To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into back when I started writing the Solace series. I wasn’t even sure it was going to be a series at first. Three books was what I had in mind, but each would stand alone so that younger readers could pick up whichever book they wanted to read first. The world itself would be the common element, a steampunk fantasy playground for readers to let their imaginations run wild. So I thought I would take the books over a span of roughly five years from start to finish and rather than follow one set of characters, I would change my cast and my setting with each new book and follow the progression of a world that starts out with two kingdoms on the verge of war with each other.
The result is Solace, a world that is in the middle of an industrial revolution at the same time an age of exploration is beginning. Resources to fuel these ambitions are scarce, but luckily there are other ways for a person to make his way in the world. Strange objects from other worlds plummet from the sky, and the inhabitants of Solace use these objects to develop new technologies or otherwise try to integrate them into their daily lives. THE MARK OF THE DRAGONFLY introduces readers to this reality and gives them a look at the landscape of the Merrow Kingdom and the Dragonfly territories, and the uneasy peace between the kingdoms that is slowly eroding.
By the time THE SECRETS OF SOLACE begins, that peace has been shattered, and the characters who inhabit that story are dealing with a more dangerous reality. I often wonder what younger readers who pick up SECRETS first will think of the world as it stands. Will they want to follow up with DRAGONFLY’S story to find out how the world became such a mess? Or will they want to read ahead to the final book (once it’s finished, of course) to see if Solace can ever recover? And will the readers who have been with me since Piper and Anna first hopped onboard the 401 train in DRAGONFLY stay with me until the end to see if Solace has a future?
I hope so. There’s a lot of ground left to cover and countless adventures yet to be had.
