Assassins: Nemesis
By Erica Cameron
How the beginning leads to the end
I completed my
first original novel in 2008. It was a contemporary fantasy that played with a
twist on the concept of guardian angels, but it was a mess. Over the period of
a year or more, I edited and polished and adjusted and fixed. Although I
queried versions of this book a few times, and several times it garnered
interest from agents, I eventually had to acknowledge truth—I had written
myself into a corner with the series’ plot, and the problems were big enough that
I didn’t know how to fix them.
It was
unfixable, but it didn’t matter. The book was a lesson. More than one, really.
It taught me I was capable of finishing a novel. It proved to me that people
wouldn’t hate what I wrote. It demonstrated how many problems would arise in a
plot if I didn’t at least have an idea of where I was going. I learned as much
as I could, and I kept writing.
My next
attempt was a dark contemporary, but again, I ran into more problems than I
knew how to handle. Unsure of how to fix it, I moved on quicker this time,
because that was something else my first novel taught me—don’t linger too long
without a plan of attack. I promised myself I’d come back later if I knew how
to fix the concept, and I still might one day.
Sing Sweet Nightingale, which became my debut
novel, was the third book I wrote. Finally, with this story, I felt as though
things were beginning to come together. I better understood how to weave all
the elements of the book together. The story thrilled me the same way my first
original concept had, and when the time came to fix things, I knew how to break
the story down, rearrange the pieces, and construct something better. My
editors and I made it as shiny as possible, and it released in 2014.
With Sing, everything was new, fresh, and
full of excitement. It was the beginning of a series that my publisher wanted
to release pretty quickly. Life and industry complications changed the plans,
and now only two of the four planned novels in the Dream War Saga are out in the
world. Despite the delay, I wanted author to become my full-time career, so I
kept writing.
In September
of 2016, I released my fifth novel. Nemesis
makes six, but it’s also a first for me—the first time I have ever said goodbye
to a series and a cast of characters.
Writing is a
continuous learning process, one that rarely travels a straight or simple line.
Looking back at the past several years, it’s easy now to see how the beginning
of this path has led to the end, but along the way it sometimes felt like I
wasn’t ever going to get here. I am here, though, and I’m still learning. My
first attempt may have proven that I could finish a novel, but Nemesis taught me how to close out a
series arc. All I can hope now is that readers will find the conclusion of the
arc as satisfying as I have.
~Erica Cameron
****************
About Assassins: Nemesis
Being orphaned
and almost kidnapped in the space of a week sent Blake Marks into hiding. For
months, Blake tries to help the Calvers—a family of vigilante
bodyguards—investigate the people behind the hit on Blake’s father, Isaac, but
then the safe house is compromised. Just as hired thugs storm the house to grab
Blake, Daelan Calver dives into the fight, getting them both out alive.
Hiding isn’t
an option anymore, but hit squads, under-the-table deals, and international
espionage? Blake has no idea how to handle any of it, not even with Daelan’s
family there to play teachers. The one thing Blake knows for sure is that there
are only two options: keep up with the Calvers or get out of their way.
But even with
the Calvers’ help and the glimmer of a possible future with Daelan giving Blake
hope, chances of survival keep shrinking. The man who ordered the hit on Isaac
may be dead, but his partner is viciously cold-blooded, and her plans could
change the course of history. Blake wants to finish what Isaac started, but
it’s looking like someone is going to die before this is over. And that someone
might be Blake.
