AUTHOR WORDS

15th April 2023

You can skip this chapter, it is just me talking about this book and my experience writing it so far. Contains a few spoilers.

I have tried to avoid talking about the novel CURSED KNIGHT TEMPLAR from my perspective. I thought I was to bring it up towards the end of this book but I have been compelled to do it now.

The idea of this book came to me in a dream close to a decade back. It was one of those surreal dreams in which you feel as if you are watching an HD movie with perfect sound. When I woke up, I could not get it off my mind so I noted it down for remembrance.  Began then researching what was to be contained in the book as I took my time, and did not expect to start on it soon.

In my mind, I had decided that my first solo book will be about THE CURSED KNIGHT TEMPLAR. There were other better ideas but I felt this was well suited for several reasons, one of which was my insecurity about the quality of the book seeing that it was my first one without an editor polishing up my mistakes. But the most compelling reason was my overwhelming passion for history, in particular the Middle East history centering around Christianity.

Not that I am a professional historian. On the contrary, my profession is in Computing (Information Technology), so it's a surprise to me and others to delve so deep into the history of the church, Israel, and the Middle East.  I guess I just have a passion for knowledge and once it excites me, I fanatically follow it up even if it's outside my work.

Initially, I intended for this book to have two parts. But when I started writing it on Light Reader app (closed down). I choose to scale it down to one part with three volumes amounting to eighty or a hundred chapters. Before I even wrote half of it, due to several reasons which I am not willing to speak about. I chose to migrate to Web Novel. This prompted me to adjust the expected number of chapters or volumes. Web Novel favors books with longer chapters, and that is also what its readers love.

Came to the decision of expanding to four volumes. Whereby the First Volume is about the journey of Yosef from Cyprus to Jerusalem, the Second Volume is about his experience in Jerusalem before getting the treasure, Third Volume centers around getting the treasure and the conflict to possess it. The Fourth Volume which I intend to be the last volume for part one of this book will be about his redemption, correcting his mistakes, and trying to live up to his vows as a Knight Templar. Altogether, these will be about 380 to 400 chapters. 

We are approaching the middle of the book, and I am trying to adjust some things and write a more compelling tale while bringing Yosef to full bloom. Even if he is the main character, I have initially avoided making him take all the coverage as the other characters were introduced and came into play. His story will take center stage alongside others. 

One of the things I thought I could do when I started this novel. Was the belief that I will commit myself daily to writing at least one chapter and thereby complete it in less than two years. Tried at first but responsibilities of work, family, and some unforeseen downtimes came in and I realized that maybe I was being too optimistic.

I was also somehow demoralized when I realized that the history genre is not as sought after as the other genres. This limited the book's exposure or the number of active readers to keep up with it. Not omitting the fact that there are some sizeable errors I have made while writing it in a rush, I am ashamed of them yet proud of them as they showcase my growth and struggles of writing in a second language. When you observe properly, some of the earlier chapters have issues. Which I have tried to rectify minus changing the meaning.

Also realized that I rushed to go premium at chapter 41. If it was now. I would change it to chapter 60 or 70 to keep the free readers engaged more.

At the start of this year, it became harder to devote myself wholesomely to writing daily. For those of you who have noticed. There have been gaps of either a week, two weeks, or more when I did not post anything. This is not to say that I have abandoned the novel, NOT AT ALL. I intend to finish this book by all means possible.

Meanwhile, I have started on my second book falling under the Fantasy & Sci-Fi genre. I will write them concurrently. In the second novel, I will still be writing about something I love and am passionate about, hopefully, it will have more readers and bring me more money to tempt me to transition to full-time authorship. Will make it public before the middle of this year on this platform. If you love my writing, watch out for it.

Thank you for sparing your time and coins to read my rumblings.

Yours truly,

ZEBOLO NAMISI