Kyle Belote's Blog, page 2

Writing Update | Maro 3 | Draft 2—Complete

LORE ARCHIVE | ATAR
THE BOOK OF MORALITY | THE SACRAL COMPENDIUM
“Know the amoral by the lies they speak,
the truth they obscure,
and the helpless cries they ignore.”

Some scars don’t fade. They deepen.

Here’s another update from the world of Atar. I finally pushed through with the second draft of Maro 3—and knocked it out in a day. 

This time around, draft 2 was all about internal thoughts, emotional resonance, and voice. Yes, there’s prose tightening, of course, but this is all about homing in on what makes the character sing. Maro went from a 2D representation sketch with hints of shading to a full 3D rendering—complex, textured, alive with his layers.

Here’s what I focused on:

Maro’s voice is much sharper now—richer in cynicism, sarcasm, and emotional insight. And the humor is better placed—if I say so myself. The boon of fire and its implications are more deeply embedded into the overall narrative, but it’s still just an element and not the whole story. There’s a more matured emotional arc, with parts introspective and multilayered with regret, betrayal, and lingering affection.The sentences are cleaned of clutter for stronger rhythm and sharper sentence variation. 

With key improvements out of the way, let’s switch to the overall progression. First draft was considerably lean, falling well below the target 30K word count mark with 25.8K words. But I was able to flesh it out, and now, we’ve got ourselves a proper novella with three drafts remaining. Here’s the final count:

Chapters: 14/ 14Epilogues: 1/ 1Total Words: 32,0641st Draft: 25,8432nd Draft:32,064

So, what’s next on the agenda? Well, as you know, I’m still plugging away at Vol. VII. I’d say I’m about 70% done. I’ve also spent a great deal of time thinking about the finale of the series, Vol. VIII, and I’ve been jotting down notes and ideas. My number one rule for the end is to pull a Makayla Maroney and stick the landing, but only you, dear readers, can pass judgement when the time comes. 

I’ve given myself a hard deadline to finish piddling with Vol. VII by the end of May. After that, complete or not, I need to shift gears into Decimation Protocol, the second Sci-fi entry for the Warmaster Series. It has a release date for next year, and it needs some TLC for the 3rd–5th drafts. Will keep you posted on the warfront. 

What are you most curious about in Maro’s next outing? What are your theories for the Sci-fi universe? Comment down below!

Explore the Dire Universe: Amazon | Goodreads | Patreon | Website | Blog | X | Instagram
Oblus ina’ti Sepan Eti — Live and die by the sword.

Writing Update | Vol. VII | Draft 0.7

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

It’s been a while since I updated on this book—last time was 4/16/25, if you can believe it. I’d promised updates every ten thousand words, but… well, here we are. The good news is I’ve more than doubled that goal. The better news: I’m further along than expected. That said, I’ve dithered long enough. I’ve given myself a hard deadline: the first draft must be done by the end of May. I need to set this project aside and refocus on my other two books due out in 2026.

Volume VII hasn’t been the hardest book to crack, but it has felt like slamming into a brick wall at times. Some characters are simply tougher for me to write—either because I don’t like them, or because their motivations feel alien to me. When I can’t relate to a character, forging ahead becomes a real slog.

That said, their importance to the story can’t be overstated. Their arcs are grand, the emotional moments real, and the brutal decisions necessary. If it wasn’t this character making those choices, it would have been another. The story demands it.

The four major characters’ journeys are complete—minus a scene and a half I still need to plug in. I’m hopeful that the time spent away from their storylines will let the words come pouring out when I return. As for the minor characters: I just wrapped up one of the hardest storylines to write. It wasn’t easy, but it’s done, and that alone feels like a major victory.

Here’s the latest breakdown:

Percentage Done: ~70% (estimated by character arcs, not word count)Prologue: 1/1Chapters: 45Epilogues: 2/?? (still undecided)Word Count: 250,244Starting Word Count: 174,900 (includes extras like front matter and notes)Main POVs: 4 — DoneMinor POVs: 3/6

Writing this deep into the series has turned me reflective. Dark Legacy has been with me since I was twenty. Now, over forty, it’s been half my life. The title feels more fitting than ever: it’s not just the legacy of the characters—it’s mine, too. What will the final verdict be when it’s all said and done? My greatest hope is to leave behind a mythos that lingers—a story that stays with readers long after the last page. I want Dark Legacy to feel like popping in an old VHS of Star Wars and watching it so many times that the tape wears out.

And here’s a truth I don’t often admit: I hate endings. I never finished the final season of Downton Abbey. Never watched the movies either. To me, the story remains unfinished, alive. There’s no last-minute scramble to patch plot holes, no final goodbye to something I loved.

