Greetings all fine peoples, I hope you are well. I am coming up on finishing the first draft of Book 6 of The Swithen series, which as I must remind you is the only book series that remains completely faithful to the 1136-1485 Arthurian legend (I have to put that in there for any newbies who happen to come in here). I plan 25 novels to tell the full Arthurian legend in all the scope and majesty it deserves and 5 are out now and here’s a progress report on Book 6!

I am at about 400 double-spaced pages and almost finished with a first draft, meaning I am filling in the last missing chapters and then will start revising. I love this moment because when I read the book through for the first time I get to see what it is that I’ve created… like, obviously I know what happens, but when I read through is when I first get a sense of the tone and rise and fall of action, and just kind of see what’s working and what isn’t. Then I start revising, which is where I get to make those parts that don’t work better (hopefully) and tighten the entire thing so it all works together.

If you have been keeping up with the series (and THANK YOU if you have) you know that we are now at the very beginning of King Arthur’s reign, and that all five previous books have led us up to here. This is when Sir Thomas Malory begins Le Morte D’Arthur and where the main story of King Arthur begins, so it’s pretty exciting. Also, the last two books (four and five in the series) were largely invented by me, and this one is very firmly back in adapting the established legend, and boy, there sure were a lot of story elements that had to be crammed in here! 

What’s exciting (to me, at least) is that from here on, we are in the main story. The first five books give crucial setup and background (which definitely pay off when you know the histories of these characters as they begin to interact), but from here forward we have our main set of characters that will be with us to the end, and we are beginning the main storyline that will carry us through Arthur’s first years, his marriage to Guinevere, the arrival of Lancelot, the quest for the Holy Grail…. as I think more about it, I will feel good about recommending this as a place to start for those who want to get right into the knights, battles and action.

Here are some of the things to expect from Book 6:

All characters converge
Almost all storylines that have been unfurling separately in the series come together here. Arthur is finally with Merlin… his adoptive family is involved… Ulfius and Bretel are at his side… they all meet Igraine, Morgan le Fay and Margause… King Lot makes war on Arthur… King Pellinor enters the court… even the Lady of the Lake gets a featured appearance. I don’t think there is any character currently living in the books that doesn’t interact here. 

Guinevere!
This book has the first significant Guinevere storyline, and I’m pleased to say she has a little intrigue of her own that has nothing to do with Arthur. I really enjoyed writing her and I can clearly see how her character will continue to evolve going forward. 

Lots of battles.
SO many battles. There are three major ones in the book. Writing a medieval battle is a challenge, as I discovered. Do you try to cover the epic sweep? Do you try to detail individual interactions? Do you give the whole layout of the battlefield? I had a hard time, but think I came to an effective solution.

Lots of magic. 
Arthur and Merlin are together now, so there are some major magic events. This book has the first major extended sequences of Arthurian mysticism, in which we go a long while in circumstances that do not make logical sense, so those were fun to write and hopefully will be fascinating to read.

A ton of twists, turns, revelations, challenges and events.
You know I am remaining faithful to the legend, and this part of the legend has many, many disparate events and things that have to happen but… how to make them all work within one consistent story? There are so many, I originally wondered if this needed to be more than one book. The only way to handle it was to have the sheer amount of events become part of the story itself.

Major new characters.
Some new knights who will be with us for the duration of the series enter here, plus major characters such as King Ban and King Bors, as well as larger roles for King Leodegrance and his wife, who are Guinevere’s parents. Both of them also have significant servants who end up having little stories of their own in the future, so this book required a lot of research into each character and what happens to them in the future of the legend, so I can introduce them properly now.

That’s it for now! At this point I would estimate late summer or fall for the book to be released, as I spend a lot of time in revising and making sure that it all works together. Thanks again for your interest and be well!

Scott