“I thought I knew you. I trusted you. Everyone in this country trusted you. You have a million souls in an army that trust you and you’ll send them into the fire like you did that picture. Then what? When this entire country is seared together by its burning hatred of you, where will you be?”
-Another Time, Part III: The Confederacy of the Northern Great Plains.
Justin X. M. Corriss
It’s time to get hyped for the next chapter in the Freedom and Control series! Honestly it feels like a lot has happened since I last invited people to remember that Telgora exists and to return to my world of dragons and biplanes, pyromancers and politicians, warfare and intrigue. Part of the joy of returning to Telgora time and again is that it is, and was, so much a part of me for so long. The conclusion to the second book in the series feels even more momentous an occasion.
I love all the books in the series, all the characters and all the plotlines (to a degree, there will always be rewrites and edits). But Another Time as a whole holds a special place in my heart, I won’t call it my favorite but that’s not entirely incorrect either. The history major in me bugged me to turn a trilogy into a tetralogy, and Another Time is why. It’s one thing to write a war book. It’s another thing to write a book about war.
The sequel, the third book in the series I should say, is a war book. Another Time has always been about war, and first and foremost about the whys and hows of war itself. It was greatly influenced not only by my formal education, as a history major with focuses on East Asian and Latin American politics and military history, but my informal one too. Books upon books and youtube videos among youtube videos, and it’s becoming ever more clear that there’s a required understanding for things beyond the battles and guns and swords and to the circumstances of war itself. The small things upon which history turns, and real people these things affect.
I enjoy asking my beta readers, and I will ask the same of my fans, when and where they think the war in Telgora started. That’s not so much a spoiler question as it sounds, because the answer could even lay in A Place I Have Never Been or beyond. It’s one the characters ponder themselves, as the fires grow and the whirlpool of conflict sucks them down.
One of them, my editor, even made the argument that Another Time best represented my thesis for the entire series, which is both a high compliment and a stunning expression.
Why then read on, or write on?
Because it is in part what I said: Telgora means a lot to me. Two more books are written, and whether they be released serialized as the first two have or if I shall pull up roots and only release the complete books remains to be seen. It is my first world, my first conlang, my first novel. As I go out and try to get a book traditionally published, I do feel the eyes of the literary world scanning hard the fact that I decided to self-publish first. I do not regret it. The experiences I’ve had, the education through those experiences, and the motivation not only to keep creating but to challenge myself to maintain this self-publishing schedule, the social media, the blogging and the website, are irreplaceable.
Without Telgora there is no Madelen of the Family Penn, no stranded witch on an island, no lone man on a road trip of self-discovery, no unknown prophet tending a bar in Vermont.
And Telgora’s story is nowhere near done. I owe the world a chance at completion, and here it means journeying to Telgora’s north, and to the precipice of war. I hope you’ll enjoy the ride.
“The people of Telgora hold their breath. Whispers of peace flow from Isen to Fangbay Port to Highvalley. The fires of war burn low behind the tired eyes of the country’s leaders. Even in Cobra’s Hood, bold proclamations from Zhaekota himself tell the people that the worst is over. But it is easy for the willing to turn a blind eye to the tinder resting under their feet. Revolutionary fervor and hurried miscommunication threaten the delicate balance keeping Telgora from bursting into flame. Worse yet are the people who believe that they will be able to harness the blaze when it comes. It only takes a spark, and while everyone speaks of lowering their guns, no one has yet extinguished their matches. For the people of the Confederacy of the Northern Great Plains, familiar with lands of dry grass and high wind, the truth is as simple as it is terrifying. They know that if the fires of war come to Telgora, they will be FREE TO ROAM.”