Strange as it may seem, Celts and the Mad Goddess is both my latest project and the first book I’ve ever written. Let me explain:
I started writing Celts some twenty years ago, and what is now going to be a series was then a standalone novel called The Dead Immortals. I never tried to publish it—and rightly so.
The novel spanned two millennia and followed the lives of antagonized immortal Celts and their mortal sidekicks. At that time, I still believed that plotting was for untalented losers and that my genius would guide me through the book. The result was catastrophic.
I spent over a decade pantsing my way through the novel, ripping it apart, and writing it from scratch. And when I was finally done, I proudly showed it to my former boss, a burly six-foot Dutch-Canadian lady… who said it was crap. I thought she was out of her mind and that she was too dumb to recognize a masterpiece. Now I know she was right.
All this was over ten years ago, and since then I’ve found my voice and learned to plot my novels. I wrote and published two other books, Deception of the Damned and The Priest of Orpagus, along with a bunch of stories and drabbles, and I almost forgot about my Celts.
Then one day, I went through my old files and realized that, while the manuscript was truly fecal, the premise was pretty good, and because of the two-millennia span, the story had the potential to become a series.
A year later, Celts and the Mad Goddess, alias Book One of The Deathless Chronicle, was born.
I plotted this book much more carefully than anything I’ve ever written. I wrote a long outline for every chapter and main character. Then I wrote the first draft and sent it to a few friends (including our own Elaine here) to get some feedback. If they thought it was crap, they didn’t say so (thank you, Elaine), which encouraged me to write the second draft and send it to my editor. Once she got back to me with her comments, I spent months rewriting and polishing.
As usual, the first and last chapters needed the most work. When it comes to characters, the hardest one was Rawena, a troubled young woman turned an unwilling villain. It took me many rewrites to get into her head and see how she would speak and react in different situations.
Rawena’s tormentor, the goddess Pandemia, was also tough to create. She’s a rat woman who spreads pestilence and wants to annihilate humans, and it took me a lot of effort to make her fun and somewhat likable and to justify her actions. Once I’d pulled it through, her scenes became a pleasure to write.
The easiest was the settings, as I had always been obsessed with Celts and history, and I placed their imaginary town in the woods near my parents’ house in the Czech Republic.
Celts and the Mad Goddess has been out for a few weeks, and since I’ve done about all I could to promote it, I’ve started revising the first draft of its sequel. It’s called Celts and the Gladiator and takes place in Nero’s Rome. I hope to publish it next summer. I’m planning to write about six more installments that will take us to the near future.
Thank you so much for reading. Please, wish me good luck.
BIO: When he was in kindergarten, P.C. managed to convince his classmates that his grandma was a tribal shamaness. Then he learned his letters, and kidding his friends no longer seemed adequate—so he started to write.
Apart from Celts and the Mad Goddess, P.C. has published two standalone novels and an anthology. His short stories have been featured in various publications.
He has lived in six countries and on three continents. Although ruinous to his bank account, the seminomadic lifestyle has been hugely inspirational, and many of his adventures have spilled into his stories. He and his wife have settled in southern Spain, where he goes swimming and cycling whenever he isn’t too busy writing.
When the raiders chase her into a swamp, Rawena falls into the furry claws of Goddess Pandemia. Despite her murderous instincts, Pandemia lets Rawena live—and turns her into a pawn in a mad game.
Only Garux, a warrior who has rejected Rawena for her younger sister, knows how deadly the game is. With the cards stacked against him, he must defeat the jealous Rawena and the cunning Pandemia… while fighting foreign invaders and traitors within his tribe.
Will Garux and his allies prevent a disaster that could wipe out everyone in Bohemia and perhaps the whole world? Purchase Celts and the Mad Goddess now to find out. Find P. C. Darkcliff at:
Website: https://pcdarkcliff.com/