Chelsea Harper's Blog, page 4

Artifice of Power Update #2

Okay, this doesn’t look as impressive as it is, but I really did make good progress this week. I totaled 7,927 words written, which is on track for my complete draft in six months goal. The reason this isn’t as visible in the updated “outline” below is mostly because Arkaen is a jerk who wants to infodump and I had to put in some serious work to get his ass moving the plot along. But Sayli’s currently meeting with the lay-people of the city, and it’s turning into an interesting power play. I’m excited to finish that this weekend and get moving forward more.

Please not that I’ve inverted the order of the information below so that the newest updates are on top. No need to make you scroll to the bottom to see the new stuff I just added.

Chapter 10: Still in drafting, but close to done. Also, Sayli…that scruffy guard across the table is not cute. Why are you looking at him like that? You have to marry a noble, girl!

Chapter 9: No, seriously, Arkaen…I’m sure your encyclopedic knowledge of that magical creature will be super interesting some other time, but right now, you have shit to do. Shut up and get a move on.

Chapter 8: Uh-oh, Lasha. That dead townsperson is probably gonna come back to bite you…

Chapter 7: Dammit, Niamsha! I said follow the plotline, woman! Not that you’ve done anything wrong, but what, precisely, are you even up to!

Chapter 6: Now we’re getting somewhere, Sayli. Time to make some plans to fix this mess Arkaen left you.

Chapter 5: Kaen, Kaen, Kaen. I promise, it’s okay to enjoy your birthday, man!

Chapter 4: Kilasha’s first chapter. He’s, uh…not doing well. But at least he’s easier to write than Niamsha. It’s a low bar, but I’m happy to have crossed it.

Chapter 3: Niamsha’s first real chapter, and man, that woman needs to stop running off and start listening to the plot I have set out. Why are you hanging out with the blacksmith? That was NOT the plan!

Chapter 2: Saylina is really coming into her own, building her own base of power instead of relying on that of her family and supporters. I’m excited to see where she goes in this book.

Chapter 1: I’m really happy with this one. It’s from Arkaen and I think it does a great job of bringing him back to the world after the injury and loss he suffered in book 1

Prologue: This one needs some edits. It’s from a unique PoV (as in, one you’ll likely only get here) and it’s been tough to get the feel right. It’s a work in progress.

Artifice of Power Saga Update: Book 2

Hi all! I said in my last post that I was going to give a weekly update on the status of book 2, and here it is. I’m happy to report that I have almost 25k words in my current draft, which almost 60k of additional material from previous drafts that is likely to inform or be re-integrated into the book.

Since I don’t want to drop spoilers about the book, I’m going to document my progress in quick, one-to-two sentence chapter commentary below. I know it isn’t the book, but you’ll be able to see how things are moving, where I’m struggling, and how quickly this draft of the book is coming together.

Prologue: This one needs some edits. It’s from a unique PoV (as in, one you’ll likely only get here) and it’s been tough to get the feel right. It’s a work in progress.

Chapter 1: I’m really happy with this one. It’s from Arkaen and I think it does a great job of bringing him back to the world after the injury and loss he suffered in book 1

Chapter 2: Saylina is really coming into her own, building her own base of power instead of relying on that of her family and supporters. I’m excited to see where she goes in this book.

Chapter 3: Niamsha’s first real chapter, and man, that woman needs to stop running off and start listening to the plot I have set out. Why are you hanging out with the blacksmith? That was NOT the plan!

Chapter 4: Kilasha’s first chapter. He’s, uh…not doing well. But at least he’s easier to write than Niamsha. It’s a low bar, but I’m happy to have crossed it.

Chapter 5: Kaen, Kaen, Kaen. I promise, it’s okay to enjoy your birthday, man!

Chapter 6: Now we’re getting somewhere, Sayli. Time to make some plans to fix this mess Arkaen left you.

Chapter 7: Dammit, Niamsha! I said follow the plotline, woman! Not that you’ve done anything wrong, but what, precisely, are you even up to!

