Possession setting breakthrough

Note: “Possession” was the working title for Pawns of Zier.

Remember last week, I posted about possible settings for Possession, my latest fantasy novel about a dying woman trying to take possession of another guy’s body to survive? Well, the other day I had a breakthrough! A flash of insight hit me out of nowhere, and it fits so perfectly, I can’t believe I didn’t think about it before!

What is the insight?

It’s to link the book more closely to Dual, my work-in-progress where the main character ends up with two personalities (with opposing goals, of course 🙂 )! Dual takes place in this cool desert city, which was represented by one of the pictures (in reality, the ancient monastery of Mar Saba, which is situated a bit differently from my city, but was the closest image I could find):

However, I have some plans already for a book to follow Dual, so I couldn’t quite see how to fit this new story in there. But here’s what’s so perfect–I can place Possession chronologically before Dual!

It seems to obvious and simple in hindsight, doesn’t it? 🙂

The best part is, the city is really put through the wringer before Dual starts. Those events are all necessary to set up the story, but don’t belong inside the book itself. In Possession, instead, they’ll be perfect to complicate the life of my poor characters further in their cat-and-mouse game.

Bonus is that since I haven’t actually completed Dual, I have the chance to make follow-up changes should I need to. The new order would be Possession, Dual, and the unnamed Zier #3. (That’s the name of my city, Zier. Do you like it?)

Time to celebrate with some raspberry chocolate!