Origins: Blood and Rain
In 2013, as I was finishing Under the Black Sand – my debut novel – I started thinking about what to do next. I had proven I could write and complete a novel, it felt like quite the achievement and I wanted to try it again! Apply everything I had learned, avoid some of the pitfalls and detours Black Sand had presented.
Blood and Rain would be that next project. The criteria were simple:
Shorter than Black Sand.
Linear, no flashback hopping.
Nothing supernatural.
I suppose I still wasn’t quite ready to leave Iceland behind. Gunnar, the protagonist, was an Icelandic reporter. He was bored and as the Spanish Civil War broke out, he saw his path to glory open. Unsurprisingly, as he arrived in Barcelona, he was perfectly out of his depth.
Blood and Rain probably served as a training ground. My characters were deeper, the events were real, if stylised and modified for the story. I think my writing style was emerging. Short, to the point, as little fluff as possible. And let strong characters run the story.
And that’s when Celestina appeared. She began as a love interest, but refused to play the role. Her backstory would be revealed and deepened throughout the trilogy, but it already dictated her every move. She wouldn’t let herself be “paired off.” She had her own purpose. In the end, she almost took over the book.
From Barcelona to Amsterdam: Mont Noir
Mont Noir followed. I hadn’t planned a series, but Celestina demanded more space. Here, Gunnar – now calling himself Frank – lives in Amsterdam. It’s early 1939. Celestina is still a thorn in Franco’s side, and someone in the German administration decides she could be useful in triggering a limited war between Germany and the West. She’s flown to Berlin, then to Amsterdam.
Mont Noir is shorter, leaner, more to the point. I dare say I was honing my craft. It also introduced new characters. Lodewijk, the aging diplomat who returns in the final novel, and Marleen, the beautiful jazz singer.
The Question That Ended It All: A Sky Without Stars
I wasn’t planning to create a trilogy. The spark for A Sky Without Stars came when I visited the Verzetsmuseum (Resistance Museum) in Amsterdam. One of the first things they ask you as you enter is this:
Under occupation, there are three choices.
Adapt.
Resist.
Cooperate.
What would you do?
I think it was in that moment that I realised, the Frank and Celestina saga needed to be completed. I had been absolutely clear with myself. I will NOT write a World War Two novel. Ever! It’s overdone, and there have been so many tragic and beautiful stories, that I can’t possibly hope to compete in that space.
But the question lingered. Each of my characters would answer it differently. Frank had never been a hero. Would he adapt? How long could he get away with it? Lodewijk was a patriot, but would he risk others for his own safety? Celestina had left the Netherlands at the end of Mont Noir. Where was she now?
On 6 January 2023, as I was preparing the Mont Noir launch, I was sitting in a Dutch Air Force canteen in Soesterberg. I had a few hours to burn. I opened a new Scrivener document. I typed the first line. Then the next. Within a month – 7 February, to be exact – I had a complete first draft. The story came out fully formed. The characters made their choices. I simply watched and wrote.
Now that A Sky Without Stars is complete, two things stay with me. First, strong characters are everything. Once they live, they drive the story. Second, I’m convinced Sky is my most layered and emotionally mature novel. Not necessarily the most complex – that honour still belongs to the debut – but it’s the deepest. It even closes an arc first opened in Blood and Rain and never revisited until now.
This book truly ends the trilogy. It completes the arcs for Frank and Celestina, bringing them roughly to where they wanted to be at the start of Blood and Rain. Roughly, because they have evolved, endured, changed. And so have their ambitions.
As I close this chapter on my writing journey, I can’t help but wonder if I will miss them. Especially Celestina, the character who began as a love interest and became the backbone of a trilogy. As I move toward new and very different projects, I suspect she’ll keep shaping the women I write.
Time will tell. Now I am going to celebrate an achievement that I honestly never thought I would reach.
Finishing a trilogy that grew stronger with every book.