As I draw closer to Volume VIII—the final installment—part of me is realizing I’ll have to say goodbye. In a way, these books are like children. I brought them into the world, nurtured them, pushed them to grow—and soon, I’ll have to release them into the wild. All I can do now is hope I did them justice.

I’ve started jotting notes and writing a few scenes for the end of the series. The biggest questions on my mind:

Who lives and who dies?What would serve the story best?Can I honor everything that came before?

Endings are hard—every beloved franchise struggles with them. Star Wars had Ewoks. Harry Potter gave us a broken wand. Game of Thrones… well, you know. I’m determined to stick the landing—and if I don’t, at least I’ll know I gave it everything I had. I know I didn’t finish Downton, but I swear … I’ll probably finish this. Actually, you know what? I will finish this! I won’t be another Martin or Rothfuss.

Thanks for sticking with me on this journey, and I hope my stories have brought you a little happiness with a glimpse into my lands far, far away…

Explore the Dire Universe: Amazon | Goodreads | Patreon | Website | Blog | X | Instagram
Oblus ina’ti Sepan Eti — Live and die by the sword.

Bloodbane Cover Reveal

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

Here’s the official cover for the next grimdark installment of the Maro Prakk series—Bloodbane.

Nine months removed from hunting down the Lanton gang, Maro’s back—bruised, broke, and neck-deep in another bloody mess. This time, he rides alongside an unhinged bounty hunter with monsters lurking in the dark … and Maro’s on the menu. 

Let me know what you think of the cover in the comments below!

Huge thanks to my insanely talented cover artist—you can check out more of his work here, or find him on Instagram @book_covers_art.

Stay tuned for more updates and more reveals!

If you enjoyed this content and want more or to support the cause, follow me on Patreon! If you want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All are available in eBook and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon. I shall return…

Bloodbane Update: Cover Artist

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

Just a quick update! The cover artist, Ivan, has reached out, and he’s starting the process. It shouldn’t be too long before I get the first round sneak peek. Once ready, we’ll do the reveal, and then start the preorder on Amazon. Soon, the draft will be headed to the editor, and once it gets back to me, it’ll be a breakneck speed to get it turned around for the August timeframe.

That’s all I got for this round, short and sweet…

If you enjoyed this content and want more or to support the cause, follow me on Patreon! If you want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All are available in eBook and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon. I shall return…

Writing Update | Vol. VII | Draft 0.5

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

Okay, it’s been a while since I updated about the first draft of Vol. VII, but we’ve reached that point. First and foremost: the main character POVs have been reduced to four, while the number of secondary characters has bumped to six. So, ten POVs. This is quite the whittling from the thirty-five POVs in Vol. IV. However, it probably won’t stop at just ten POVs. There are other characters that will need some screen time to flesh out the full story, so, they’ll be in there, too. Maybe, at most, fourteen POVs, but don’t count on it too much. As the series progresses, and the cast is concentrating on one part of the world, less is more.

That said, I do have a bit of mirroring going on throughout the novel. It seems to be a repeating pattern. What do I mean? Well, I’ve been showing one side of the story, and now, I’m writing the other side, a view from the opposition. I quite like it. That said, I have the feeling that once I get the first draft down, I will need to go back in and add more to the story—a significant chunk. Once I get to the point where I say, ‘This is the story,’ that’s when I start noticing things that don’t quite make sense, or it’s less than robust. Anyway, with all 4 main POVs written, I’m drawing to a close on my second secondary character. I’ll need another chapter, and maybe an epilogue. We’ll see.

Prologue: 0 / 1Chapters: 38Epilogues: 2 / ??Word Count: 223,167Starting Word Count: 174,900 (includes Notes)Main POVs: 4Minor POVs: 6Percentage Done: 50% (guesstimate—by characters written, not actual word count)

If you enjoyed this content and want more or to support the cause, follow me on Patreon! If you want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All are available in eBook and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon. I shall return…

Writing Updates | Maro 3 & Vol. VII

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

It’s been a slow start to Maro 3’s second draft. To be honest, I’m looking at notes from alpha readers on the first draft before jumping into the rewrite of each chapter. This is a very different book than the first two, tackling a different genre within the Western Fantasy world, so it’s a discovery phase for me. Without dragging this out too long, let’s take a look at the progress.

