Benjamin Medrano's Blog, page 2

September 8th 2025 Update

Circle of Ashes is up to about 127,500 words! I’m not sure how close to done I am, as things have been complicated of late. I wish I could say more, I’m dying to share bits and pieces from the story, but I don’t want to give spoilers.

I also got back some art pieces which, sadly, have nothing to do with my current projects. Hopefully they’ll get some use in the near future…

September 9th 2025 Update

Circle of Ashes is up to about 127,500 words! I’m not sure how close to done I am, as things have been complicated of late. I wish I could say more, I’m dying to share bits and pieces from the story, but I don’t want to give spoilers.

I also got back some art pieces which, sadly, have nothing to do with my current projects. Hopefully they’ll get some use in the near future…

September 1st, 2025 Update

I have Circle of Ashes up to about 117,500 words and counting, which is pretty good from my perspective. I haven’t been able to make as much progress as I’d necessarily like, but I’m happy that I’ve made as much as I have. Alas, today is a holiday in the USA, so I’ll be interrupted and unable to write.

I’ve also seen a color concept of the Circle of Ashes cover art, and am really looking forward to getting it in the near future! That’s it for this week, though!

August 25th 2025 Updates

Circle of Ashes is up to ~107,500 words, and I think I might have gotten past the hardest part of it. There’s no chance I’ll finish the book this week, but we’ll see how long it goes, I hope this doesn’t turn into a 150,000+ word novel, but I’ll know when I’m done. I’m not cutting the story short just because it’s gone longer than I expected.

I’d share the cover art, but unfortunately it seems the artist is behind schedule, so it’s nowhere close to complete yet. In any case, that’s where I’m ...

August 18th 2025 Update

Circle of Ashes is up to ~97,000 words, and with the electrical work out of the way I should be able to focus this week. Assuming my muse doesn’t drag me off down a tangent this week, anyway.

In a few words, last week sucked. I couldn’t concentrate on anything, and the rewiring took longer than expected, leading to barely anything getting done. The only thing I did get done was a bit of silliness when the muse dragged me off to write about a character named Sasha. I have no clue where the cha...

August 11th 2025 Update

Circle of Ashes is up to ~92,500 words and climbing. Alas, this week will be chaos, as the electricians are performing a badly-needed upgrade to our house’s wiring. I suspect the wiring is close to 80 years old, but I hope it’s less than that. I expect not to be able to get much writing done until Wednesday.

Ironically, Wednesday (August 13th) is when Tess Irondale expects to begin recording the audiobook of Talyn: Blooming! Here’s the link to her Discord server, if you want to listen in, blo...

August 4th 2025 Updates

Circle of Ashes is up to about 82,500 words, and I’m moving into a section which may be insane. I’ve no clue how long it’ll be, but I hope to finish the rough draft this month. I think I have good odds of that, but I’m not making any promises just now.

The art for the book should begin this week, and once I have it I intend to set up the pre-order, as I should have a good idea of when it’ll be ready for publication at that point. So yeah, that’s what I’m working on right now!

July 28th 2025 Update

Well, it’s a good thing my wife made the preparations she did, because the personal matter? It was visiting one of her uncles who had cancer, and he passed away the day after she arrived. Due to this, my schedule was a bit (a lot) disrupted. I only got Circle of Ashes up to ~72,500 words, which is somewhat frustrating. I’m not surprised, but I could wish I managed more.

In any case, there’s not much more I can say about things. I’m doing what I can to help, I just count myself fortunate that ...

July 21st 2025 Update

I swear, when it rains it pours. Some bad family news which has further interfered with writing occurred, though I did get a fair amount done. Circle of Ashes is up to ~67,500 words, and I’ve ordered the cover art for it. Unlike many of my prior books, I knew exactly what I wanted for this cover almost from the beginning, I just needed to nail down a few details. I’m excited to see what the artist makes.

I’m not worried about me at the moment, but life is definitely being interesting. I wish ...

July 14th 2025 Update

Bad news first this time around. The various interruptions of late completely disrupted my grasp of the story thread of Circle of Ashes, so I didn’t get much writing done this past week, I spent most of it struggling to write. I think I’ve almost gotten back to where I need to be to write properly, but I’ll find out for sure tomorrow.

In any case, the first week of Talyn: Blooming has gone pretty well for me, and I’m quite happy with the response so far. I’m hoping the next few days go well, ...