The Path of the Rawl Wielder

As you may have seen, I just released the cover and release date for my upcoming novel, The Path of the Rawl Wielder. It releases on September 28th, and you can pre-order it now if you would like. There are links available on the home page, but that's not what I wanted to talk about here. Instead, I wanted to take a deeper dive into the book than can be done in the blurb, including some of my motivations.

I first conceived the idea for this series of fantasy books around 2014. I began writing it in earnest in 2015, and I have mostly worked on it since, with a few gaps here and there. I wanted to explore the impact that we have on the world around us, but doing this in a modern, realistic setting was of no interest to me. I've always been a fan of the fantasy genre, so the setting was decided. 

I knew from the beginning that this would be a long series featuring a diverse cast of characters. But I also knew I would never be able to maintain the drive to continue writing about the same characters for twenty or more books. So, I decided early on to split each main character's story into their own trilogy. These stories will eventually collide in the conclusion, but I am still at least several years away from writing those books. 

The decision to start with Adel's story was easy enough. When I was developing the magic system for this fantasy series, I wanted to break out of the typical systems we commonly see. My books have mages with magical abilities like many other books, but I wasn't satisfied with just these characters. I wanted another set of characters, one deeply entuned to the world around them. So, the Rawl wielders were developed, with Adel being the first.

Adel's abilities would undoubtedly qualify as "magical" to most, but I wanted him to be built differently from any old mage. So, for starters, his powers are limited to the ways in which he can manipulate the earth in his direct vicinity. He can do this in incredible ways, but doing so costs him an enormous amount of energy, potentially leaving him vulnerable if he overextends himself. And, as will be explored throughout the series, the power is far from infallible, but to learn more, you will have to read the books.

Another aspect of the fantasy genre that I love is the existence of fantastical races. Imagine The Hobbit without the dwarves; it wouldn't be the same, would it? So I began to populate my world with a group of races, apart from the "normal" humans. One of the primary characters of The Path of the Rawl Wielder is an ogre, and one of the great pleasures of writing this character was discovering more about these creatures as I went. How do they view their place in the world? How do other characters view them? These are questions I had a lot of fun answering. 

Sitting here now, 66 days from release, I have to say I'm quite happy with how the book turned out. I hope some of you reading this will check it out for yourselves, and if you do, I hope you enjoy it. My goal is to release the sequel in April or May of next year, so do make sure to stay tuned for news on that. Until next time!

~Pete
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