Today I am very happy to welcome back to Book Lovers Inc. Kersten Hamilton an author I am sure doesn’t need an introduction for many of you. But for those who have lived under a rock and just recently emerged *wink* just let me tell you that the first book in Kersten’s Young Adult series, Tyger Tyger was a smashing hit last year, sparkling lots of impassioned discussions and even more enthusiasm from fans and the time has finally come when Book #2 In the Forests of the Night was released! Yay! So come join us in celebrating Kersten’s new release and share your thoughts with us, you could win yourself a copy of her book! Please give Kersten the warmest welcome and now I’ll cede the blog to her.

Hi, Book Lovers! Thank you for having me on the blog, and thank you Stella for the idea for this guest post. I hope you don’t mind my using your exact words here, because they are the root this post grew from:

“I thought you could tell us about the challenges of writing a sequel/second book in a series. Since your first book was such a hit, people loved it, were enthusiastic about it, you got some die hard fans, was it scary sitting down and starting to write the second book after the success of the first one? If I loved the first book of a series naturally my expectations are higher when reading the 2nd than if I haven’t read the previous one. Is it the same for authors? Is it riskier? Scarier? Or to the contrary once the uncertainties of whether your idea/characters/story line would be appreciated and liked became moot as the first book was loved, is it easier and more comfortable to write the second book?”

Your question made me think back over the months I spent writing the second book of The Goblin Wars. Every writer eventually faces a book that makes them question whether they are a writer or not. In the Forests of the Night was mine.

It did feel riskier, scarier because people loved Tyger, Tyger so much. I didn’t want to let my readers down. Someone very brilliant (I don’t remember who) once said, “Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.” Bingo. The second book of a trilogy fills that dreaded ‘middle’ of the story arc. The story had to be bigger without losing touch with the things people loved in the first book. I had to ramp up the stakes while moving the story forward. I wanted to surprise my readers. And it all had to be done on a very tight deadline. I knew all of this – I’ve done multi-book story arcs before. I was sure I could do it.

But books aren’t written in ivory towers, or fortresses of icy solitude. They are written in the messy midst of life, and sometimes life takes you by the throat and tries to shake your dreams out of you. While I was working on In the Forests of the Night my first grandbaby was born. Due to a complication at birth he ended up in the ICU. I spent 10 days taking turns with his parents sitting beside him so that he’d never be alone. I took my computer with me and wrote. While the baby was in the ICU my father collapsed at his home 300 miles away. He was put him in an ambulance and transported to my town to die. As soon as I was done in the ICU, I went to the hospice to take turns sitting with him. For six weeks I spent time writing in his hospice room. This would have been an easier thing if we’d had a good relationship, but we did not. When I was a child he developed a brain tumor. I think that’s why he heard voices telling him to do crazy things. Whatever caused the voices they made a mess of my childhood. It was extremely difficult trying to take care of him while he died. Fortunately, one of my brothers was also there to shoulder the load. While my father was dying, my oldest niece, who is as dear to me as a daughter, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. And then my nephew, who has lived with me since he was young, developed a tic (Tourette’s) that caused him to jerk his head so severely that he developed a spinal injury and started losing feeling in and control of his arms and legs.

I don’t even remember at what point I started asking the questions: Can I do this? Does it even matter? Am I even a writer? I had to spin the story, writing in hospital rooms and hospice centers where nothing can quite wash away the smell of age and death. Writing through fear and worry. I wrote with tears running down my face, trying with all my might to make my words do everything I knew a middle book had to do — be bigger, have higher stakes, move the story forward, surpise the reader — and somehow keep my own pain and fear out of the story. I didn’t want it to touch even one of my readers. Not through this book. I fought hard for it. But the time I sent the final manuscript to my editor, I had no idea if it was any good or not. I didn’t have the answers to my questions.

Now, my grandbaby is fine, my father has been dead for over a year, my niece is doing well, my nephew is recovering his ability to walk normaly… and I’m holding the answer to my questions in my hand. My first author’s copy of In the Forests of the Night arrived yesterday. I read it through —and I’m relieved to say I’d be proud to hand it to even my most rabid fan. Take that, life! I think I might just be a writer. I’m ready to go again.

🙂 Kersten

During the hardest part of writing In the Forests of the Night, it was literally my readers who kept me writing. They kept my story and my dream alive. Many wrote words of encouragement without even knowing what was happening in my life. One reader — my own daughter — would pull the chapters hot from the printer, read them, and demand more. Without the constant *expectation* from my readers that I would give them another good book, I could never have fought through.

So, readers — what is the most encouraging thing anyone has ever said or done to help *you* toward your dreams?

BLI: Thank you Kersten for sharing with us such a personal and hard period of your life and double congrats for not only triumphing on the personal challenges but finishing In the Forests of the Night as well, congratulations! 🙂 

Kersten has generously offered a paperback copy of Tyger Tyger, Book #1 in the Goblins War series to a lucky commenter!