Battles – Sacrifices for Love is the seventh in the Tales of Freya collection of sensual short stories set in the Viking Age. In a world of crackling fires and rough landscapes, long winters and bloody raids, the immediacy of life and death ignites undeniable passions. Warriors and monks, healers and housewives – all follow the call of their hearts and bodies to indulge in pleasures that may
forever change their lives
Writing short story sequels? - When your couple’s love story isn’t over quite so soon
I wrote or at least drafted the short stories for my collection of sensual Tales out of sequence, and some a few years apart. They all feature different situations, characters, and conflicts. At the core of each one is a couple thrown into a Viking mess of the time, with real authentic grit, and how they discover a life-changing bond and healing passion.
Some stories were drafted years ago, then edited to fit (Tower, Awakening, Monk). But when I wrote this “fresh” story “The Current” something special happened: this couple, Viking warrior Aldaith and his fierce yet sensual shield maiden Nyssa, didn’t let me out of its grip. Readers fell for them hard, too, and demanded more. Some said it was about this fighter mentality in them both, this fatalistic approach of fighting and loving, as if every moment could be their last. Readers wanted more of these two warriors.
Of course I had to oblige – I was so in love with them too! These two always have a real or a sensual duel going on – which made for very exciting love scenes. They meet in a wild river after battle (in “The Current”)… then continue to train together for upcoming campaigns (in “Bonds”) and discover how deeply they really have fallen for each other. This revelation suddenly gives a whole new dimension to their profession: Fear.
And after the big revelation there had to be a satisfying wrap-up of their journey, to really show readers (and myself) how their life together develops and ends. Which of course is hard to achieve in the frame of short stories. So little space (every story is around the 10,000 word mark) needed to accommodate so much depth and development! Their dynamic is special and exciting. I had a lot of aspects to work with in terms of depth and options for development: Their love story is set amidst battlefields and training grounds. But they rarely did what I told them! And still I had to wrestle them into a format that was both satisfying for readers and fit the short story limits, and write a mini-trilogy.
The Urban Dictionary defines “Trilogy” as: “The first can stand on its own as a complete adventure. The second links to the first, but has a dark inconclusive feel generating an air of foreboding and leaving itself wide open for an unknown ending. The final chapter has drama, excitement and a moment where you think it is all lost. A grand battle is waged where good overcomes evil and peace is restored in your gut.” Yeah right, then that’s what we’d have – in a short story frame!
Part 1, “The Current” makes our lovers meet in a river after a gruesome battle, and soon sparks fly that help reaffirm life in a basic way, as one reader put it. Their “Battle of Seduction” is healing but leaves them craving more.
In Part 2, “Bonds – Under the Armour”, the couple have joined forces and are fighting and training in the same band. But a major revelation leaves them suddenly vulnerable and shaken, right before a major battle.
And finally, our Part 3: “Battles – Sacrifices for Love”, in which a campaign takes an unplanned turn. Only a painful decision can help them cope with the aftermath …
“Battles” is the last story in the Tales of Freya collection and therefore should wrap up both our mini-trilogy and the Tales in a satisfying way. To achieve this, I used an unusual, modern twist and let the ancient warriors’ voices speak yet again. How? You’ll see in “Battles – Sacrifices for Love”!
Sarah Dahl
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About the Author
Thank you so much, Tony, it's always a pleasure to be here on your amazing blog!
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