Amalia Dillin on Beyond Fate & Wrapping Up a Trilogy

I'd like to welcome Amalia Dillin back to the blog. Today she's celebrating the release of the final book in her Fate of the Gods trilogy. Read on to find out how it feels to finish a huge project and what you can expect in Beyond Fate:

Sometimes I wonder if Trilogy was a misnomer for Fate of the Gods. There are absolutely only three main novels – FORGED BY FATE, FATE FORGOTTEN, and now, BEYOND FATE – but the story potential of this series was always and still is rather unlimited. There are so many pockets of time that one could sink into and explore, like the 15th Century setting of TAMING FATE. Events that happen off page that could be fleshed out and made into their own smaller story, like the events of TEMPTING FATE, which explore Mia’s meeting and marriage to Adam.

But at the same time, I always knew what the overarching story was meant to be, and where it was meant to end – I always knew that Adam and Eve and Thor’s struggles would ultimately come to a conclusion, and in BEYOND FATE, I’ve definitely reached that end point. The Trilogy is Complete.

So what does that mean?

I don’t feel like it means I have to say goodbye to this world. I don’t feel like ALL the stories have been told that could have been. There are definitely characters I’d like to explore more fully who are twisted up in Adam and Eve and Thor’s narratives, as short side stories or novellas. Ra, for one, and Athena, too, maybe even Gabriel and Lucifer. I’ve written pages and pages and pages about Eve’s time in the ward – only a handful of which made it into FATE FORGOTTEN – and I’m sure if I wanted to dig deeper into that lifetime, there would be pages and pages left to write. (The details I know already don’t make me want to, necessarily; it was an awful life for Eve, and as such, it’s an awfully upsetting story to write.) I’m sure I could write a novel about Odin’s adventures before he arrived with Thor – it’s certain to be rich with conflict! Or even the adventures of some characters following the end of this particular Trilogy. (What are the Olympian gods up to over in their new world, anyway?)

But it does mean, I think, that there isn’t much left to write about Eve going forward. The story isn’t hers anymore, and if I wrote another book, she’d likely only be a tertiary presence. As for Adam and Thor, though, well…

I guess you’ll just have to read BEYOND FATE to find out how finished their stories are.

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The epic conclusion to the Fate of the Gods trilogy. When Adam left Eve, abandoning his wife and their newborn daughter Elah, he thought he was saving the world. But he hadn't counted on the influence of Michael, twisting Elah's love for her parents into paranoia, or the slow, leaching death of the world she rules. Even with the help of Raphael, Elah is becoming her father's daughter, a master manipulator, and she's determined to have her way, even if it means betraying her own mother's trust.

With Loki and the Aesir gone, Thor thinks he’s protected Eve from the ravages of Ragnarok, but there are forces in play even the gods can’t see. When Thor arrives in Eve's next life, offering her everything she ever wanted from Adam, and more -- eternity without death or rebirth, and the freedom to live outside of her daughter's reach -- Eve is more than tempted. But can the world survive with only Adam to protect it?

Beyond Fate will be available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, WorldWeaverPress.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Beyond Fate on Goodreads.

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Amalia Dillin began as a Biology major before taking Latin and falling in love with old heroes and older gods. After that, she couldn't stop writing about them, with the occasional break for more contemporary subjects. Her short stories have been published by Daily Science Fiction and Birdville magazine, and she's also the author of the “Fate of the Gods” series and Honor Among Orcs, the first book in the Orc Saga. Amalia lives in upstate New York with her husband, and dreams of the day when she will own goats — to pull her chariot through the sky, of course.