Have you ever read a series where the writer didn't seem to know the characters from one book to the next? Or how about a series where the writer seemed to forget important details from one book to the next? Or, even worse, a series where characters seemed to pop in and out with no apparent plan or reason from one book to the next? Yeah, I've read them too. Don't they just drive you nuts?

My characters deserve more than that and I don't want to disappoint them. I also don't want to disappoint you as the reader. So I'm undertaking the Chronicles of Seven and Order Of The White Rose Series Bible. In longhand.

I realized as I've been editing Awakening that I don't do my characters justice by not remembering little parts of their personalities from one book to the next. Ulrich wouldn't act like he does at times in Awakening as it stands now. Those need to be fixed. Seven wouldn't do some of the things he does either. It's just not good enough.

So in the middle of the crazy edits, I'm taking the time to make it better. If that means I write page after page of character bios, then that's what I do. If that means I have to create mythology that I'll never actually use, then that's what I'm going to do. If that means hammering out a timeline from Legacy (the 1700's roughly) to Order (2012 or thereabouts) then that's what I'm going to endeavor to accomplish. It's a lot of work, but maybe it'll be the actual companion book someday.

We'll see what happens, but as of now, my hands hurt from writing so much in longhand.