Time to leave the Woodland.

The Circle of Darkness : heirs to the Kingdom Book Eight, By Robin John Morgan

In December 2017 I sat alone with a pad, and made 10 bullet points of what were the most important aspects of my fantasy adventure story, Heirs to the Kingdom. Once done, I opened my computer and started to write what was to become the final book in this series. It has been a long journey through woodlands and forests, mountains and lakes, and it has been an epic adventure that has occupied my thoughts since way back in 1987, when I first made up a short tale so as not to end a bed time story too soon.

On March 3rd 2020, I handed my wife a USB stick with the completed and edited manuscript having decided the book was complete, and she is now currently reading the full draft for the first time. She has read a rough version, which was back in November 2019, but I wanted her to be the first to read it as I intend to present it to every other reader. This version is much more polished and has a further 15 thousand words.

The couple of years have been a trying time for my family, we have faced problems and health issues throughout all of our close friends and family, and I cannot deny there has been a few times where the stress levels reached a peak, and it made writing impossible, and so this book has taken more time than any of the other Kingdom series, and I have been acutely aware throughout all the writing that the readers of this tale were becoming impatient. It has not been easy, but I am so delighted to finally say it’s done, and it’s coming, as it is no longer in my control as it has now entered the Publishers for formatting into the book.

The time has come for me to leave the woodland, in many ways it is a bitter sweet experience, as I began the first real attempt of writing this tale back in 2007, and so I have grown to know these characters as well as my family and friends, and walking away is not that easy, as I still get ideas and pencil them down of adventures they could still have. I will not say this is it, I am done, because as I have learned over the years, my mind controls the stories I write, and if a great idea arises, I will sit and write it, it is who I have become.

Cover : The Circle of Darkness. HTTK Book 8

Part of writing this book involved looking backwards, and in order to fill in those important blanks, I have written more of the back story, one part in particular which had many new characters, has had an extensive work up and is in itself a small book, some of it will appear in the last book, as I literally copied and pasted sections of the past into book eight. I do think I will finish it and polish it, and I will probably at some future date put it out there, as I think it can be read as a standalone book, or an addition to Kingdom. Which is why when you open the cover of book 8, you will see under the title on the first page, “Of the Ravens of Berengar” in italics.

The kingdom will continue, in so much as I have more to blog and plenty to add to the web pages, which have been a little neglected due to life and the pressure of getting this last book out, no doubt there is more to come, and maybe there are one or two lose strings that have yet to be tied up.

No one knows what the future may bring, and sadly people like Sapphire are not around to guide me, so for the future what I can say without any doubt, is I will keep looking into interesting things, talking to open minded people, and enjoy them sharing their ideas and experiences of life, and throughout all of that, maybe I will find another group of characters, who are simply so interesting, I will have no choice but to write about them.

Heirs to the Kingdom Book Eight : The Circle of Darkness will be here shortly, and I hope I have lived up to your expectations.