Lisa asked Michael J. Sullivan:

Hi Michael, My questions are: 1) if you could go back in time to when you were writing Revelations, is there anything that you change? 2) are there any “delete scenes” between Royce and Hadrian that you write into one of your books but then had to cut? 3) is there a character that you most relate to? 4) if you could describe The Cycle in three words what would they be? Thank you - your books are amazing!!

Michael J. Sullivan Hey Lisa, wow that's a lot of questions. I'll do my best with them.

1. Because I wrote all six books before releasing the first one, there isn't anything I would change . . . because if there were, I would have changed it. In fact, I had an entirely different ending for the series when I first wrote it, but I knew it wasn't "good enough." When I finally came up with "the right ending," I had to go back to the early books and add characters and scenes, and build a whole foundation to support the really amazing ending I came up with. So, by not publishing anything early, I had no regrets, but that is a luxury that came from no one wanting the books more than foresight on my part. Still, the technique worked so well for me that I did it for Legends of the First Empire, and The Rise and Fall series, and I'm now employing that method for "The Cycle."

Yes, and no. There was a scene I wrote in Nyphron Rising that was cut. Robin (my wife) was concerned the book needed a bit of levity, so I wrote this really cool scene where Royce and Hadrian are robbed - or I should say someone tried to rob them. It didn't "fit" with Nyphron Rising so it was cut. Years later, when the series was picked up by Orbit, that scene became a new first chapter to Theft of Swords, so while it was cut from Book #3, it made it's way back into Book #1.

3. That's a better question for Robin, because when I hear "relate" I think "which of your characters is most like you." She'd say I'm a combination of Royce and Hadrian. Hadrian most of the time, but when there is danger to any member of my family I become Royce pretty quickly.

4. Totally Freaking Amazing - And I might substitute a different "F" word in the middle (if I weren't in polite society). Seriously, though it is truly an amazing piece of writing - at least at this point it is (with 2 books written). If the remaining 3 come out at least half as good as the first two (and the plan is for them to be even better than what I've written so far) then it will truly be my magnum opus. I've been proud of a great many of my books, but these are on a whole new level - and as such - they are incredibly difficult to write - which is why I love doing them so much. Fingers are crossed that they'll come out the way I think they will - it'll be "must reading" for anyone who is a fan. But I must warn people - DO NOT READ THE CYCLE if you've not read the other books. There will be no "hand holding" in that series, and it will pull from all 20 books that came before it. So the audience will be small, but for those few - it should blow their minds.

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