Remember how I was so ready to write the Pen boys, and nothing was going to stand in my way?

SIGH.

Let’s not lie, we all knew this was going to happen.

And let’s get one thing straight: I am not abandoning the Pen boys.  Theirs is a story that I really want to write, and it will happen someday.  But something happened when the original Saints idea was created, something bigger than I ever imagined, and it’s not a world I’m ready to leave anytime soon.  I really can’t explain what it is about the Saintsverse, why it’s holding onto me so fiercely.  It can’t be the characters.  Landon’s story is done, and I’m really confident that I’ve let him go.  Yes, he’s going to be in the first one or two chapters of Saints at sea, but that’s it.  And while I am bringing Henry and some other Saints characters with us (spoilers), it’s really not them I’m excited about.

Like, who said this was okay?

NOT ME ALRIGHT

My plan was to take a nice month-long break full of reading after I finished editing Saints 2, go to the beach with Erin a couple of times, and then dig back into the Pen boys.  It’ll be exactly one year since I first thought of them in one week.  The first time I ever drew cards for them was on 5/4, and that was the beginning of a wild summer.  I really thought that was where I was returning.  I thought it was time.

I really don’t know how to explain it, why the Saintsverse pulls at me so strongly.  These eight new characters?  HOLY, I’m ready for them.  I’m ready to be at sea with them.  I’m ready to figure out how the heck to pretend I know how to sail a ship just for them.  I’m ready for adventures and pirates and dangerous artifacts and spoilers and all of the wild, insane, amazing things they’re going to do.  I’m ready to dig into Julian’s backstory, to probably fall in love with Brennen like I did with Ezra, to laugh over Pippa’s antics and give Mila & Nathalie wickedly funny lines and to giggle while I write about Elijah never wearing a shirt and to figure out how the heck Nasir & Cyris fit into all of it.  I’m so ready for these new characters, for this new adventure, for the Asheerah to become something incredible and strange that people love just like they loved Obera.  I’m ready.  I didn’t mean to be, but the second I started to feel like I wanted to write again last week, this was what my brain did.  A few days ago, I just started doing rough sketches of Julian and his crew, just wanted to figure out exactly who everyone was.  I’d already pinned most of them (linked there because I love looking at it), but I wanted to give them names and histories because eventually I was going to write about them.

I really did only plan to do a little rough sketching.  Yesterday, I sketched out most of everyone, but I hadn’t done Nasir and Cyrus yet, so I went back today to finish that up, decided what POVs I was going to do, and was halfway into outlining the plot before I realized what was going on.

Someone said to me recently that when the muse calls, you have to listen to Her.  It’s not something a writer should ignore.  Yes, I want to write the Pen boys, and yes, my heart and soul are in it, but there’s a stronger pull to Saints at sea right now, and it’s looking like that’s my next project.  And you know what?  I’m okay with that.  If that’s where my words want to go, then I’m here for it.

Time for some pirates.