The End of an Era

Twenty-seven years ago, at The Leo Beck Day School in Toronto, in English class I wrote a short story. The assignment was simple: Look at the tic tac toe board on the chalkboard and choose three elements in a line. We were to write a short story about them. Here's what I chose: Princess, Troll, Coin. Sound familiar? At the time, I didn't know what those three words would spark. But now? We're looking at two series, nine novels, hundreds of thousands of words, and so many characters, not all of whom will ever get a happy ending. 

Hold on a minute... NINE novels?? That's right. The third book in The Children of Colonodona series is on it's last rounds of edits, and as of tonight, I wrote the very last words in what will be the very last book of that series. After nearly three decades of these characters bouncing around in my brain, I have written the very end of the Sitnalta saga. 

It's hard to believe that what started as what we all wrote off as a silly school assignment would spiral out into this elaborate web of books. I remember feeling a rush of pride as my teacher at the time asked to keep a copy of my original story. Now, looking back at my own copy, thirteen year old me had some very cringy writing. Supmylo was constantly angry, and always in a rush, so his dialogue blurred together on the page, so I would have paragraphs that looked like this:

"Whatdoyoumeanthatthereisatrollintheforest.YouidiotsIcan'tbelievethatyouwouldn'tsearchformydaughterinthere.Youwillallbepunishedforyourdisrespect!"

That was a pain to read. But at the time, my editor (My dad), he pushed through such foibles and helped me polish it into something more readable. He believed in this story even to the point that he wanted to name our first family dog "Najort". I won that argument. We named her "Buffy" after the vampire slayer, naturally. 

From there, the character of Kralc grew in my mind before the others did. I wrote more short stories in school all the way through high school with familiar titles such as The City of Arches, and The Wizard's Apprentice. What those stories have in common with the novels that eventually followed were the following important elements: They featured Kralc. One of them also had a deaf character and magical arches, and in the other, Kralc indeed had an apprentice. Everything else? Tossed. 

This ending is bittersweet for me. I suppose that until I actually hold what will be called The Depth of Darkness in my hand, it won't be real. But it's done. I wrote an actual ending, and for these particular characters, this story is at an end. I don't really know how I feel about that. Let's see what my editor says.

The Sitnalta novel was the true starting point for this saga. I wrote that over several years in fits and starts. At the time, I wasn't even sure how far I wanted to take this. All I know was that these characters wouldn't let me go. Writing has always been my dream. I suppose that my teacher asking to keep that story all those years ago actually may have been the spark that told me I could do this. So, Mr. Maliss, wherever you are? Thank you.