9 Favourite Spoiler-free Moments In “The Night of Legends”

The post was sparked from the idea of me picking out my top nine moments (for Instagram, of course) in The Night of Legends and writing a little about why each had a special place in my heart.

It was easy to pick out the first one, but the task got increasingly harder as I tried to select excerpts that I loved without giving too much of the plot away. So it gradually dwindled into a 9 moments that caught my eye (on my nth read of the novel) that are relatively spoiler-free.

1. The moment so important, it became the title of the book

The idea to embed a rhyme as part of the Ifarls' rich heritage came to me pretty early on when I was writing the novel.

In fact, The Night of Legends made it into the final manuscript without any change from when it was first written (at least as far as I remember).

The bigger story here was that, even after writing the entire book, I was unsure about what title I wanted. I sat on 'The Kulcan' for the longest time – boring, I know.

It was only when I took the manuscript out to revise it, 3 years after writing it, that the title of the rhyme jumped out to me as a worthy title for the book. After all, the events described by the rhyme was the big-bang moment for the story. The decision was made in a split second, and I never looked back. And I'd safely say that this important moment is probably the defining moment in the journey of writing this book.

2. Crazy Eyes – the hissing antagonist

Call me biased, but you gotta love a character who writes himself and comes packed with a distinctive personality that just jumps off the page. That's Seyfer I'm talking about, of course.

I also really enjoyed how these four short paragraphs concisely conveyed arrogance, contrast, and humour.

Read The Night of Legends to find out why Seyfer's self-introduction was such a kick in the shin for Keix.

3. Pod, the master of the understatement

Pod's another character who writes himself. I always look forward to scenes with Pod because he writes his own dialogue, and it never fails to amuse me.

Yeah, writers will know what I'm talking about – characters writing their own lines. It sounds crazy, but you've got to admit that no one in their right state of mind would want to write a >60K-word manuscript.

4. Dace, the expert flirt

Dace is a study in contrasts. He swings between being dead serious and flippant at the snap of a finger. He also has this refreshing honesty about him that is disarming to Keix, given her situation.

I have a feeling that readers are likely to fall in ‘love’ with him, but will Keix feel the same way about him? You'd have to read The Night of Legends to find out. (lol)

5. The new ship – Pace or Dod?

OK, it was difficult to pull out exciting excerpts that didn't give much of the story away, so I settled on this moment, where Dace (probably) one-upped Pod.

When you have characters like these two, it's easy for sparks to fly. So now the question is... what's the name of your new ship?

6. A moment of peace

As much as I love action, there are times when we need to take a step back to ‘enjoy’ the setting our characters are in.

It's not that much different, the Sector from most urban landscapes. And I hope that it will resonate with readers across the globe, since The Night of Legends is not set in any particular city in the real world.

7. On writing tension

It was a tense scene. I wanted to downplay the action and sexual tension with some humour, but I may have downplayed it too much.

Number 7 on a list of 9 also meant a level of difficulty of 7 with 9 being the most difficult. Thus, the inclusion of this scene.

8. Action, action, and more action

I find writing action scenes the ‘easiest’ of all because it's just a matter of transferring the images in my brain onto paper.

There’s this weird thing I do when I watch movies, which is to translate whatever I'm seeing on screen into words. I suppose there's a bunch of writers who do the same, just that they never ever thought to admit it.

9. Inappropriate moments of humour

I’m noticing a pattern here. Introduce some semblance of sexual tension, then break it with humour. Am I toying with your feelings? You tell me.

I have yet to meet anyone who’s read the book, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. So drop me a note or comment on any of my social media channels and we can start a conversation from there.

Meantime, I’m a little stuck plotting Book 2, so I'll just work on clearing that writer’s block right there (probably with more K-dramas, movies, or books).