Chapter 8: Uh-oh, Lasha. That dead townsperson is probably gonna come back to bite you…

And I’m back…ish

Hello to anyone who still stops by or gets notifications from this site. I had to take a hiatus from my writing late last year and was unsure when I was going to return, but I am very excited to report that I am back to writing and building content for future releases. Since I don’t have anything ready to release just yet, however, I’m working through a bit of continued transition while I find a way to offer new content to my readers and rebuild an audience for when I am ready to release my next book. Below, I’m going to outline what happened, my plan for the rest of this year, my plan for publishing my next couple books.

What happened with everything?

I mentioned when I took my hiatus that I was experiencing some issues with my financials that were hindering my ability to get writing done and to plan for the expenses of self-publishing. I have completed the career transition I had planned to resolve that situation, the new day job is going extremely well, and I have restored the financial support for my writing which will allow me to publish books in the future. As well, and most importantly, I have time outside of that work to focus on my writing. In fact, my new coworkers have been really supportive of my writing, even though it doesn’t affect them in any way. They just think it’s cool. That’s been a great environment to get back to my passion, and I’ve made some great progress.

What’s coming up this year?

While I have made good progress, I would be putting out substandard content if I released anything polished this year. However, I have committed to writing 7,000/week toward my new sequel, which results in a draft about every 6 months. That should have the beta draft of the sequel to Wake of the Phoenix completed by early October, if not sooner. In order to keep myself accountable to that, I plan to update that progress on a weekly basis on this site. I’ll release these updates in short posts on Saturday mornings, as that’s the deadline I have set with my alpha-level critique partner (my husband). Anyone watching this website will get those updates as soon as (or possibly sooner than) he gets my new chapters. Seriously, he’s lazy on Saturdays. You can probably catch the update before him.

I also plan to finish edits on my short story collection by the end of the year. That is long overdue to be released, but I’ve decided to use it as part of a relaunch of my book one to help rebuild that audience. Which brings me to publishing plans.

Publishing Plans

So, publishing an epic fantasy series is a lot more work than I realized when I started this process. To that end, I am going to pre-prepare more than one release before I start putting things out again so that I don’t do what I did in 2021: release one book and then get lost trying to make the next steps work in too little time. Before I release anything, I will have at least my in-world short story collection, Tales of the Laisian Empire, and my sequel ready for release. Then I will do a soft-relaunch of my book one, followed shortly by a launch of my short story collection, followed shortly by a release of my book 2. Because my writing goals will get a draft completed in six months, I should by then have a draft of my book 3 reader for betas, and possibly some of the second planned short story collection. I would plan to have at least one of those out six months after book two releases, and the other six to eight months after that.

After book 3, I’d expect publishing to slow some simply because there is editing time involved in writing a book and there’s only so much I can pre-write if I want to release something in the next twelve to sixteen months. However, my intent is to keep up with my weekly reports on writing progress so that if I start to miss deadlines, my readers will know ahead of time and won’t feel like I fell off the face of the planet.

Conclusion

Releasing a book that has been a joy to any number of readers has been one of the best experiences of my life, and my goal from here is to continue to bring those stories to the readers who enjoy my work. I’m always excited to hear from new readers and old, and I will be planning and launching a proper newsletter later this year so I can connect more directly with those readers. But to everyone who read Wake of the Phoenix and enjoyed it…thank you, and I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get you more in this world to read. I hope my plan to bring consistency back to my plans will encourage you to come back when I do my relaunch next year.

Hiatus

Hi all. This may not come as a surprise to anyone if anyone still reads these updates, but I’m unfortunately going to have to take an indefinite hiatus from my writing. This isn’t a loss of passion or a loss of interest in my fictional worlds/my craft/the writing community or anything similar; it’s a loss of the time and finances needed to put my effort here. I know that anyone who was following me was expecting a release this year (or even last year, since that was the original plan), but that isn’t possible with the demands I am facing in simply paying bills. I’m currently working on a plan to resolve this financial/social crush that is preventing me from having time to work on my writing, but it’s going much slower than I had hoped. I originally thought I was going to get that plan implemented 6 months ago and be focusing on getting my writing back on track this year. Instead it looks like a new job role isn’t going to happen for at least six more months.

