Sunday, February 3, 2013

Writing Guardians of the Scepter

When I set out to write the second book in the Bruten & Tommy series, I wanted it to be packed full of action, like the The Secret of the Portals, but this time, the boys would be at another level of danger.  Now they have the Golden Scepter in their possession...and everybody wants it.   I had to up the stakes, get their parents involved, and make them avoid would-be scepter thieves at every turn.

In this book, I also wanted to introduce some new characters in a new world that would carry through to book three of the series, but this time, I really wanted them to be similar to you and me.  They could walk amongst us without being noticed.  I introduce a character in this book that does just that.  And I plan to make this dynamic a component in book three as well.

Writing with the third book in mind was a critical component to book two, because I needed to set the scene for one final epic battle (in book three) that would take Bruten and Tommy to the ultimate level of adventure...saving an entire civilization.  So in Guardians of the Scepter, I put Bruten & Tommy in situations that would make many adults crumble.  The boys deal with death, betrayal and of course, greedy thieves who will stop at nothing to get the Golden Scepter.   I also gave Tommy an opportunity to be the hero and Bruten the opportunity to be humble, in effort to add maturity to both of them.  All of this was intended to prepare the boys for the biggest battle yet in book three.

I had a lot of fun writing Guardians of the Scepter, and I hope you enjoy reading it.