2nd draft

 Since around November 24, 2013 I have been writing a 2nd draft to Kings And Crusaders. So far, the work hasn't really been easy, and a lot of conflicting thoughts have swarmed in my head about which scenes to keep, and which scenes to not. But as George Lucas has said, that a scene in one of his movies he should only put in there if it is relevant to the story, not if he's just emotionally attached to it. I've often thought on this.

My Major Writing Influences on Fiction

  I would like to attribute this to the many writers that have influenced me. Those writers of fiction are only mentioned here.  Writers of the Bible and Christian Theology would be many more if included. Christians outside the Bible would include St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and others. But the following list are only writers of fiction. Other writers that influenced me in childhood but not so much anymore would include various writers. My first big influence into writing was C. S. Lewis back in 2007, and from here I have named influential writers.

          


C. S. Lewis, Michael and Jeff Shaara, J. R. R Tolkien, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson,  Sir Walter Scott, Alexander Dumas,  G. A. Henty,  Herge, Homer, William Shakespeare, John Bunyan,  Olivia Coolidge,  and  Anthony Hope. But most of all here probably C. S. Lewis, and father and son, Michael and Jeff Shaara. It was Lewis that inspired me to be a writer. It was the Shaara's that fired me on for it, and inspired a lot of things that I now write.

A Writer's Journey

 Finally, the life of a writer. I left off in June 2011, with a post, The Early Life and Faith of Joshua Dotson. I have recently decided to write a post on the continuing days of my life after 2007, which was my first year as a writer. A far more detailed account, is my book A Writer's Life. My blog was named after my book, but is actually much different than my book. My book follows me, my blog reaches to you.
 So here is a very brief post on the contusing days of my life.
 As of December 2008, I started reading a book called The Killer Angels. To make along story short, it was one of the major books that changed the way I viewed history, and unlike most of my previous stories that I had written, I started writing works that were historical fiction from now on. Before that most of my stories were fantasy. But Michael Shaara's impact on me changed a lot of ways of how I had previously thought. Still the book, I wouldn't consider to have immediately  changed me.  Over the test of time, The Killer Angels came to greatly effect me. Before the book I had written many shorts stories.  His son Jeff Shaara I have met twice. Jeff has been greatly influential on me  through his writings. And I consider him to be one of my greatest mentors in writing.
 In 2009 I started a story about the Battle of Normandy. It was finished in late 2010. And had been over 400 pages at the time of it's completion. I consider it to be my first major work. However, some writings that followed afterwards would be the high light of all my work , and would gain attention from readers all over the world. 

The Third Quest Completed

 A long journey I have been through. Hard research that has swirled my head many times and worn my head into head aches. But at last it is complete. The first draft to my trilogy is now finished. With about three years of work, there are of course corrections I have to make and things I have to change as well as add in. But relief has come to me. An exhale of  relaxing. I have often heard that the relationships of the characters is what makes a story. I read accounts and letters from some of the more well known participants in my story and I began to feel that I knew them, the more I wrote about them. More than 3,500 pages has been written down on paper. That's a lot of work, not including all my research across the internet and in books about this story. The Final Journey, over 900 pages was the easiest of all the trilogy for me to write. I spent much time in other things during the process of working on it including open air preaching and it was yet the quickest of all my books to write. I started my third book on January 21, 2013, and completed it on September 18, 2013. I will eventually be going over the trilogy to rewrite it. Someday I would like to do a fourth book on King Richard's return to England, dealing with some of the same people that were in this trilogy, but that maybe far ahead of now. The good news is that the third book is now finished in it's first draft. The hard work a writing this trilogy now begins to smile at it's accomplishment!

Series of The Crusades

Ahead of now, I have been making plans since before I even began my trilogy. I have often asked myself, what's next? Here is the answer to that.

After my Third Crusade is finished and published, I would like to write at least one book on the First Crusade...perhaps more, depending how much enthusiasm there is by that point to do it. But at least one book on the First Crusade, which I began working on back in September 2010, but delayed as I felt a story on the Third Crusade could better reach an audience, due to its characters like Richard I or Saladin being more familiar to most people. My story of the First Crusade would probably focus on Godfrey de Bouillon mostly, although certainly others would be included. This story is also an amazing one and anyone having interest in military or church history or just good stories in general should find it so, as well. It is my intent to tell the true story of it.

From the First Crusade, I clearly know there are numerous other crusades that took place in history. Most being of little knowledge to most people, and there are plenty of good stories from this era that should be told. Still, my primary focus is to keep Jerusalem central, and the main most influencing wars that were holy wars. These are the stories I am trying to tell. The other story I would like to tell would be of a different time in history, a time that nothing in history had ever seen like before it. It would be set in that great struggle, called ''The War to End All Wars''. Today we call this cataclysmic struggle: World War One.

Most history books have overshadowed it with the second World War.  How many events from it are known to most people? D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, and numerous others! Then there is World War One, which is hardly thought of by most people at all, and what is known is very little: the Red baron, Sergeant York, Battle of Somme. But what about the war in the Middle East, the liberation of Jerusalem in 1917. My own story of World War I will concentrate on the likes of General Edmund Allenby and Sir Harry Chauvel among others. The people and events may be mentioned in the accounts of T. Lawrence of Arabia. Many of the British soldiers called themselves crusaders, and in legend, after Jerusalem was taken it is said that General Allenby said,  ''The Wars of the Crusades are now complete.'' Jews rejoiced at the liberation of Jerusalem by the British. Muslims also were glad to be free from the tyrannical grip of the Ottoman Empire. It was here in the First World War that would establish the foundations for the future nation of Israel.

