Kate Constable's Blog

Travels In Tremaris

One of the questions I'm most often asked is "Will there be any more Tremaris books?" The brief answer is, "I hope so." The slightly longer answer is, "I hope so, one day... but not for now."

Lots of people want to know, what happens after the end of The Tenth Power? Is Calwyn pregnant? What happens when she and Darrow return to Merithuros? What about Samis? And what about after The Taste of Lightning? What becomes of Skir and Perrin and Tansy and Elvie? What exactly are Calwyn and Darrow up to?

And the answer to all of that is... I don't know! Well, I have a few vague ideas. But I would only know precisely if I sat down to write the sequel, and even then the answers would probably change while I was writing.

In an ideal world, I would love to write a sequel to The Taste of Lightning, where Skir and the others travel to the Westlands and meet up with Calwyn and Darrow. I want to explore the relationship between Tansy and Perrin, and find out how Skir and Elvie work out, as well as probing all the family stuff (too spoilerific for people who haven't read TOL...)

I'd also like to write a story about Calwyn's daughter, set between Tenth Power and TOL. I know she's called Dimica, and she isn't a chanter, and she finds life as the daughter of the Singer of All Songs difficult, to say the least. I'd love to get to know her better. I think this book would be set at least partly in the swamplands of the north - a marshy, grey and green book, maybe with a flood in it somewhere...

And the other day, Alice suggested a book about Calwyn and Darrow discovering Darrow's long-lost sister, who's also an iron-crafter. I guess this might take place just after The Tenth Power. (Alice thinks her name is Matissa.) Hm... that would be interesting...

Maybe one day I will write all these stories. The people of Tremaris are still alive inside me, and I'm still interested in what happens to them all. I guess the fact that I don't really know their fates (unlike, say, JK Rowling at the end of Deathly Hallows) means that their stories are still waiting to unfold, still budding, unfinished. If I knew all the answers, I'd never write the books.

So for now, I'm trying my hardest not to find out. Just in case.