Koen, it’s over.

Writing an ending is like breaking up with your book. I’ve seen the end of this relationship coming for months, and now that it’s here, I don’t want it to end, but I know it must. It is bittersweet. It’s been a long seven months, but in that time, I have fallen in love with the characters, the story, and the world. A bit of all of them will live on in my larger Absolution of the Morning Star series and other tales I plan to tell from my world of Lucardia, but for Koen, my main character, this is probably it. This past week I surpassed the 100k word mark, and although I still have about 30-40k words to go, now that I am approaching the story’s end, it is moving quickly, and I will be done by early to mid-August.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a hard-stop ending. Before Koen, I wrote three books in my Absolution of the Morning Star series in succession. They have endings, but as a series, they were all cliffhangers. The future book four, Destiny of the Daystar, will take off where Noonday in the North ends. But I always intended Koen to be a standalone. Although it is a prequel to the Absolution of the Morning Star series, and the larger saga continues, this part of Koen’s tale must conclude.

Endings are tough. In many respects, they can make or break a book. Even authors who are far more talented and successful than me don’t always succeed in ending their yarns. One of the reasons I no longer read Stephen King is that I’ve been disappointed with several of his endings. They felt rushed, overly grandiose, or underwhelming. How often have you gotten to the end of a story, be it a book or a movie, and asked, “That’s it?” It took me a decade of writing and rewriting to get to an ending I was happy with for the Island of Stone. Needless to say, I’m starting to get worried. Now that I am here, I must strategize and approach it carefully.

An ending has to accomplish four things. The character(s) need to achieve their goal and come to a resolution. It must show that they have transformed or learned valuable lessons. There needs to be a semblance of suspense, making the reader concerned the main character(s) may not make it. And lastly, it helps to have a nice surprise. What I have in mind now will hopefully check all these boxes, but as all authors know, sometimes what you imagine doesn’t live up to expectations once it finds its way to the page.

It helps to know the ending when you start. I will be honest. When I began the Absolution of the Morning Star series, I had no idea where Erikson would end up. I still don’t know that path entirely. I have some options, but the series began without a plan and continues to follow where the characters take me. I’m not worried yet about that tale. I still have three books in the series, so I have some time. But I know Koen’s end, and so do you if you’ve read Dawn of the Lightbearer. However, the end of Koen the book will terminate four years before Dawn of the Lightbear begins. So it gives me some wiggle room for suspense and a nice surprise. It will also hint at events in the Absolution of the Morning Star series, tying it all together, hopefully, elegantly.

Koen has come a long way in this book. Strangely, I’ve managed to capture the weight and time of that journey, both in physical distance and time, but also in Koen’s character development. Looking back at where he began, it feels like a long voyage indeed. Where I am in the story now, it has been a two-year-long trek across roughly three thousand miles (greater than the length of the continental US), from the cold of the Northlands to the deserts of West Gate, through the warm waters of the Sea of Styx, and finally to the rolling vineyards of Restol. Soon we will continue to the subtropical islands off the Luenwell coast before ending where it all began- Blackdown Castle. When I started the tale, I was concerned about filling the three-year-long disappearance of Koen, but I succeeded with a story full of action, mystery, and adventure.

It’s time to be brave and do what is best. We’ve had a good run, but Koen’s tale must end eventually. He will live on in his son, Erikson, and the reader will finally realize what Koen had to do to bring his child to life. It’s a love that Erikson will never know- an unconditional love, a love much like I feel for my readers. I don’t want the tale to end, but for the benefit of those who pick up my books, it must.

Cheers!