Swords of Charlemagne, the second pass.

This past week has been the second pass — first round edits on Hidden Things, and the first read-through and revision of The Lady and the Sword. I usually don’t read through so soon after finishing a manuscript, but I wanted to get into it while Hidden Things was still in front of me, and I could still make adjustments.

And I discovered something. I am never again going to write a book with a non-linear timeline. EVER!

(someone is laughing at me.)

See, in Hidden Things, the Carolingian parts are set in the years 772, 777, and 778.  In The Lady and the Sword, the Carolingian parts are set in 774.

Which means that there are parts of book one that refer to events that happen in book 2. But I didn’t know what those events were, exactly, because I hadn’t written the book yet. So I had to add them to book one.

This is where it’s a good thing that I write fast. If I was a slow writer, Hidden Things would be further along in the publication process, and I might not have been able to make those changes. Which would have led to issues in later books.

In the next book, Ashes and Light, the Carolingian parts happen in 778, but before the events in Hidden Things. So I had to add a character to the scene in Hidden Things  who looks like a spear-carrier now, but who will be very important when we get to book three, which happens a few weeks before the events in book one.

Are you confused yet? Try writing it! See why I said I’m never doing a non-linear timeline ever again?

(stop laughing)

Oh, and book four? The flashback scenes aren’t Carolingian at all. Well, one of them will be, but I don’t have to change anything in the planned scenes. It’s set after 778. The rest? I can’t say more, because spoilers. But that’s going to be the easy one!

This is why I have a series bible. Because I learned my lesson about trying to keep track of all this stuff when I wrote the Rebel Mage books.