of Darkness is about a world at war – it features enormous conflicts, actions that change the fate of the whole world of Emeran. In Survival, the focus is literally upon survival: a few refugees just trying to stay alive. What happens to them won’t change the destiny of Emeran.
My plan was to create a small group of characters, throw them into the war, then watch them react and evolve. It was an opportunity to explore these personalities without the distraction of the “big picture” of the world at war. We’ll see moments of humour, sadness, terror, confusion, pain, heroism and more. And the novella-length is ideal for the episodic nature of Survival. Each story will have one objective – such as “getting from A to B alive”. There will be tension, adventure, dire threat and bloodthirsty action.
I hope readers grow to love the characters... but I can’t promise all of them are going to be alive at the end of the series. These people are living against the odds. Death is their constant companion.
Slaughter At Ghastar will be available this week. I look forward to hearing what you think about it.