The Rogue King Saga is a Science Fantasy Tetralogy, focusing on the life of one man as he struggles to keep his old ideals in the dangerous desert land where men are routinely sacrificed to the lustful Serpent God, Lorric.
How it all came about:
I remember the first spark of this world. It began way back in 1998 when I was twelve and came in the form of small, desert-bound building. Okay, it was more of a mountain or some really big hill, but its insides full of tunnels with both hot and cold pools deep in its belly. Originally known as Sheer Cliff (I know, I know), it eventually became Rogue Rise.
I didn’t know back then that it would be the first step into building a world that would grow to encompass a whole planet. Nor was I aware that the story of a young man, Koral, would engulf my every waking moment, or that his background would be so dark. In time, he became the man known, and feared, as Vengeance. By then, I think a year or two had passed.
The story was originally done in first person. Horribly. I literally sat down and typed a slew of words that told everything. I recall deliberately holding back, perhaps in fear of delving deeper into the psyche of this dark character. Whatever the reason, I spent years editing it over and over before abandoning that version. I still have it saved on file somewhere.
The story, and the writing, became a lot smoother once I’d rewritten the whole thing in third person. But it still sat on my computer for a few years while I wrote other things (The Witch of Morthin, I think). Occasionally, I’d unearth it and do yet another editing run, but it always took a back bench to real life. I was told time and time again how silly I was to obsess over it, so it became my little guilty pleasure.
It wasn’t until after my daughter’s birth (2006) that I sat down and went through it all, quietly allowing the world and its characters unfurl. Finally, as I went on to write what I thought would be the sequel, the last portion of story clicked into place. A piece that has me needing to completely rewrite the next four books to match the current four of this saga.
Aldrea Alien 