Rise of the King

Well over five years ago, I wrote Tom’s Inheritance (now called Call of the King), my first book. It took me almost five years to write, on and off, and it felt like it took me forever! This year I decided to rewrite it.

There were several reasons for this, the main one being was that I thought I could make it better. It had been professionally edited and whipped into shape, but as I’ve now written another nine books since then, and am writing my tenth, my writing style has changed, and in places I felt Tom’s Inheritance was a bit clunky.

It also new it needed a better title to suit the genre, and after five years, the covers needed refreshing too. I decided to rebrand the whole series.

So, during the winter in NZ, I tackled it, and have to admit, really enjoyed the process. I’ve tightened the beginning, extended some scenes, filled out the characters, and improved the fight scene. The biggest change was that I decided to change the ending – no spoilers – and consequently had to change the beginning of book two. That also changed name from Twice Born to The Silver Tower. I gave that book another tweak while I was at it. Galatine’s Curse, book three, became The Cursed Sword, and is unchanged. The series title also changed from Tom’s Arthurian Legacy to Rise of the King.

It meant that I fell in love with the series all over again. I love the King Arthur tales, and it seemed only natural to have King Arthur wake in the Otherworld. All of the stories are mystical and magical, and deal with fey and dragons, witches and wizards.

My interpretation is based on King Arthur having lived in the dark ages rather than medieval times, and when I wrote the three books, I based all my retellings and re-inventions on this. I also decided to keep Christianity out of it.

Tom’s Inheritance came out of the short story that is a very short prologue in the book. The full short story, Jack’s Encounter, is only available if you sign up for my newsletter. When I wrote about Tom’s granddad, Jack, and his unusual encounter, I wanted to know what became of him, and how Tom would respond. The strangest things happen when my imagination gets going! I’ve also written a prequel about how Excalibur was made, called Excalibur Rises, and that came out of book three, weirdly enough. It is also only available if you subscribe to my newsletter. You can do that here.

I named the main character after my nephew Tom, who was a baby at the time I started it, and is now ten! I think he likes the fact he gets to fight dragons sometimes …

I’ve written a few blog posts about the Arthurian characters, and about why I have so many craft beers in the series – making up beer names is so much fun! You can read the blogs here: https://tjgreenauthor.com/category/riseoftheking/

If you’d like to buy them, or read an excerpt, click here: https://tjgreenauthor.com/series/riseoftheking/

And then I wrote a character into my White Haven Witches books, a female fey who appears in Undying Magic, and it seemed only natural that she should come from the Otherworld of Rise of the King!

Her name is Shadow, Walker of the Dark Ways, Star of the Evening, Hunter of Secrets. She has her own spin-off series now, with Gabe and the Nephilim, and the Orphic Guild, called White Haven Hunters. The first book is called Spirit of the Fallen. You can buy it here.

I’ve decided that now I need to find time to write a short story prequel, set in the Otherworld, with one of my other favourite Otherworld characters who’s a bit of a rogue – Bloodmoon! So bear with me, and fingers crossed, I’ll write that soon …