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With The Earthstone, I was finally able to use some of the material that I had written for the very first Westria novel in 1971, including Caolin's sorcerous attack on Registhorpe, and some of the characters. Silverhair's genius and grumpy temper remained pretty consistent from his first appearance at Registhorpe in the original manuscript to the next time he visited it in The Earthstone. Tiger Lily had become Rana, rather older, but was just as stubborn and brave, and the Master of the Junipers has always been the same. But the character of the Prince, who in the original version was mysterious, noble, and not very interesting, had undergone a major transformation, and Caolin was now a much more complex figure than the generic evil sorcerer he had been.

Finally the backstory had been dealt with, and I could tackle the major story line--the recovery of the four lost Jewels of Power and the conflict with Caolin. Here also I was able to make full use of Kabbalistic and Elemental symbolism. In the glyph of the Tree of Life, the lowest sphere is Malkuth, whose colors are a quartering of Black, Russet, Olive and Citrine. The elemental beings associated with this sphere are the gnomes. Malkuth is the sphere of Earth, the world we know, and the element of Earth nourishes all that grows. Clearly the spirits of plant and tree and stone itself had to play a part in the story. By this time I had also begun to study shamanism, and some of this understanding got into the book as well.

My most interesting research came from a trip to Southern California during which I stopped off at Ojai and took advantage of the opportunity to soak in one of the mineral spas. The Chumash Indian elements came from information I had encountered while working on Native American education at Far West Laboratory.

In this book, Julian begins to find out who he is, and what that means. He is untested and uncertain, afraid of power. Caolin is the opposite, arrogantly sure of his power and his destiny. Initially, the sorcerer has all the magic, and is just beginning to build his forces on the physical plane. As the Jewel books continue, the balance gradually tips, until by the end of The Jewel of Fire, Caolin has the most formidable army, but Julian has mastered the powers of the Elements.

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