Chapters: 5 / 14Epilogues: 0 / 1Total Words: 27,5951st Draft: 25,843

Volume VII is still a work in progress, and as stated before, it’s going at a much slower rate as I’ve cut back my time within the novel. Typically, I work on it every other day, giving it a little breathing space as I meander through. For those of you who don’t know, I’m a pantser/gardener type of writer. I don’t know how the novel’s really shaping up until about the halfway mark, or between 125K–150K words. I did, however, wrap up a storyline—minus the epilogue—and will be moving on to other characters. That said, the most important characters/ storylines have been written. Now, it’s just supporting cast. Here’s the update on that…

Prologue: 0 / 1Chapters: 34Epilogues: 2 / ??Word Count: 211,019Starting Word Count: 174,900 (includes extras such as Front Matter and Notes)Words Added: 36,119Main POVs: 8Minor POVs: 3Percentage Done: 40% (guesstimate)Any update will occur after 10K words have been added to the manuscript.

If you enjoyed this content and want more or to support the cause, follow me on Patreon! If you want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All are available in eBook and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon. I shall return…

Dire Universe Update | Voices and Mortality

…And I’m back! This will be longer than usual, a lot of pokers in the fireplace, so let’s dive right in.

I guess the first thing we should tackle is the next project. I’ve dithered for a little bit, trying to decide what I wanted to do, and I’ve made up my mind. I will be rolling into Maro 3—untitled as of yet. As mentioned in previous posts, it’s due out next year, 2026. That could be anywhere from eight to twenty months. So, somewhere in that timeframe, that’s my goal. To be honest, it’ll probably come out earlier in the year, and with it only in the first draft, it needs the most attention. I’m about three chapters in, and the process is a little slow, but I’m also being pulled in other directions. With each story, I’d like to tackle different genres/tropes while in my Western Fantasy world, and Maro 3 is no exception. In many ways, it’s a fish-out-of-water story.

Other projects are vying for my attention. I’ve written the opening paragraphs to Maro seven and eight, so I know where I’m headed, at least the start of those stories. Some of the greatest movies out there are either a man vs. nature story, or they have strong elements of that with man vs. man. A few movies come to mind: The Revenant, and Rambo: First Blood—the latter is one of my favorites. I even read/audiobooked First Blood, and it was quite enjoyable, and quite different from the movie, at least where it ends up. That said, I enjoyed both. I think Maro might get a similar treatment.

I’m also still writing in Vol. VII, and I usually tackle that first thing in the morning. I find it easier when dealing with a first draft to hit it early while the creative juices are full. That said, I have cut back on how much time I spend with the story. I’m nearing the end of one storyline, and we still have plenty more to write. Years ago, I wrote one segment of Vol VII, and I’m very happy where it ended up, but now that I’ve changed the timeline of the novel, I’ll have to go back and fix their chunk to make sure it matches. Also, that story alone is half of the novel as it stands right now, coming in at about 110K words. I need to cut where permissible.

My primary focus, for a while, has been the fantasy series and getting it done. I recently had another birthday, and my own mortality is weighing on my mind—being one of those writers who never finishes the series. I don’t want to be a Patrick Rothfuss or a George R. R. Martin; I don’t want to be full of excuses as to why it was never finished; I don’t want to sit on my ass and fail to deliver. I’m one of those people that believes once the author makes the commitment to bring their art into the world, they have an obligation to finish it in a fairly timely manner. What I’d really like is to get the first draft of everything finished, so that if the most unfortunate thing should happen, it’s able to be completed/polished by another and released.

Decimation Protocol, the sequel to Demon’s Fate, has been put on the back burner for now, but it will be coming up next after draft two of Maro 3. And once draft three is done, I will head back to Maro 3 and do its third draft. The third draft in my writing is probably the least invasive and easiest; it parallels the first draft in someways. My first draft is just getting the story down, and a lot of details make it into the story that makes draft 3, the world building of visuals and sensory, easier. But that’s the primary focus, the little details that make the story more robust. This is what that looks like, this smell permeates the place, this is the weather, etc. So, hopefully it shouldn’t be too much of a romp to get through.

And the last project that’s weighing heavily on me is audiobooks. The greatest narrator I’ve ever heard is Steven Pacey—I’ll die on that hill!—who did Joe Abercrombie’s First Law books. To date, early 2025, he’s got nine of them. Well, I told myself if I ever was going to do an audiobook, especially for Maro Prakk, I’d want him to do it. So, I checked into it, and it’s just not financially feasible, not with a price tag of around $5000. But that still doesn’t diminish my desire for an audiobook, so I’m looking into doing it myself. There’ll be an upfront cost, of course, but nowhere near that price tag. I’m currently looking at the logistics of it, learning about the voice-over/audiobook narration world, and seeing if I can do it. The hardest aspect, besides nailing Maro’s voice, would be the narrative part itself. I mean, have you ever heard a recording of yourself? Not sure many people would want to listen to me.

