“He maketh the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.”
This is how Day One of Book One, Betrayal, started.
This verse from the Bible sort of sums up the entire tale, all five books, and the dark journey Pero de Alava is on.
We see Pero de Alava at his worst.
And who likes being seen at their worst?
Pero wasn’t always this way. He’s just having a really bad day after having a few very bad weeks.
He wasn’t always so contrary and indecisive. He didn’t get to be Lord of Capua without some righteous boldness and strength, without experiencing and enduring a lot of tough trials in life.
From flashbacks we saw that Pero had seen his fair share of trouble. But now that another disaster is looming just when he is prepared to wed the women of his dreams and start a family, it’s too much to bear, or so he thinks. All seems lost.
He feels betrayed.
And haven’t we all felt that way?
Why is the rain falling on my head? I’m not a bad person.
And like Pero, our betrayers aren’t always people in our lives. Deep in our spirit, believers or not, we feel a sense of emptiness as if the Creator has denied us love.
Forsaken. Abandoned. Unworthy. Lost. Scared. Humbled. Afraid.
Pero surrenders to hopelessness.
We’ve all done it in some form or another.
We have seen the prosperity of the wicked and wonder why we keep trying to do the noble thing, the right thing, the honest thing.
What’s the point?
Why not behave like them?
Why not be evil?
Why not throw everything to the wind and be reckless?
All we seem to get for our attempts at goodness is failure.
In Betrayal, Blue Grotto, Cold Knight, Shimmer and Beautiful, we see Pero at his worst. Depressed and disgusted with life.
And yet, no matter how he tries to be different and do the wrong things, it is not in his nature. He is who he is.
By the end we see his redemption. His renewal. His maddening struggle to regain his foothold on life, revive his faith and rise.
So what sort of book do I write after that?
I’ve been working on three novels (and some smaller stuff). Each of these novels have been absorbing little bits of my time. For a while, one of the novels will grab my attention, and later another. Progress has been slow. Every time I think I’ve really decided to focus on one, it doesn’t happen.
So I finally did the wisest thing a man in my confused state can do and I asked for the advice of my wife.
Up to this point I had not talked to her about any of the new novels I had been working on. For the first time, I explained all three in some detail and only one of them really got her attention. She has since demanded and commanded I work on this one and not the others.
So it has been decided.
What am I writing?
The next book I’m writing is about Pero renewed and redeemed. We are going to see Pero in his strength.
We saw him weak, indecisive and contrary.
Now we’ll we what happens when he is strong, determined and decisive.
We’ll see what happens after Beautiful.
This will NOT be Book 6 of The Crystal Crux series although all the old characters will return and we start where we left off.
This novel will be something entirely new and should stand alone from The Crystal Crux Series. No one should have to read those others books to understand what is happening in this one (not that I don’t want people to read those other books!)
Those books were about doubt.
This new book will be about Pero no longer living in fear.
With holy boldness and Anthea and Francis at his side, Pero is going to stand like the rock of Penafiel and defy his demons, as well as Gherardus, Rugerius, Talento and the rest.
I won’t predict a release date but if I really put my head down and work on this, not get too distracted by other things like bills and work, I hope to finish before the end of the year.
Fingers crossed!
In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying the countdown of my favorite 1000 songs. Let me know what you think and stay tuned for more. Huzzah!
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Author Allen M Werner 
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