What I am carrying into book two

Book Two is on the horizon!

Friends, I have some news I have been longing to share with you!

Book Two is coming 🎉

After all the time we have spent together in Woodvale, the next chapter of The Way of the Woodsman is now taking shape, and I could not be more excited to tell you a little about where we are headed. The Woodsman will be back, of course, still semi-hidden and semi-seen, still moving through the story in that way that makes you lean in a little closer to catch a glimpse of him. And yes, there will once again be hidden meanings scattered throughout the pages for those of you who love to search for them. I have a feeling this second book will give you even more to find. Before I tell you where we are going, let me be honest with you about where we have been, because I think you deserve to know what it took to get here.

Book One is the very first book I have ever written, and what an adventure it was. It was thrilling and joyful and, at times, genuinely bewildering (can confirm writers block is a real thing). There were scenes I simply did not know how to write, and characters I struggled to bring to life on the page in the way I could see them so clearly in my head. That book took me around four years, on and off, of writing and rewriting and quietly processing, trying to work out how on earth to pull the whole thing together. I went down different paths, tried different approaches, and changed my mind more times than I can count. Right near the end, something happened that I suspect only a first-time author would let happen. I realised there were a few extra plot twists I desperately wanted to add. That sounds like a small thing, but it meant going all the way back through the entire manuscript to make sure that one particular character's interactions with everyone else still held together once those twists were in place. It was a huge amount of work, and it taught me a great deal. So this time, I am doing things a little differently. Before I write my final draft of Book Two, I am first gathering all of my rough ideas in one place, working out exactly which plot twists I want, and weaving them into the story from the start rather than stitching them in at the end. I am hoping this makes for a cleaner, richer, and altogether better book. In fact, I genuinely believe Book Two is going to be a great deal better than Book One, and that is largely because of everything the first book taught me. One of my admitted weaknesses in the first book would be that side characters didn't have much of a role to play and they were brought in, taught us something and then seemed to evaporate from the story, this won't happen again!

Now, about that change of scenery. We will be leaving Woodvale behind and heading somewhere new. Do not worry, there will still be forest, and there will still be that sense of wonder you have come to know. But this is a different sort of place, with its own character and its own atmosphere, and it holds some surprises that I think you are going to love. I will not spoil a single one of them here. You will have to come and discover them for yourself. There is one more thing I want to share about where this second book is going, and it sits underneath the whole story. In Book One, my great hope was to walk you gently from one question to another. So many people look at all the pain and suffering in this world and ask whether it is even possible that the Woodsman, or the One he points to, could truly exist. Can a world this broken really be watched over by someone who is both all-loving and all-powerful? I wrote the first book the way that I did because in many ways those were the questions that many times stopped me from putting my faith in Christ, and so I am sure there are others out there who would benefit from having these answered.

Can those two things honestly sit side by side? My prayer was that by the time you closed the final page of Book One, something in you had shifted, and the answer had quietly become yes. Book Two takes up a different question altogether. It steps into the reality that there are indeed other spiritual forces at work in this world, other powers and other voices, but that none of them, not one, comes anywhere close to the power of the Woodsman himself. We live in a confusing world, where many people turn to follow: new age mysticism, Chakra energy studies, ancestors, familiar spirits as well as a whole host of other strange things. Importantly scripture doesn't say that those things don't exist or that they aren't powerful, it acknowledges their existence, while pointing us toward the fact that God is infinitely more powerful! Throughout the Bible these other forms of spirituality are explicitly forbidden and shown to be demonically empowered (Pharaohs magicians, Balaam, the witch of Endor calling up Samuels spirit).

This next book will move deeper into what we might call spiritual warfare, dressed of course in the clothing of a fantasy story. My hope is that, through the adventure, you will come away with a truer sense of the unseen battle around us, and a far greater confidence in the One who has already won it. I pray it will be a real blessing to you. And here is something I mean with all my heart... I would love your ideas! A good story needs a great deal of creativity, and I have always believed that when good ideas come together, the more the merrier. I cannot promise that every suggestion will find its way into the book, because not everything will fit the world and the direction of Book Two. But if you leave your ideas here on the site, I will read them, and wherever an idea suits the scene and setting, I would be delighted to work it in. You may well see a little piece of your imagination woven into the story ^_^

Finally, and most importantly, I want to say thank you. Truly. You took a chance on a brand new author. You gambled some of your precious time on a story by someone you had never read before, and then many of you went a step further and gave me your honest feedback. I cannot tell you how much that means to me. This journey is so much richer because you are on it with me. Book Two is coming. There is forest ahead, and mystery, and a Woodsman who is never quite as hidden as he first appears. I cannot wait to walk into it with you. Until then, keep searching for the hidden things.