Unveiling the Water: Kenna's Journey into 'Waves' the Next 'Elemental Saga' Adventure

Kenna talks about the next installment in the Elemental Saga series, discussing differences between books, inspirations, new characters, and more!

'Waves: The Elemental Saga,' Cover art by Kenna Marie

Continuing the Saga

The Elemental Saga is so important to me, and I hope it'll eventually become just as important to others too. Its central themes revolve around love vs. obsession, blood vs. found family, and healing from a severely traumatic event. I've always said it's vital to accurately portray neurodiversity in any type of media.

As soon as Flames was ready to be published, I got straight to work with Waves! I was just so excited to continue working on this series. I have a general idea of how I want the series to unfold from start to finish and am working on dissecting it further as I write.

Fire vs. Water

Waves takes place on the island of Marisulae, which is beyond the southern border of Belcepit, separated by a large ocean. As mentioned in Flames, each of the four natural elements is associated with a specific feeling.

Fire is associated with love, passion, and anger, which is why Flames surrounded Circe's exploration of what she loves and what love is to her. The series will continuously explore this theme, which played a central role in Flames.

Water is associated with joy and happiness. As you can imagine, Circe and co. are neither joyful nor happy at the moment with everything that transpired at the end of Flames. This upcoming book will be centered on finding joy and happiness despite the danger they're constantly in.

Additionally, Waves will be tonally different from its predecessor. There will be a heavy contrast between light and dark forces. Marisulae is this seemingly bright, peaceful place, but danger and darkness will always follow these characters. That's one of the largest risks I'm taking when writing this sequel.

The Elemental Saga was never meant to be this warm, fuzzy series. It's very humane for an epic romantasy story, and while there is a lot of heart to it, there is also a lot of heartbreak. Things can get messy fairly quickly, and when they do, it's important to make sure a.) the tragedy that happens has a point, and b.) it moves the plot along.

That's what's difficult because I have so much lore written about this world and these characters. You have to sprinkle it in where it fits so it doesn't sound like info-dumping. And you can't have cool monsters attack the characters just because they're cool monsters. There always has to be some purpose behind it. If you lose the purpose, you lose the plot.

New Characters

Waves will focus on Circe and Cara learning how to control their new abilities while also investigating a series of brutal murders that have been occurring ever since they arrived on the island.

There are two new characters introduced in Waves that will be an important addition to the series:

• Clod Animo is Daemon's charming older cousin who is a Marisulean guard and a Wolf Whisperer, someone who will be able to communicate and bond with wolves. He brings a bit of comedic relief to the series. Think of him as the series' Ridoc (Fourth Wing).

• Lupita Torres is Daemon's twelve-year-old sister, who, like Clod, is also a Wolf Whisperer. Lupi will be a reflection of Circe throughout the series. You'll see many resemblances between them. She is a breath of fresh air that this series needs, given how dark it will get at times. She brings a lot of innocence and purity to balance the team.

What's also been difficult with the second installment is introducing these new characters while continuing to build upon the ones we've come to know from the first book. That balance can get difficult to maintain, especially with how many characters there already are.

Circe and Co.'s Development

Elaborating on the character arcs of Circe and her companions, some huge changes will be introduced in this book. Everyone will have to learn acceptance in this book. Circe will have to learn to accept she can wield Aether. Cara will have to accept that Daemon lied to them to protect his family. Ajax will have to accept that there's a possibility that Circe could die during the war. Daemon will have to accept that things are going to be different after everything that just transpired.

The book will not resolve all these issues, but it will at least touch upon them.

Where Waves is At

The outline of Waves is complete, and I'm almost a third of the way through writing the first draft of the book. I've been aiming to write a chapter per day. Right now, I'm planning for an early spring release for Waves, but that could change depending on how the editing process goes.

I'm really enjoying the direction in which this story's headed, and I can't wait to share part two of Circe's journey with everyone!

For now, you can order Flames on Amazon or read it for free with Kindle Unlimited. Click here to read it!