10 Things You Might Not Know About "By Ways Unseen"

Day One, here it is! In all it’s glory, 10 things you probably didn’t know about By Ways Unseen.

1.   I started writing this story in early 2002, because I couldn’t write military fiction to the level of Tom Clancy (I was 16). I wanted to write something that I didn’t have to research; so, one night, I wrote the line: “The year was 1319. The exact date was unknown to three travelers, traveling through the Northern Forest.” I had no idea who the travelers were, what the Northern Forest was, anything. Though originally the start of Chapter 1, this scene now takes place near the end of Chapter 13.

2.     Burieng used to be much, much smaller, and was comprised of only four parts: the Eastern Shores, Endolin Mountains, Frecksshire Moors, and Northern Forest. Once I realized it was ridiculous for the Shores to extend that far inland, the Central Plains were added. In early drafts, Geoffrey walked from the middle of the Plains to the edge of the Endolins in an afternoon.

3.     Early on, I created most names by first thinking of what letter I wanted it to start with – for instance, “C”. Then I picked the next letter: “C” can really only be followed by “H” “K” “L” “R” “W” or a vowel. Then on and on until the whole name came together. Usually after the third or fourth letter the whole name would reveal itself. I did this with both character and place names.

4.     There was a long list of titles before I settled on this one. The first was “In the Footsteps of Destiny.” Once I wanted to create a series, the series title was “The Chronicles of the Triumvirate of the White Sanction.” Around 2005, it was going to be called the “Destiny” series, and each book would get a one-word title, so “Destiny: Footsteps” became the title then. “By Ways Unseen” showed up around 2011/12.

5.     In 2003, I wrote a 20-page, single-space document detailing the history of all 170 names then on the map. A ton of world history was written because of this.

6.     Haydren’s name was original Folodas, and his last name was Lorthag. His father’s name was Haydren. But I made a rule that if I ever accidentally called him Frodo, or tried to write “Folodas followed” I would change it. One day I called him Frodo.

7.     Pladt’s name was originally Grecce Pladt, until someone in my writer’s group mentioned they kept calling him “Greasy Plate” in their head. I changed it to Pladt Grecce.

8.     Near the end of the book, there’s a whole bunch of names that I got from men I served with in the Army: Rivas was my section chief (artillery for “squad leader”); Cooley was another sergeant who was our gunner for a little while; Michalak and Gatson were both in my section; and near the end of my time Wilkins became my section chief. The Duke was named after Noah Dueker, who we just called Duke. And Mount Travistone is named after Travis Stone who was my roommate for a while.

9.     In the original draft, all four swords – including Haydren’s – show up in Deewan, and they all go to fight Lasserain in the final battle. This introduced two characters near the end of the book, though, and you didn’t have enough time to get to know them.

10.  In 2011, I put the manuscript completely away and rewrote it from scratch. I was familiar enough with the story to know the key plot-points to hit, but had done so much editing it was hard to remember what information had already been given and what hadn’t. A complete re-write seemed the best option.

So there you have it! Join me next week for Authors That Inspire Me!