I want to take a moment and appreciate any and all readers of my work, whether they have praised my writing or haven’t connected with it. You took time from your day to appreciate my efforts and that means a lot to me. I don’t expect anyone to wait around until I am able to come back and give my writing and my readers the focus they deserve, but I hope, if new content from me in the future, that you’ll give me another opportunity to wow you with my work.

Best of luck to everyone in their own endeavors, and I hope you all find some truly great books to read while I’m away.

Fate’s Flames (Working Title): Part 2

A scuffle of leaves and snap of several twigs made Kìlashà turn toward the stream. Phoenix stood staring at him, one hand dripping water and mouth slightly open. Kìlashà frowned at him, cocking his head and looking Phoenix over. He had a narrow frame, but his alert, confident stance said he trained daily with the weapons he wore.

More attractive than the average Serr-Nyen, for certain, Kìlashà thought. And no obvious sign of illness. I think he even bathes. If he weren’t so incompetent I might like him.

“Are you Dragon?” Phoenix asked.

I am a son of the Drae’gon, masters of both time and flight, Kìlashà fumed, snarling at the name. I am not some mythical beast to be tamed by human heroes.

It was the name Griffin had given him many years ago, however, and he couldn’t deny it without giving his true name. He had no desire to give the Serr-Nyen any information about him that they did not already know. Phoenix glanced to the side, looking uncomfortable.

“Pardon,” he said. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I am looking for someone, but I think you are not him.”

“I am,” Kìlashà corrected.

It didn’t feel as ignoble as agreeing to the name Griffin had given him. He knew he would have to answer to it, but he didn’t have to tell anyone to call him that.

“I see,” Phoenix said after a long pause.

Phoenix hesitated again, looking around as if hoping to find someone else to speak to instead. Kìlashà crossed his arms and leaned back against a tree. He did not like this dancing around the topic, but he couldn’t admit he knew why Phoenix was here. It would raise too many questions.

“I was sent by Griffin of the Sernien Resistance against Emperor Caildenn’s oppression,” Phoenix said in a more confident tone.

“You may call me Phoenix. Griffin asked me to request your aid, as you have been an ally in the past. We have reason to believe Imperial fighters are planning an attack on our stronghold and our forces are stretched thin at the moment. We won’t be able to hold them off.”

Caildenn Laisia is hardly an emperor, Kìlashà thought, pondering the information Phoenix had given him. He was amused to find they had usurped a bastardized version of the Drae’gon term for their homeland, but he didn’t intend to correct them. More important was the information that the Serr-Nyen knew of an impending attack and were seeking allies in combat. Their war would begin in earnest soon. Kìlashà felt better about his decision to travel to Sharan Anore with Phoenix. I would much rather sharpen my claws on Caildenn’s soldiers than hunt for a human worth my time. Griffin doesn’t offer anything without a cost, though.

“Griffin desires my presence?” Kìlashà asked.

He doubted that was the exact truth, but it was probably what she had said. Phoenix nodded, but did not elaborate.

“And she sent the message you delivered?” Kìlashà probed.

“She did,” Phoenix replied. “It would be rude to ask you to walk into our stronghold unaware of our peril.”

Naive as well as incompetent, Kìlashà thought in disdain. Griffin wants me to handle this attack as her price for my return.

Phoenix obviously believed what he said, however. Naive was better than duplicitous. Kìlashà pushed off the tree he was leaning against and strode toward the west, pulling on his power again to show him the way. As soon as he had the proper moment flickering before him he realized Phoenix had not moved. He turned back to the stream, holding the vision in his mind as a guide while he focused the rest of his attention on Phoenix.

“Are you coming?”

“Yes, of course,” Phoenix agreed, stepping toward him. “It’s this way.”