Thus will be my series of the Crusades.

The Third Crusade Trilogy

 Also known as Warriors of Christendom Trilogy or Kings and Crusaders Trilogy, my books: Kings and Crusaders, The Storming Rage, and The Final Journey follow the key characters King Richard I of England, Sir Peter de Preaux, and Sultan Saladin of Syria. Others that are significant people in the trilogy that are in one or more of the books include major characters listed  in the following.

   King Guy of Jerusalem
   Emperor Fredrick Barbarossa of Germany
   Princess Berengaria of Navarre{ becomes queen of England upon her loving marriage to Richard I}
   Princess Joan of England{ starts off as queen of Sicily, but loses her power at her husband's death.
   King Philip of  France
   Duke Hugh of Burgundy
   Hospitaller Grand Master Garnier de Nablus
   Templar Grand Master Robert de Sable
   Sir William des Roches
   Baron Conrad of Montferrat of Tyre
   Emperor Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus
   King Henry of Acre{ originally the count of Champagne}
   Queen Isabella of Acre
   Sir Balian d' Ibelin
   Chaplain William of Poitiers{ become the priest of Jaffa}
   Sir William des Preaux
   Prince Al Adil of Syria
   General Muzaffar al-Din Gokbori{ was called the Blue Wolf}
   General Taqi al- Din
   Earl Robert of Leicester
   Duke Leopold of Austria



 There are more soldiers and other than this but I listed the most important people in this post. While direct research has been taken from numerous sources, I must now come to an important announcement, and that is that my trilogy is coming to a close.  My books teach much different views of the crusades than what most modern sources do. While America has apparently had popular interest  in the crusades since the 1970s. I clearly believe there is still a wide audience out there that will read my books. I have been surprised by the success of my blog in other nations, and hope to reach further the European audience.  There is a facebook page called Warriors of Christendom  Trilogy by Joshua Dotson. I invite any people who will read my books to like it.
 One more notice to my readers.  The first draft to The Final Journey is nearly complete. It is so far more than 800 pages. I predict it to be finished within another 100.
 
 

   

The Final Journey

 Set in the period of the year of our Lord, 1192, The Final Journey is about the end of the third crusade, and thus concludes the Warriors of Christendom trilogy, that began with Kings and Crusaders and The Storming Rage.
 Many of you may already know this. Some you may also well know it follows three important figures that shaped the third crusade and are famous to any crusades enthusiast of today: King Richard I of England, Sultan Saladin of Syria, and a lesser well known character whom also shaped it's events,
Sir Peter de Preaux. Each character has surprised me in doing the research and my life has certainly  changed while writing the books. Letters, accounts, and other eyewitness sources have much to do with my own interpretation of the characters, to their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and how they would have reacted to events that surround them. I have recently decided that the order of events in my books will change, and while I don't want to give away any details, the third will certainly include the second advance to Jerusalem, the Battle of Jaffa, and the journey of one of my heroes, Sir Peter de Preaux in the last march to Jerusalem. Every significant event is historical, every character is real, I have tried very hard since october 2010 to make these books historically accurate. Writing about the third crusade for so long now, I have often felt that I was there with them. It has been quite a quest. Now for the 1st draft I am finally coming to the end of my rope. When it is finished it will be advertised and mentioned in various place across the internet. A number of modern works and biographies have also helped that these books might be written. That's all for this for now. Contiue to keep updated.

                           

A Quick Update

 It is not my intent to write a long post but merely assure my readers about what all is going on right now.  I last gave notice on WRITER'S LIFE that I finished my second book of my WARRIORS OF CHRISTENDOM trilogy, THE STORMING RAGE, which continues from the first of the three that most of you by now are familiar with, KINGS AND CRUSADERS. Now as you know I am working on my last piece of this section, THE FINAL JOURNEY. This ending book has shown more intense qualities than the previous two. Unlike it's predecessors, each scene has been very quick into what I would call  ''The important stuff.'' It follows Richard I of England, Peter de Preaux, Sultan Saladin of Syria and others. It does not include King Guy though who had been in the first two books. I'm not going to say any further about the book here since I will mention more about it in my next post. What I have to say right now is that the book is now more than 500 pages long. Compared to the other two that may seem short, but only about half right now is so far finished. However, it is my fastest book to ever cross the 500 page mark, despite these last weeks being slow due to me working on other stories at the same time. It is not yet May and by this point I am about twice ahead to where I was at this point when writing the second book and over three times as much as I had been when doing  the first book. So far the scheduled date is to finish this by some time in November at a mass of about a 1000 pages. If things go as they had in 2011 with the first book, that means this coming Summer may be a great time for writing.

The Second Quest Completed

 It is January 17, 2013, and I am glad to say that I have finished my second book in my third crusade trilogy, The Storming Rage, over 1000 pages, which has continued Kings and Crusaders, being over 1500 pages long. This tremendous task of research and writing on my back, which I have been doing since October 2010, will now see it's third book yet soon to be written.
 I began work on the Storming Rage on {originally titled the Final Journey but now that title waits for the last book } February 14, 2012. I became terribly sick in July and August 2012, thereby slowing down what is usually my best writing season, but despite this, by September, more than 700 pages of the book is written. By January 17, 2013, my book becomes finished at a mass of more than 1000 pages, continuing off my previous book, Kings and Crusaders, more than 15000 pages. I plan for my third book to be worked on very shortly. While no precise date can here be written, I would like to finish it sometime in November.