And that makes two of three done.

“Shield & Scepter: A Heroes of Avoch Novel book 2” is finished. Sent it, along with the synopsis and blurb, off to Denise Barone this morning.

It’s always an interesting feeling when I finish a book. Even though I know there’s a third (“Sword & Soul” has been started, though I’m not even one chapter complete yet), I have to take a moment to decompress.

I have to give myself time to realize that I did it. I wrote a book. It’s over 300 pages long, over 94k words, and it’s good.

I did something that the majority of people around me as I grew up said would never happen.

I followed through, didn’t give up, stayed true to how I saw the characters and the plot. Ignored those who tried to control where things went, wanted me to insert their ideas into what my vision was.

This book, this series, is based off of a D&D campaign. Yes. This is accurate. Other people played the characters in the game.

But I’m writing the books. By myself. It’s not like I’m writing a chapter, sending it to the player(s) whose characters I based the literary ones on, and asking for input.

There’s actually little of the game’s reality in the book. Character names, yes. That’s definitely borrowed.

And the sense of family between the people at the table and the group in the book.

Do they agree with everything? No, probably not. While I use my characters to work through my own issues, that doesn’t mean every part of the plot is something I want to experience. No matter what happens between those characters within the books, these friends of mine are my family.

They are my brothers, my sister. I have their back, they have mine. We have secrets, stories we haven’t told, but that doesn’t change anything.

We’re still family.

Yes, there’s some interesting relationships that formed in the book between some of the characters. It’s what had to happen for the plot, nothing more. That doesn’t mean that I want the same to happen in real life.

The last book is going to be the hardest to write. Not because I think our group will fall apart and I’ll never see my friends again. More that I know it’s the last one with this cast of characters. I know how it ends now. When I get there, I’ll mourn some. Because Thia, Jinaari, Adam, Caelynn, and the rest have been a blast to write. I feel like I know them, and hopefully gave them a good life. I know that Thia’s story, along with the rest, will be at an end.

Now to trust in my agent and work on that last book while we find a home for the series. Because I really want every one of you to read it.

I want you to have that same sense of chosen family.

BB/Chan Eil Eagal Orm