The fact is that most of the things that do happen to us are events that we never meant to occur in the first place! I never meant not to write another blog post for so long, but it happened. There is no drama attached to this reality, I just got swept up in other things that, I realised only in reflection, kind of took precedence over everything else that I was doing at that time.

So, apologies out of the way, where am I up to? Well, I have continued writing, but only after deconstructing the book. I was writing pieces as and when they came to me and arranging them to an order that made sense in my head if nowhere else. The whole thing started getting confusing, however, as I am following four stories at once. It was for this reason that I decided to separate them and write each one to conclusion with the intention of weaving them back together in the editing phase. I did this kind of thing in Eugenica where I had two distinct parts to the story and it worked very well for me there.

I still have the main plot of Should Iolos Fall mapped out, both in my stylesheet and in my head. This works as a guide to how the individual stories develop. Although the process might appear a bit labour intensive it does bear some unexpected fruit. Copying and pasting work already written gave me an opportunity to review it and make some improvements, not only to the written word but also in how the characters are going to develop. I really was not paying too much attention to the latter, my plan was to return to it when I do my next read-through, but it is never a good idea to abandon new ideas you get at any stage of writing a book.

The main stories that I have going now are organised as follows:

• The conflict seen from the Cojord point of view and how it influences the main characters
• The conflict seen from the Raisare point of view and how it influences the main characters
• The conflict seen from the Self’s point of view, they being autonomous androids, and how it influences their actions (being robots they do not really develop in the same way as the human characters)
• The obsession of several religious groups to find a being they call ‘the One’ and how this impacts upon the person they believe to be that being

There are a couple of other factions involved but they appear in one or more of the above storylines and do not require pieces of their own.

The more I write the more lucid the story appears to become. Several of the characters have defined themselves rather well. As always, there are some interesting female characters. I have never written women into my stories as superfluous window dressing or simple love interests. They are either integral to the story or simply not present, just like any other character. There are three in particular who I find interesting. One is a warrior, one a warrior-priestess, and the other finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. All three are linked together but not always in an obvious fashion.

There are several themes also developing. One concerns the concept of honour. The backdrop to this story is a military conflict between two forces that while ideologically opposed both share a common ancestry. They both profess a sense of honour as a means of both controlling and justifying their violent actions. I am examining how true this might actually be. I am also interested in the differences between being religious and being spiritual. The latter has always interested me. Not finally but one last subject I am looking at is how do we control technological advances so that they do not overwhelm us?

I have no real idea how far I have gotten with this book. Certainly, I cannot see a finish line yet. That is okay as I have not set myself a deadline. I am more of a contemplative writer and do not flourish under stress anyway