GUEST POST: Zachery Richardson (author of Chronicles of the Apocalypse)

Good morning, all! It's time for another lovely stop along the The Virtual Book Tour Cafe's literary route, this time featuring Zachery Richardson, who has stopped by to promote his latest work, Chronicles of the Apocalypse: Revenge,Everything is Nothing.

Zachery Richardson, casually Zach, was born in Seattle WA on August 8th, 1989, and was raised in Lake Oswego, OR. It is perhaps the greatest irony of all that his chosen career is that of an author when as a child, his second least favorite subject in school was writing. Math was number one, and their relationship remains strained to this day. However, the switch was flipped in middle school when his teacher assigned a creative writing project. Having finally been given a productive outlet for his wildly active imagination, Zach dove headfirst into the world of author-dom and never looked back. By his freshman year of high school, he'd completed his first "book"; a 300 page fanfiction set in the Mobile Suit Gundam universe. Afterwards, he turned his attention to a series of wholly original works that would become Chronicles of the Apocalypse in the subsequent year. While Chronicles of the Apocalypse (or COTA as he likes to call it) remains his central focus, Zach has also begun work on several other projects in the Young Adult and High Fantasy genres. He currently lives in Wilsonville, OR.

Before we get into Zach's guest post, let's take a quick look at Chronicles of the Apocalypse.

When you sacrifice the lives of your wife and children to prevent the world's most powerful clan of assassins from unleashing the Apocalypse, what does that make you? And what do you do when you learn that it was all in vain? For Jin Sakai, that sacrifice turned him into a mere shell of a man, filled only with guilt and hatred. When he learns that it was a sacrifice made in vain, he instantly sets out on a violent one-man war to tear the assassins' clan down around their ears. After all, who better to destroy them than the man who brought them together?

Things soon turn down a darker path as Jin uncovers the disturbing truth behind his family's sacrifice; a truth he was never meant to learn. Undone by the revelation, Jin is consumed by doubt and confusion and very nearly loses his life. It is only later when he meets Leah Lawson, a woman with a past almost as dark as his own, that his doubt and confusion vanish and he begins to see a path that will not only lead him to his revenge, but to his redemption.

Unfortunately, there is far more going on behind the scenes than Jin realizes. Forces are at play that have been manipulating the course of his life ever since he was born. By setting out on his quest for vengeance, Jin unknowingly cements his destiny as one of the key warriors in the apocalyptic war that’s brewing just beneath the surface.

Without further ado, please welcome the wonderful Zachery Richardson, and his thoughts on Writing Concurrently.

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Writing Concurrently: When Two of Your Novels Occur Simultaneously

By Zachery Richardson

OneBelieve it or not, I actually didn’t plan on having my first two novels take place at the same time. I always knew they took place in the same universe and built towards the same ultimate story, but it wasn’t until about halfway through the first draft of the first one, Chronicles of the Apocalypse: Revenge, Everything is Nothing, that I realized both books would have to occur simultaneously for the timing to work.

Writing my first book with this in mind presented an interesting challenge, especially when writing Book 2! In Revenge, Everything is Nothing (or REIN as I like to call it), my main character, Jin Sakai, witnesses the aftermath of an event that takes place early in Book 2. Yet when it came to writing Book 2, my creative nature very nearly got the better of me and I almost wrote the scene in a way that wouldn’t have resulted in the destruction Jin witnesses in REIN. In addition to that, there is one character who appears in both books and making sure he doesn’t appear in two places at once has been the most consistent challenge in writing Book 2.

Despite the challenges though, having the two books take place at the same time and occasionally in the same place has opened the door for some very fun moments as well. Since Jin Sakai is an assassin and his story takes place in the shadows of our world, we don’t see the aftermath of his actions. Since Book 2 takes place in broad daylight if you will, that allows me to show the reaction people have when they come across or hear about what Jin has done. It also lets me reveal how certain characters in REIN know things that, by all accounts in the book, they shouldn’t.

My greatest tool in this endeavor has been the calendar I created for the events of REIN. It’s allowed me to keep track of who does what when, and more importantly for some characters, where they are when they do it. And that’s my advice to anyone considering doing the same thing. Make a calendar for the book, it’ll save your sanity.

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Thanks so much to Zachery Richardson for stopping by. If you'd like to follow his virtual journey in support of Chronicles of the Apocalypse: Revenge, Everything is Nothing, check out his schedule on the Calendar of Events page at The Virtual Book Tour Cafe. You can also check him out on his Website, over at Lulu.com, on Twitter (@RisingPhoenix89), or on YouTube.

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