NOVEL NEXT Book 4 - Afterword
Another book, another afterword. 4 books down, one to go! Hey, thanks for being here and reading this far. Really, I appreciate you.
Thanks for reading The Homeseeker Book 4: The Depths of Despair. If I were to describe the feeling surrounding this book, I would call it "cathartic." Both for me reaching plot points I wanted to get to from day one and for Zalan finally overcoming it all.
Four books with no delays! Looking like we're gonna finish strong! As always, thank you for the response to each and every chapter. Comments, reviews, criticisms even as simple as liking a post enhances the author experience, even if it feels trivial. Every single one of your comments means so much to me. I read them all, even if I don't respond to them. And remember that I've got a Discord with some fun theory crafters.
Below here will be filled with Book 4 spoilers, so you better not have jumped to this chapter on a whim.
For some (very dumb?) reason, I originally outlined this where Rep and Zalan would immediately be told by Hikma to go to the Depths of Despair and all the stuff with Morloch killing Elementals would be "whispers in the background" of the story. Not even a Gorb cameo! But when I sat down to write it, it turns out it's way more interesting to actually see the creatures that can't be killed die. There was a bit of tension issues since they started to rely on the Homeseeker to escape Morloch twice now, but I needed to make sure we saw the reason why Zalan was forced to go to such an awful place. It would have felt really weird to ignore the plot point in book 1 where Rep claims there's an Elemental that's super easy to get power from.
Nightfall was originally called "Everdark." And then I read about "Neverwinter" in DnD and thought "that's way too close, I should rename it. But looking back, "Everdark" reads like a way better name for a city to me. Not that it bothers me enough to go back and change, but its weird how my opinions on names can shift.
The Oculus of Annihilation was originally called "The Eye of Mutual Destruction" to literally be an artifact to manifest the idea of "An eye for an eye." But that was way too boring. I wanted something highfalutin for this thing, it can basically kill anything!
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The Five Stages of Grief was planned from the very beginning. A five-book series following someone going through the five stages of grief. But it wasn't necessarily about Zalan being in denial about his mother's death, it was always intended to be a parallel to his emotions to the realm. In Book 1 - A Rejection of Reality, he rejects the reality that he's in a new world. Book two Elements of Rage, he's angry about the fact he's stuck in this realm, feeling overwhelmed and focusing all his rage on Madam Hikma, then Slauson. Bargain With Fate is supposed to be Zalan making whatever deals he can to get out of the realm, whether with monsters, Ma, or Morloch. And Depths of Despair he's at his lowest, basically giving up. Which means it's all up from here, hence Book 5 being Ascendance and Acceptance. I hope the whole five-stages, five-books business doesn't come off as too pretentious, this was mostly a bit of fun to put together.
As a very ahead of time reminder, this series will eventually be edited and released on Amazon as a physical copy and ebook. (Edits are underway!) And yes, this series will eventually be made into an Audiobook on Audible. That'll take some time though, so no stubbing yet.
Thank you very much for reading and I hope you all continue into The Homeseeker Book 5: Ascendance and Acceptance. Rise to the end! Previous characters will be returning!
If you're really enjoying my work, consider supporting me on Patreon. Sincerely, nothing is more motivating than having backers offering consistent support. You can get up to 10 Advanced Chapters. Yes, by the time this post goes up, Patreon is already a few chapters into Book 5.
I also want to add a sincere thanks for the ratings and reviews. Last time I wrote an afterword, I asked for honest ratings/reviews and I got some! Thank you, seriously. It helps so much. Consider updating an existing review or leaving a rating if you haven't already. Makes a huge difference for me as an author.
That's all! Thanks! Still taking the next few days off, then book 5 starts. See you soon!
N.T. Lazer