Phoenix turned north-west. Kìlashà cocked his head, confused by the direction Phoenix had selected. Did he know where the attack was coming from? Kìlashà checked his visions again. No, Phoenix was just lost and unable to determine direction properly under the forest canopy. Kìlashà was pleased to see he would have discovered his mistake as soon as they left the trees. He wasn’t entirely unskilled, just unfamiliar with the terrain.

“No, it is not,” Kìlashà told him, turning back the way he had been going.

After a moment, Phoenix followed him without argument.

Kìlashà traveled slowly and watched Phoenix for any sign of fatigue. Despite his best efforts to remain on level ground, he saw Phoenix stumble on underbrush several times as evening fell. He was not going to be able to travel through the night without risk of injury. Kìlashà had expected that, though. He could see the safe path in his visions, but Phoenix had no such tools at his disposal. Kìlashà paused, turned his gaze inward, and looked past the vision he had been using as a guide to the countless possibilities he had already relegated to the back of his mind. A quick search through the flickering images found a safe place to rest overnight. As Kìlashà shifted his focus to bring that vision to the fore, he caught another flare of possibility from one of his discarded visions.

Again? Kìlashà wondered. I don’t get multiple warnings in the same day, much less within a few hours. He hesitated, but he couldn’t afford to lose the information because he was in a hurry. He pulled the vision forward. It was weak with distance, several months into the future at least, but the colors, scents, and emotions were strong. This was a fixed moment that could not be avoided easily. Kìlashà let the moment flame into life.

The room was tiny, dingy, and smelled of rancid wound dressing. The only things clean were Phoenix, several layers of cloth laid over a thin straw mattress, and Kìlashà himself. In the vision, Kìlashà bore the filth without a moment’s thought, leaning forward toward Phoenix with obvious concern.

“Get some rest and heal,” the vision of Kìlashà told Phoenix. “I will return to the clan.”

“Come back,” Phoenix said.

“Always,” Kìlashà assured him. He leaned forward and caught Phoenix’ ear with his teeth for a moment before whispering a final promise. “I will always return for you, kai’shien.”

Kìlashà thrust the vision away with a force that shattered his control over his power. Searing pain exploded behind his eyes for an instant before he regained control and snarled at his own stupidity. He knew better than to try to force a vision out, especially one so fixed.

But that can’t be true, Kìlashà thought in horror. This naive boor is the Chosen’s Right Hand, a renowned warrior?

“Dragon, is something wrong?” Phoenix asked from behind him.

Kìlashà almost answered. He bit his tongue and backed away from the concerned look. There was no way he could sleep near Phoenix tonight. He probably wouldn’t sleep at all.

“There’s a safe clearing that way,” Kìlashà told him, pointing in the direction his earlier vision had shown. “Rest for the night. I’ll return in the morning.”

Kìlashà turned away from the clearing he had sent Phoenix to and slipped between the trees until he was certain he was no longer visible, then grabbed a low branch above him and scaled to a reasonable height. Once there he settled against the trunk to think.

I sounded just like that vision, he realized as he considered his parting comments to Phoenix. The rough bark of the oak he sat in would normally be a comfort, but tonight it made him think of the rough-hewn stone walls of the sick-room in his vision. Kìlashà shuddered at the thought. It couldn’t possibly be a true vision. He could never stand in that much filth and be that calm. He didn’t even want to consider the implications of the supposed relationship between himself and Phoenix.

Calm down, Lasha, he told himself, sitting up and forcing the panic aside with an iron will. You know what this means. You were expected to find your kai’shien and you have. That he seems ordinary can only mean there is something you do not know about him.

Ordinary was a kind way to put it, but Kìlashà had to admit that Phoenix would not have been considered ordinary among the Serr-Nyen. He was humble, which was a trait few humans possessed in Kìlashà’s experience, and he certainly seemed to believe in a greater good than what would benefit himself. What could have bred such a combination in a human who would willingly serve Griffin? Kìlashà reached for his power again but stopped himself.

