It has been far too long since I sat down to write this book seriously.
A couple of years ago, I felt the call to create it. Not a casual nudge, not a passing idea, but a real call. The kind that taps you on the shoulder, waits patiently for a while, and then eventually starts clearing its throat in the background until you pay attention.
But life, as it often does, had other plans.
I took on a government contract doing water quantity modelling, which pulled me into a very different kind of work and focus. Then, somewhere along the way, I got wonderfully entangled in writing The 51st State under my pen name, Nathaniel Theos. That book had its own fire, its own urgency, and its own demand on my creative energies.
And yet, through it all, A Warrior’s Heart: The Promise kept calling.
I started this journey more than sixteen years ago. That is a long time to walk beside characters. A long time to listen to their voices, to grow with them, and to be shaped by the stories they insist on telling. In that time, my writing has deepened. I have deepened. My love for these characters has deepened, too.
That is one of the strange and beautiful gifts of writing fiction over time. You may begin by creating the characters, but if you stay with them long enough, they start creating something in you as well.
Like all of my A Warrior’s Heart stories, I do not entirely know where this one will end, or even when. That has always been part of the mystery, and part of the fun. I am not a writer who marches in with a full military map and a polished battle plan. I listen. I follow. I trust. Sometimes I get surprised. Sometimes I get ambushed. Sometimes, Master Akio smiles that impish smile and reminds me that I am not nearly as in charge as I think I am.
Right now, I am sitting around page 230-ish, and I can feel an ending calling to me.
What that ending is, I do not yet know.
But I can feel it out there, just beyond the horizon, waiting.
That is both exciting and maddening.
Here is a small taste of what has been rising back onto the page:
Katie turned to me, and the fear in her eyes hit harder than any blade ever could. “Where is Gracie?” she asked, her voice tight and trembling. “Graham, please… do not protect me from this. Just tell me where my daughter is.” In that moment, all of her strength as a mother stood there in front of me, fierce, frightened, and fighting to hold itself together.
So here I am, back in the world of A Warrior’s Heart, back with people I love, back in a story that still has more to say.
And for that, I am grateful.
The journey continues.
