Rise of the Wolf (32 page)

Author's Note

I had to make some tough decisions when writing this, the penultimate book in my Forest Lord series. Allan-a-Dale being killed off was probably the hardest, being a character I really enjoyed writing, but outlaw life was dangerous and even the good die young...

The final scenes were also hard. In my original draft Matt Groves suffered a long, drawn-out and quite gruesome hanging. One of my first beta-readers suggested it was too much so I toned it down. Even at that my editor said it was too much. I felt it had to be in there in some way, though. Matt's been a big part of the series after all, so... hopefully I managed to strike a decent balance.

The first three books in this series have covered a period of only two years. The next, and final, book in this cycle will, necessarily cover a much longer time period. I always wanted to stick closely to the original Robin Hood ballads while throwing in little twists and ideas of my own and I plan to continue in that vein for the last Forest Lord novel. He's not an outlaw any more, but will he and his companions finally find the peace they've desired for so long?

I don't know, honestly, I haven't even begun to plan out the story! You'll just have to wait and see...

In the meantime I'm working on another novella, similar to Knight of the Cross. This one will star Friar Tuck, takes place in Christmas 1323 not long after the events in
Rise of the Wolf,
and will be published in December 2015.

After that... who knows?

Thank you all for joining me on this amazing journey. I never in my wildest dreams imagined so many of you would read and enjoy my books.

You rule!

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Rise of the Wolf
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