First of all, I’m very sorry if Visola blew up your hometown. I feel very regretful about this. However, I was grateful that she destroyed most of my American ex-boyfriends, so they won’t be bothering me anymore. =)
I really hope you enjoyed this book. At the beginning, I was terrified of writing Maelstrom. I was worried that there was no way I could top the last book. I was also stressed about making it believable. “How can I possibly write about one woman destroying the USA? That defies all logic.” I began writing the book hundreds of times, and I had to scrap a few beginnings. A few of the false starts involved Sionna’s funeral, but I was never happy with what I wrote, and my proofreaders did not like it either.
So, I spent a couple months letting it simmer in my mind. I drove extensively all over America visiting my friends and readers. I must have driven through Washington D.C. about six times, and I just kept imagining what Visola could do, in a dozen different ways. I guess I might have challenged myself a bit too much with the premise for the novel, but when I finally felt strong enough to pick up a sledgehammer and smash through my insecurities, and get to a place where I could just write, I loved it. I’m so satisfied with this book, and I feel like it’s the best thing I’ve written so far. I’m incredibly proud of it. I cried several times while writing, and sometimes I was shivering and even breaking out into a cold sweat during intense scenes. I think the most important thing I learned from this difficult writing experience is that I need to stop planning and overthinking my writing, and just go for it. I spend too much time worrying that it won’t be good enough, but I am usually really pleased with the results once I try.
On a silly note, I have done so much research on military stuff and nuclear bombs that I’m sure my everything is probably being bugged. It has become a silly paranoia of mine: I like to sit in the warm bath and write, and I keep getting uncomfortable and imagining that military guys are hacking my computer’s webcam staring at my boobs because I’m under “surveillance” for my suspicious internet activity. Sometimes I get so nervous that it interferes with my writing! But I’m sure that a lot of writers suffer from this kind of paranoia. We do have active imaginations and tend to get carried away. =)
Speaking of paranoia, I wrote some of this story during extreme cold weather situations in Toronto. It’s been one of the coldest winters we’ve had in years! On a few occasions, I was writing peacefully in the middle of the night, when huge noises caused me to think that a dump truck had crashed into my house, or that robbers and rapists had used a cannon to blast open my front doors. It was especially scary when I was in the middle of writing a fight scene, and the action was very intense and my characters were in serious danger. I would be snapped out of my story and into the real world, and I would be convinced that I was in actual danger. I would freak out and go into battle mode, and grab a weapon to go downstairs and confront the “threat.” The first few times this happened, I could not find anything. I wondered if a pipe had burst, or if some part of my house was actually breaking. Eventually, I discovered that this was an actual natural phenomenon called a “frost quake” which is a sudden crack in frozen soil or rock. The scientific name for it is cryoseism. It was very distracting and scary, but I was very excited to experience a new natural event that I had never come across before.
As usual, I would love to hear your thoughts on the story! Please feel free to send me an email, or contact me on Facebook or Twitter. I also have a mailing list now, which you can join to be updated about new releases. I must apologize, because for the first time in the past few months, I realized that have I missed responding to a few fan letters. It was only two or three, but I feel just awful about that. I intend to go back and try to dig them up and reply to them now that this book is finally complete and published. =)
Regarding the future of this series, I definitely have a few books still sitting in my brain that need to be written. I will try to write Book #7 within the next few months. (Early 2015, but it could be a bit later!) My working title at the moment is “Poisoned Waters.” I really hope there will be more Varia and Glais, because I was very disappointed their story did not get much attention in this book. I initially intended to include a lot more, but it ended up not being important enough to moving the plot forward in this book. That should definitely change in the next book.
In the meantime, I might be experimenting with writing a new genre of novel, under a different penname. I will be sharing information about that on my Facebook page. The reason I must do this is mostly for financial reasons. The Sacred Breath books are very close to my heart, but they are not quite “popular” enough for me to make a living on them. If they were, I would just keep writing them nonstop until I reached the end of the series. And then I would probably write some more. =)
I am really curious to hear what you think about the Prince of Atlantis. Do you think he’s a jerk? Do you like him? I spent a lot of time building his character, but he isn’t exactly the way I intended. He got away from me a little, and started taking control of the story whenever I wrote about him. I kept getting upset at him, because he simply would not do or say what I wanted. I rarely experience that with characters. Personally, I’m not sure how I feel about him yet—but I am excited to see more of his character.
If you enjoyed this story, I would be very grateful if you would leave a quick review on Amazon or wherever you purchased this novel. It really helps to encourage new readers to try the books, which helps me to keep writing them. =) It makes me so happy that so many of you have stuck with the series all the way to Book #6. Thank you so much for your support! I still can hardly believe that I’ve written six books in a series. I always knew that this was what I wanted to do someday, but now that ‘someday’ is here, I feel a bit overwhelmed. What a journey it’s been! Thanks to all the readers who have taken the time to leave reviews, contact me, or comment on my page. It is really heartening and motivating, and helps drive me forward when the writing gets difficult and lonely. It means the world to me to know that you guys care about the stories.
Thank you so much for reading! Wishing you all a wonderful 2014. =)
All the best,
Nadia
Nadia Scrieva is an award-winning author from Toronto, Canada. She also writes under the pen name Loretta Lost, and is the author of the popular Clarity series.
For more information, you can connect with the author on Facebook or visit her website to subscribe to her mailing list.
Email: [email protected]
Website: NadiaScrieva.com
Be the first to learn about new books:
Mailing List Signup
Join the conversation:
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Maelstrom Page 34
