now starting FROSTBORN: THE BROKEN MAGE

Today I am starting the rough draft of FROSTBORN: THE BROKEN MAGE.

Since THE BROKEN MAGE will be the eighth book in the series, it is interesting to look back and see how FROSTBORN has changed from the original outline of the series I wrote back in early 2013. I think Garth Nix said that he route detailed outlines for the pleasure of departing from them later on, and I’ve certainly done that!

Calliande was supposed to be much more mysterious and ethereal and oracular – sort of a Lady of the Lake type figure. That really changed with the scene in FROSTBORN: THE GRAY KNIGHT when she starts helping treat wounds in Dun Licinia’s church, because it’s hard to be mysterious and ethereal while getting one’s hands dirty.

Morigna was much more abrasive and treacherous in the outline.

Mara was supposed to leave the group and go back to Coldinium after THE IRON TOWER. Originally she was just Jager’s girlfriend. But as I started writing THE MASTER THIEF I was bored with her character, and so I threw in the line that she was half dark elven, and that threw the plot of THE IRON TOWER and THE DARK WARDEN is entirely different directions.

Gavin’s character changes in THE DARK WARDEN weren’t originally in the outline, but were instead a logical result of events in the previous books.

Antenora wasn’t in the original outline. I did add her around THE UNDYING WIZARD, and originally she was a man named the Red Knight whose purpose was to guard the ways between the worlds, sort of like Cerberus but with less fur and only one head. I ditched that idea because the Red Knight came out of nowhere – he had absolutely no connection to the characters. So instead the Red Knight became Antenora with her quest for redemption.

Ridmark turned out exactly the way I envisioned him. Of course, FROSTBORN really is Ridmark’s story, even if some of the secondary characters have stronger personalities than I first planned!

-JM