This isn’t my favourite aspect of writing, but I do love that moment of clarity when everything falls together (or rather, apart) and the knives come out! I had a very technical sticky note beside my laptop! But it went out of date multiple times, since I reorganized alliances at every phase of editing until I found the arrangement I liked best.

Was this fun to plot and how did you keep track of who is with whom? This tale has a lot more intrigue and alliances shifting in the story. This enabled more inter-character dynamics and let me explore how aspects of her personality (unyielding self-sacrifice and loyalty) applied with strained relationships, increasing responsibility for others and the demands of a restless people. Loneliness and learning self-sufficiency are a key themes in Hall of Smoke, and though loneliness is still a thread in Temple (the solitude of leadership) I wanted Temple of No God’s Hessa to have more of a squad around her. I really enjoyed this aspect of writing Temple of No God. How was it writing Hessa now as a leader rather than on her own for a lot of the book as in Hall of Smoke? My editor and I decided on a 10-year gap to give a little more distance between Hall of Smoke and this book, but I was also very glad to tackle a character in an underrepresented age category – the jaded 30ish adult who needs a holiday and has had it up to HERE with everyone’s shenanigans. What was the appeal of a ten-year time jump? How would you booktempt Temple of No God?Ī priestess at the head of a barbarian army, a crumbling empire, fallen gods and an ancient power waiting to be attained… HM Long kindly again talked to the blog about the book and the writing process for this story. It also has a welcome return for Hessa one of the most interesting characters in fantasy and uses a ten year time jump well to explore how we change as we get older. I recently reviewed the great Temple of No God by H M Long a great epic fantasy story exploring intrigue in a world only just recovering from the war of the gods.

Hall of smoke hm long