Book Two is a collection of continuations that can be taken as part of the book or not. In the case of Slate One, it continues the story of Book One whereas Slate Three continues after the events of Book Five. Slate Two, or the Tales of Shockley and Thexory, are short tales that revolve around two of the book's characters. Book Two need not be read like a novel such as the others. Book Three and Four were written with the idea of the two rolling into one another.
Throughout the books, the names tend to change because the idea is that there is one driving soul that is easily recognized. For instance, purple eyes usually refer to Asura while blue eyes are to Jibril. The minor details of their hair or eyes will likely give a clue as to who they really are.
I began contemplating the actual first book, which I was going to name “The Game,” back when I was in elementary school. I did not have that much discipline back then so it was not till high school that I began writing a series of poems that followed the events of what occurred in that book.
“The Collective Sorrow” series does contain many elements that were rooted in that book. However I started off as a means to express something that was happening at the time. It was only meant to be one book and slowly changed over time. The books, just as they were then, remain an outlet and an explanation of current events. The first book intentionally broke a couple of my own personal rules which is why it remains completely imperfect. It set out to achieve two personal goals of mine: one was to finish a book and second was to create memoirs not only for myself but for the people around me. Thus the books features people in my life (with their permission, naturally, even as far as some of them fleshing their own characters out) dealing with situations or having reminders left in the text for them to always have. This is also why illustrations exist; for purposes of making it very real to us.
The third book, The Children's Tale, departs from the original goals and intentions and I like to think that they took off on their own. The voices change in order to give a feel of the characters and their common dilemmas as the book progresses. Ultimately book three rolls right into book four, Ereziel, attempts to show a different angle and feel from what the third was trying to do. Simply put, these two books are more about emotions.
The fifth book is currently in the proofreading stages.
The Conversationalist Books are guides to the books and the various worlds, rules, and other trivial things. This has not been completed as yet.
I retain the copyright to all original work unless stated otherwise. The works have been under copyright since 2004 to present, using the
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND, versions 2.0 and 2.5.
The books and artwork are licensed under a Creative Commons License, unless stated otherwise.
Years before I had actually begun writing the books the story had a beginning that has not been written down. More of that will be explained when the fifth book is completed. The reason for mentioning this now is that I sketched and drew a few pieces myself. After the books started to develop, Raphael Mohamed, of Panic Button Studios, was kind enough to draft five works and since then I've done two or three pieces myself.
Officially launched on October 13th, 2007. The first version utilized brushes that were created by AnaRasha. The current layout includes a tile from Kaliber.