Having finished Wicked Shadows (and gone back to reread Timeless Gods onward), I am curious if there are plans to actually explore Jonathan's use of magic in future books and how it would actually work given that the mentions of it being possible are not inherently similar. Immortal Ascendant says it is a result of the skull ritual, while the Voodoo queen (assuming I remember who it was that told him correctly) said it was a matter of learning to adjust the balance.
Yes, I think you're remembering correctly. Early in the series, I started planting seeds to make it possible for Shade to use magic. Various characters offer different methods, though they all have one thing in common--adjusting the balance between light and dark magic. Some of those scenes got cut from the books during editing, but some should still be there.
I keep watering those seeds in case a story hits me that's too cool to pass up. I've heard other writers talk about how their characters grew too powerful to challenge with anything less than a god. To avoid that problem, I'd probably install a governor to keep the magic level down. We'll see.
Thanks for picking up on the possible foreshadowing.
Naturally, the scene that pops into my head was when Henry Winslow talked to Brand about the nature of magic in Sunset Specters, but that scene got cut when I chopped more than 30,000 words from the book--I'll write about that in a post soon.
Thanks for reading and enjoying the books. I'll have book 14 done soon, and you'll get to meet some fun new characters.
Having finished Wicked Shadows (and gone back to reread Timeless Gods onward), I am curious if there are plans to actually explore Jonathan's use of magic in future books and how it would actually work given that the mentions of it being possible are not inherently similar. Immortal Ascendant says it is a result of the skull ritual, while the Voodoo queen (assuming I remember who it was that told him correctly) said it was a matter of learning to adjust the balance.
Yes, I think you're remembering correctly. Early in the series, I started planting seeds to make it possible for Shade to use magic. Various characters offer different methods, though they all have one thing in common--adjusting the balance between light and dark magic. Some of those scenes got cut from the books during editing, but some should still be there.
I keep watering those seeds in case a story hits me that's too cool to pass up. I've heard other writers talk about how their characters grew too powerful to challenge with anything less than a god. To avoid that problem, I'd probably install a governor to keep the magic level down. We'll see.
Thanks for picking up on the possible foreshadowing.
Now I am going to have to reread the rest of the series to see which others I may have missed.
Thank you for responding and for all of these wonderful characters I have grown to appreciate so much.
Naturally, the scene that pops into my head was when Henry Winslow talked to Brand about the nature of magic in Sunset Specters, but that scene got cut when I chopped more than 30,000 words from the book--I'll write about that in a post soon.
Thanks for reading and enjoying the books. I'll have book 14 done soon, and you'll get to meet some fun new characters.
I cannot wait to see where the next chapter takes everyone.
Thanks! I hope you find the new adventure enthralling. It's definitely a wild ride.