Cover Art by Alison Hunt

There were two versions of Savagery when I was outlining.  One had the big villain showing up once per book before it being 18-19 chapters of brutal battling.  The other was what I used instead, which turned into a deviation from Clyde’s usual adventures.  Overall, I can never really tell how I did with this book.

This is the book where Clyde was meant to feel true fear and face an enemy he couldn’t easily brutalize into an early grave.  Alastyre was a terrifying monster who was once human and determined to destroy all of the Dawn Fangs since Clyde nearly killed him in Loyalty.  Created by Desirae and meant to be a toy, but he broke his bonds and has been lurking in the shadows until now.  So, he ends up beating Clyde and taking over Nytefall where he casually beheads the rest of the cast when bored until our hero can return from his training.  The training is on a magical island used by vampires of the past where he must face a series of trials and his only allies are a corpse-eating pixie and good old Lost.

Savagery was originally going to be closer to a Kaiju movie.  Clyde and Alastyre would be doing their thing while events were going on until they clashed in the finale.  I fell out of love with the idea when I realized it would only let me give them a single fight where Clyde would have to win.  Giving them an initial encounter that Clyde loses meant I could finally give him a solo development arc.  He was growing a bit, but his story was about how he didn’t want to lose control, which was hindering him for good reason.  Now, I gave him a quest and a final enemy who he could unleash his full monstrous power on.

This had to be one of the hardest books to write in the series.  It jumped around three stories, which were Alastyre on Nytefall with his prisoners, Mab trying to save them without getting caught, and Clyde going through his vampire tests.  The first two were fairly straightforward and done to create breaks in the main story of Clyde learning his lesson.  That’s where I started having trouble because I put a blunt, aggressive character into a situation that needs patience.  His impulsivity for violence when stressed does create a problem and he learns some self-control, but that didn’t make guiding him through these adventures any easier.

Creating Mestra was a lot of fun.  These were the vampire training grounds that could be accessed through a magical door.  It crafts itself to the need of the vampire visiting, which I did to explain why those of different power levels could be challenged.  So, the place was designed to push Clyde and make him learn a lesson.  I did this also because he couldn’t grow physically stronger.  It had to be a riddle that would enhance either his mind, personality, or senses.  Didn’t really have a clear answer in mind when I started writing, which is why Clyde comes up with several wrong answers.  Those were actually me throwing stuff out, having him think about it for a bit, and realizing that didn’t work either.  Took a few edits to get things to work after I finally settled on what I wanted him to learn in order to beat Alastyre.

Speaking of Alastyre, he was an interesting character to write.  Originally, he was going to be a vampire hunter who would show up in every volume with enhancements and always get defeated.  He would inevitably become this monster and cause some trouble, but I thought it might work better to give him a single appearance and then have people forget about him.  After all, Clyde didn’t remember him either.  Alastyre is also the first purely physical enemy that the group has faced with everyone else being more about powers, speed, and cunning.  The guy is smart, but he’s able to take a direct hit from Clyde who can shatter a mountain.  Hence, why I was always thinking about fights between Godzilla and other Kaiju when these two clashed.

The part of Savagery that always irked me was the series of challenges.  Don’t get me wrong.  I loved writing them and I had fun figuring out how Clyde could solve each situation without resorting to punching only.  The whole thing was to get his mind working and flexible again.  It was simply strange to take a character who had been more about single mission stories and toss him into one where he has a gauntlet of challenges across an island.  It was fairly quest adventure-like, which I hadn’t tried with this series, so it didn’t play to Clyde’s strengths.  I mean, that was kind of the overall point with him needing to be out of his comfort zone.  So, I might be overthinking this situation in thinking I would change the method of testing.  Probably just alter a few of the challenges to make them more to his liking now that I have newer ideas.

Question time!

1. What is a benefit to stepping out of your comfort zone?
2. Is retreating from a superior enemy cowardly or smart?
3. What should a fighting hero have besides his physical abilities and courage?