It is rude to look into another’s past without permission. He might have done it again anyway, but something about the vision of their future made it seem more than rude on this occasion. Kìlashà rekindled the disturbing vision and pondered it for a moment. It seemed as unbelievable on second viewing as the first, but it was clear that the Kìlashà of his vision did truly care about Phoenix. If he is actually my kai’shien then breaking his trust before he even knows me is not the way to start things.

Kìlashà sighed, leaning back against the trunk again and wrapping himself in his cloak for warmth. He had hoped to have some time to deal with this nonsense Griffin was spouting about Caildenn before dealing with the prophecies again. Fate had always had its plans for him, though. As Chosen of the Four Clans, Kìlashà accepted the weight of a Fate-destined life as a natural course. He could not have been Chosen and free to while his time away on frivolous pursuits, and he could never have wished to not be the Chosen. Were he not, he would not be Drae’gon.

If I must pursue a pairing with this human for the sake of my clan then I will do it, Kìlashà thought, his eyes drifting closed. I will have to teach him a great deal about cleanliness first.

Fate’s Flames (Working Title): Part 1

Kìlashà san Draego de Mìtaran, Chosen of the Four Clans of the Drae’gon People, lay flat on the branch, watching the human below him stumble through another tangled knot of underbrush. The human let out a curse as he extracted himself and sucked the side of his hand to ease the pain of a scratch. Kìlashà frowned down at the figure below.

He’ll get himself killed, Kìlashà thought. If those thorns caught in his skin he’ll poison himself.

He was young, but probably only a year or two younger than Kìlashà himself, with brown hair cut short and angular features. He was even a little attractive, for a human, but his incompetence made Kìlashà shy away from the thought of speaking to him. Why would this human’s people allow him into the wilds if he knew so little about the area? Kìlashà could look, of course…

That would be rude, Lasha, he reminded himself. His clanmother, Mìtara, had drilled the lesson home to him over the years. It was unacceptable to look into another’s past without permission. Still… Mìtara will have my head if she finds out.

Kìlashà braced himself against a limb and wrapped a leg around the main branch for balance. His cloak fell over the side of the branch to help him blend with the leaves. Then he reached for his power. Possibility flared to life in his mind and a thousand potential futures flickered and faded as the moment shifted and made each more or less likely. Kìlashà focused his attention on the moments involving this human, pushing the other events to simmer at the edge of his perception. Once he had the current timelines isolated, he began the laborious process of identifying the true present.

The human stumbled into the knot of underbrush, cursed, and worked his way free. He examined his injured hand, looking for thorns…

No, he had not thought to check for thorns. Kìlashà pushed the vision aside to join the others he had rejected.

The human worked his way free, sucked on the side of his hand for a moment, then glanced up, seeing Kìlashà in the trees above him.

Not likely. Kìlashà blended perfectly in the dim afternoon light. He pushed that one aside, as well.

The human sucked on the side of his hand for a moment, then leaned back against a tree trunk in frustration. After a moment, he straightened and began his search again.

That was the right timeline. Kìlashà isolated it and followed it back in time, checking against his limited knowledge of the human’s earlier actions. There was where he had camped the previous night, when Kìlashà had found him. There was his entrance to the forest the day before. It was close enough to the location where he had camped that Kìlashà was sure it was correct. Before that he had traveled for two days from the west. Kìlashà snarled when he saw the sprawl of ruined buildings the human had come from. He was one of the Serr-Nyen that had taken over the ruins of Sharan Anore.

It’s a good thing I broke Mìtara’s command, though, Kìlashà thought. If they’re sending scouts this direction I need to know what they’re looking for.

Kìlashà followed time back through the human’s preparations to leave, scoffing at the inclusion of the coins the Serr-Nyen used to trade for goods and the exclusion of any form of water cleansing. He knew these humans were little more than barbarians, though. How they hadn’t all died of illness was a mystery to him.

