Cover Art by Alison Hunt

Once War of Nytefall: Eulogy is published, it will mark the end to my second series.  It’s a true finale too instead of the series that I dropped due to time issues, no reactions, and other reasons.  This puts the series alongside Legends of Windemere as being a complete tale.  Means the Dawn Fangs are the second cast I’m putting into retirement outside of cameos.  So, how does that feel?

I have to admit that the emotional impact isn’t as big for War of Nytefall, but that comes down to three reasons:

1. I spent 15-16 years working on the Legends of Windemere stories.  That was a longer series, but also my first one.  It was where I was getting the kinks out of my writing style.  So, there was more time spent with those characters.
2. I knew what was coming this time, so I could brace myself for the finale.  It wasn’t a sudden surprise to be done because I’ve been through it before.  Kind of like the difference accidentally falling off something and intentionally jumping.  You can cushion the impact on the second scenario.
3. My series take place in the same world.  This means I’m always going back to the same place.  I see familiar faces in the monsters, cities, and deities even if the story and characters are different.  Even if I don’t see them, I know they’re around as new regions of Windemere are introduced.  So, the ending of a series doesn’t always have the same since of finality as it would if I walked away entirely.

That isn’t to say that I didn’t tear up as I wrote the finale.  Like before, I wanted to go for an emotional blow here.  If I’m not feeling bad for what I’m doing to characters and how this is the end then I shouldn’t expect readers to care.  A lot of deaths and punishments this time around too, which meant I couldn’t shrug it off as any old ending.  I had to still put heart into it and that meant going for sadness.  Felt down for a while too even after I did editing runs because it was like saying good-bye another time.

I guess people do assume that your second series doesn’t hit as hard as the first when it comes to putting it to bed.  This probably depends primarily on the author too.  Some will have trouble and cry at the end of every book.  Others will simply move on to the next story that they have in mind.  I braced myself for it and have that shared world/cameos thing going to help.  Every author has their own methods and thoughts on this, which I’m sure people will see in the comments.

Outside of the fact that I’m retiring characters here, there’s a sense of accomplishment that comes from this.  I finished a second series.  That doesn’t always happen with authors since they might not have more ideas than the one.  Others can find that they aren’t able to leave the first series because the stories keep going or it doesn’t seem lucrative enough to step away.  I know I lost a lot of support once I finished Legends of Windemere, so it’s true that not everyone will follow an author.  Many readers will stick with characters, which means they leave once the retirement happens.  Those risks can give authors, myself included, some pause into actually finishing a series.  Although, I will admit that facing that demon the first time made it easier to make the decision a second time.  Been there, done that, and suffered the consequences.

I’m really kind of mellow on this right now.  Part of it stems from a rough couple of years, so I’m a little emotionally tapped out.  Who isn’t these days?  Hope those who give this series a chance enjoy it now that it’s all done.