High Summons

Aesthetic Boards – the glorious mashing of images to create a thematic storyboard. Tumblr is full of them. Instagram too – and I might just have tumbled down the rabbit hole a bit late. Either way, I’m hooked.

However, as I created a board for my debut, High Summons, I realized how far my main character, Jon has come. This frustrated, isolated youth had a big wake-up call in High Summons when the universe answered his want for a magical Yoda, but he’s gone from an optimistic (albeit sarcastic) lanky, floundering demon hunter / freshman into a pragmatic (still sarcastic) lanky, rapidly improving demon hunter / sophomore.

Okay, maybe that’s not the best way to put it. It’s hard to describe his character growth from High Summons to Grimm Remains without spoiling the hard turn in the upcoming third book, Smoke & Mirrors. Jon’s grown. In High Summons, he’s running to catch up, and though he’s still running in Grimm Remains, he has come to understand his abilities.

In all honesty, the somewhat cocky kid from chapter one has come back. The magical community knocked him around – and demons definitely helped, but he hits his stride in Grimm Remains and with his underlying longing to be a superhero, I don’t think anyone is shocked by his mixed feelings towards Jordan’s moral ambiguity.

All these thoughts came to mind over this last weekend as I plotted out Book 4: The Lady in White. While Smoke & Mirrors isn’t out until late summer, there are ripples – or dominoes if you will – from one book into the next. Really, the Warlock of Rochester series is a prequel of sorts. I know where Jon’s going, and each book shapes him further into the man he’s going to become. When a few more books come out, I’ll enjoy putting a series of these boards side by side – just so we can all see the shifting mode of the series.

Until then –

Good Luck.