In other aspects, I’m debating shutting down my Royal Road—a platform where people can read some of my work for free—and my Patreon. I’m kicking around the thought, trying to determine whether to the hassle is worth it. We’ll see…

Well, I think that about covers everything going on in the Dire Universe.

If you enjoyed this content and want more or to support the cause, follow me on Patreon! If you want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All are available in eBook and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon. I shall return…

Writing Update | Dire Universe

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

Volume VII, going by the working title of SOD, is getting partially shelved. What I mean is that I will continue to write in it, but it’s not going to be my driving focus. I’ll only update on the first draft with each 10,000 words I add to the manuscript. Right now, it’s about 200k, but that also includes all my notes I’m making. I’ve hit a slump in the writing, trying to force creativity through a wall, and that means I need to either step back and reevaluate, or switch to a different character and get the juices flowing again. It’s hard to step away from the character I’ve chosen to write—I picked her because it was going to be robust and incredibly detailed, but perhaps the action, action, action, has burned me out.

What else is in the works? Well, I have two books due out in 2026, the sequel to The Demon’s Fate, and Maro 3, the latter of which is only one draft, and it’s currently being read one chapter per week by an alpha reader. I do need to get busy on it, but since a novella is rather short, it shouldn’t be too hard to catch up. So, that leaves TDF sequel with two drafts. Since that’s an actual book, I will need to jump on that. I know next year is eight months away, but in the writing world, that comes fast. I’m the champion of procrastination, and I work wonders under pressure, but if I lag behind too much, I might not make it. Plus with the target of two books, well …

In other news, I’ve bought a year-long subscription to a map making software, and I’m trying my hand at it. There’s a steep learning curve as I piddle, but these maps, hopefully, will be included with Vol. IV when it hits the shelves in 2027. To be honest, it’s almost like playing a video game, so it’s quite engaging. I’ve also got the Meet the Author event fast approaching in early May, and I’m excited to go.

If you enjoyed this content and want more or to support the cause, follow me on Patreon! If you want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All are available in eBook and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon. I shall return…

Bloodbane | Maro Prakk #2

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

Okay, Bloodbane—the second novella in the Maro Prakk series—is done with its 5th and final draft. The word count ended up at 35,163—according to MS Word. I very much enjoy cutting up a novel in the editing phase, then exporting, only to find my word count even less than what my writing software claims.

So, what’s next for Bloodbane, and when is it hitting shelves? Well, there’s three more things I need to bring this to completion. The first, a map. One thing I regret about Red Creek is not including a map, but I didn’t have one at the time, and to be honest, when Red Creek was first kicked around as an idea, the vision of a novella series hadn’t occurred to me, not until much later. Now that I’ve written a bit in it, and Maro is traveling all over the Solen Union, well, a map would do nicely.

The second thing I need is an editor, and it’s been slated since either early this year or late last year for the end of May. I’ve reached out to him to see if there’s a spot he can bump me into, but he’s booked solid. So, we’ll just have to be patient.

And the third is a cover. I will be returning to Ivan over at Book Covers Art. He’s done exceptionally well for my fantasy series—the re-covers—and he did great for Red Creek. I’m very eager to see what he does with Bloodbane. And now, for a little snippet of what’s to come:

Excerpt from Bloodbane

Only a few times in life stick out to a man long after the deed has passed: the first time he laid with a woman, the first time he took a life, and the first time he feels a pistol pressed into the back of his head. Maro was experiencing the latter at the moment.
              “Do nothing stupid,” said the man, holding the pistol to his head. His thick accent made understanding him difficult.
              “Stranger,” Maro replied, “the only thing I’m thinking about right now’s not shitting myself.”
              “Good; you not stupid.”
              Well, that’s fucking debatable.

Okay, there’s your teaser trailer. That’s all you get until the book hits the shelves, and hopefully that’s in July or August.

If you enjoyed this content and want more or to support the cause, follow me on Patreon! If you want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All are available in eBook and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon. I shall return…

Poll: Book Titles

…And I’m back! This will be short, so let’s dive right in.

I want to do a little poll, and hear feedback from all of you. Most may not be familiar with my work, but that’s okay. I want to know which title grabs your attention the most. Feel free to comment below.

If you enjoyed this content and want more or to support the cause, follow me on Patreon! If you want to read my works, check out my books on Amazon. All are available in eBook and print. Reviews can be found on Goodreads and Amazon. I shall return…