Book #4 of The First Empire is done!

My goal was to finish Fhrey by November 15th, and I finished a few days early (November 11th).  Please note, the cover to the left is a mock-up only and it will no doubt change.  I learned a lot about this series writing the fourth book, and was faced with an important decision. Do I stick to my original concept, or when I came up with what would be a way to up the series in a whole new way, should I go for that?

This isn't the first time I've been faced with such a dilemma...my planned conclusion for Riyria was much different than the published one, and it took about 6 - 9 months of cajoling with my muse for her to give up that piece of information...something I thought was well worth waiting for.

So as I was nearing the end of Book #4 in this series, I faced the same sort of crossroad...and I took the path less traveled.  Rather than taking the easy way out, I've decided to once again expand the series and now it will be five books.  It's decisions like this which is why I want to write the entire series before publishing any of the books. I can now make some minor adjustments to book #1 to account for incorporating that "really cool idea."

Will this set things back again?  Yeah, it will. But not too badly. I have a clear idea of where it is going and another 3 - 4 months in the grand scheme of things is not much of a wait.  Weighing the pros and cons I think this is the right thing to do.  So, good news and bad news...Book #4 is done, but I'm still not finished with the series as a whole.  I'll keep you updated as the saga continues.