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As you may know, I began writing the Legends of Andolin fantasy adventure series for my sister’s birthday, at her request, while she was stuck at home during the pandemic. But my world of Andolin goes back much farther, back over a decade to my creative writing classes in college, when I would fill notebooks with short stories of these characters and their adventures in Andolin. So, by the time I began the first novel, Adella of the Campos, I already had a strong sense of the backstories of both Adella and Kol, though we saw only glimpses of them in the text, slowly revealed as the plot progressed. And yet, the story unfolded so quickly that I never really got the chance to tell Kol’s side of the story. Even the second book, Rising Tides, which tells more from his perspective, doesn’t really go into much detail about that point in time. Though we do learn more about other aspects of his past, we only learn about them as they pertain to his present. At that point in the timeline, so much had happened since the inciting incident that it felt unnatural to pause the narrative to explore it. Unlike Adella, Kol isn’t one to dwell on the past.

And so, after publishing the third book, The Fall of Valenna, I was struck with the overwhelming urge to go back to the beginning—the very beginning. Which, of course, started with Kol’s treason against his homeland, Sornia. It was almost as though Kol was demanding the chance to explain himself. And so, I allowed myself to really put it all down on paper to fill in the gaps for the reader. I finally had the chance to tell the parts of the backstory I had previously only hinted at, but had been there all along, like the foundation of a building. Yet, this prequel novella isn’t merely exposition; it’s a tale of danger, excitement, adventure, and even romance, in its own way. Due to its position in the timeline, the fantasy elements in the novella are only minor points; it’s a short, quick military story told entirely from Kol’s perspective, and history was never his strong suit.

With this being a prequel and not part of the main series, I had the freedom to try a slightly different cover style: Kol faces away from the viewer, rather than engaging us head-on like the full-length novel covers—a play on the word backstory, perhaps. Kol stands beside his horse, Bayard, who, like every horse in my writing, is based on one I’ve known in real life. The names are changed to protect the innocent. This cover, like the others, was expertly brought to life by the artist Deryl Arrazaq.

I often compare storycraft to several very dissimilar things: to weaving a tapestry, with each differently colored thread combining to make a whole picture; to playing chess, each character being a piece that can only move a certain way depending on their traits, and must interact with each other according to their own rules of conduct. But this time, it felt different. Uncovering the history layer by layer—writing this story felt like archaeology.

So, with that said, I hope you all enjoy Kol of Sornia, a Legends of Andolin prequel novella, coming soon!

~Audra