When I write, I don’t write with a plan. I write to tell the story that needs to be told and I take up however much space I need. I write because there’s an idea in my mind that won’t go away and the only way to keep the character voices from annoying the hell out of me—yes, my characters talk to me—is to write it down and get it out. So when my writing gets so lengthy and my story so large that it needs a series to tell it from beginning to end, I assure you, it’s a complete accident.
I never plan to write a series. It just happens. The way I’ve always described my writing is not so much writing as it is watching the characters I’ve dreamed up go about their day and interact with their world and then writing down what happens, what’s said, and so forth. I guess you could say I’m an omniscient observer and recorder of my characters in their own world. So I just let the characters do the work. Where the plot goes is up to them. And in the event that plot makes the story so long that it requires multiple books, then so be it.
But I take comfort in writing a series. Once I know that I don’t have to try and condense the story I want to tell into a single book, I feel like I can relax. I have as much room as I want to write my story. I can write three books or five, or two, or seven. There’s no limit, no restrictions. I’m free to use as much space as I need.
Personally, I believe that there’s nothing more painful than trying to take a long, epic story and cram it into the space of a couple hundred pages. It’s an injustice to story, as it will get short-changed on all the rich development it could have had, and it’s also an injustice to me as an author for doing far less than I know I’m capable of. And if there’s one thing I hate, it’s doing a half-assed job on something I know I could have done way better.
When I write, I give it my all. I put everything I’ve got into every word on the page. I want to be able to fully flesh things out, leave all my plot holes filled, and have all my loose ends tied by the time I reach a story’s conclusion. In those instances where I find my story is too big to fit into a single book—this seems to be happening a lot lately—I put the extra space to develop story and characters across multiple books to my advantage.
Having more space allows me to write to my full potential. It allows me the room to breathe and tell the story I want to tell. Having space to write is freedom; I’m uninhibited, unrestricted, and do not need to exercise restraint. My characters are free to have their stories told in the way they want it to be told. I don’t need to leave anything out. I can write however I want. In short, more space is liberating.
Title: Spark
Series: The Hellfire Series
Author: Karyn Pearson
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy
Publisher: The Writing Network
Formats Available In: Digital
Release Date: June 23, 2013
Blurb: For centuries, the powers of Heaven and Hell have been at war, locked in a perpetual stalemate. Fifty years ago, the war spilled out on Earth and the last modern age of man ended. Humanity now finds itself at the brink of annihilation, barely surviving in small pockets of civilization scattered across the globe. But even in the direst of circumstances, the human spirit lives on.
Now, in this post-apocalypse, humanity has but one choice: resist or die. In order to combat the forces of Hell, man has learned to fight, training from their youth to hunt the demons that threaten their very existence.
Twenty-five years ago, a demon hunter dared rise against an ancient demon family, the Saligia—the Seven Deadly Sins—and was cursed for her defiance. The curse appeared in the guise of an innocent: the huntress’s own daughter, Ardentia, who had been born with a demon soul attached to her own.
In the present day, Ardentia, now grown, seeks to free her mother from her curse by hunting down the demons responsible. But the road ahead will be difficult now that the demon within her has awakened. Trusting him is dangerous, especially when he can turn on her at a moment’s notice. Others have warned her that succumbing to the demon will be her own downfall.
Now Ardentia must decide what she’s willing to lose: her mother’s freedom or herself.
Excerpt:
The demon snapped his fingers and the daemonis igni behind Ardentia grew blindingly bright and white-hot, the flames reaching over forty feet high and surging straight toward her. She froze with fear, knowing that in a few seconds she was about to die, burned alive in the fires of Hell.
“Ardentia!” Noxius was shouting. “Run! Run now!”
She was too scared to move. She could not even muster up the strength to take that first step. Somehow, even if she did run away, she knew that the flames or Gula would end up devouring her anyway.
Distantly, she could hear the voices of her comrades, yelling for her to run, to find higher ground, but still, she could not move.
Noxius snarled with irritation, muttering a stream of curses in lingua daemon.
“Idiot girl!” he hissed at her. “I’ve no other choice. I simply cannot allow us both to die here.”
And then an indescribable force slammed against the inside of Ardentia’s skull. She saw bright lights pop in front of her eyes, nearly blinded with pain, and dropped to her knees in a daze. Dimly, she could feel Noxius seizing control; his power coursed through her, flooding her with an unimaginable strength and power that she was incapable of using. Her hand started to reach for the reliquary dangling from her belt, only to feel an invisible hand within her snatching it away.
“What are you doing?” she asked weakly.
“You’ll thank me in a moment,” Noxius answered her.
Ardentia’s eyes fell shut and she thought she could hear the sound of wings being spread then close around her. If she leant to the side ever so slightly, she swore she could feel the leathery velvet of the wing brush against her cheek.
An intense heat passed over her; she realized that it was probably the demonic fire, having reached her at last. She inhaled sharply, preparing to scream as she burned in the hellish pyre, only to find that she did not need to. There was only heat but no flames. She was not burned.
About Karyn Pearson:
Karyn Pearson is a post-grad university student with a B.A. in Anthropology, currently living in California with her two dogs. Over the years, she has created many worlds, characters, and series, which naturally makes her head a very crowded place to be.
When she’s not writing, she can be found curled up with a book, playing video games, doing research for her books on the web, or attempting to not burn the house down with another kitchen experiment, a hobby otherwise known as cooking.
Spark Contests: Karyn is giving away a few digital bookmarks. All you have to do is leave a comment with your email address. The winners will be drawn after the tour closes on October 11th.