Thank the Spirits that Mìtara saved me from living among them. Not that I would likely have lived long had she not. They do keep population down with their wars. At least the one these humans are starting is justified, unlike most.

Kìlashà skipped past two more days of the human pursuing mundane tasks and finally found the meeting with the Serr-Nyen leader that had sent this human to Kìlashà’s forest.

“Phoenix, welcome,” a woman with filthy, matted blond hair greeted, her voice melodic and soft. She glanced up from a report she was reading as he entered.

Kìlashà remembered her. She called herself Griffin now, although she had used her given name when they first met. She had been kind to him, and he had been very young. Kìlashà had not believed she could be what his visions showed. He had been wrong.

“We have a report from the east we need investigated,” Griffin continued. “You remember the ally we had out there?”

“He was called Dragon, I believe, correct?” Kìlashà’s human target, Phoenix, replied. He sounded young, but with enough certainty in his words that his question did not expect an answer. “I thought he vanished years ago.”

“So did I, but we’ve received some strange reports,” Griffin explained. “It could be him, or, honestly, it could be some wild animal. We don’t know, and we need to. If he is still around, we need his help.”

Kìlashà let the vision die and stretched out the leg he had used to brace himself. The Serr-Nyen were looking for him. He had no desire to return to human lands and involve himself in their squabbles, but they might send more if he didn’t go. As well, he was supposed to be looking for the human who would stand at his side as partner and ally against the dangers that threatened his people.

As if any of these could be of use to me. Kìlashà refused to think about what else this partner was supposed to be to him. That he could fight beside any of them was enough of a stretch. That he could like one of them enough to claim friendship was absurd. He couldn’t even consider forming a true love match with any of them. A Drae’gon did not challenge the Ancestral Prophecy, however. No matter how unfathomable the idea was, Kìlashà had to accept the dilemma. Either he would yearn for a Serr-Nyen human as his mate, or he was not the Chosen of the Four Clans. He and Mìtara had been over the signs innumerable times. Kìlashà was the Chosen, and so he must return to this human settlement. It would be easiest to return with this human, Phoenix.

Several minutes had passed since he began his Seeking and Phoenix was no longer in sight. It was a simple matter to find him. Kìlashà pulled on his power again and sorted through the flickering moments again to find himself looking down from his branch as Phoenix stumbled into the bushes. He followed the timeline as Phoenix walked away, scouring the bushes for any sign of another living creature. Another vision flared to life at the peripheral of his Seeking, pushing its way to the fore. Kìlashà let it. His subconscious often knew when he needed to see a coming moment and revealed it in this way.

Phoenix stopped by the bank of a small stream not far from where Kìlashà had last seen him, kneeling to drink with one hand still on his blade. A low growl should have warned him away, but Phoenix didn’t seem to notice the sound. Instead he filled his waterskin and ran a wet hand through his hair, then splashed water on his face in an apparent attempt to remove some of the dirt that clung to him from his travels.

A young, female Warig stalked out of her lair under the roots of a nearby tree with another growl. Many humans would mistake her for a large wolf, but only because they didn’t know what to look for. Her face was broad at the base, leaving room for more intelligence that Kìlashà found in some humans, and her reddish-brown coat was stiff enough to turn a blade.

Phoenix finally noticed the danger, drawing his sword and crouching low to the ground for balance.

Kìlashà let the vision fade and dropped to the ground. No human would easily best a Warig defending her den. He didn’t much care about Phoenix’ life, but it would be inconvenient to explain his sudden return to the Serr-Nyen without the human they had sent to locate him. Kìlashà moved swiftly and silently through the trees, reaching the stream just as Phoenix knelt to drink. He shuddered at the thought of drinking straight from the stream but ignored the action to growl a quiet warning to the Warig in her den. She slunk further under the tree roots. Like most predators, she knew when she was outmatched.

Stories and Streaming

Hi again, all. I said in my last post, about a week ago, that I would give an update when I had a newsletter available. That sign-up is available now on the main page, and I’ll add a signup to this post, also. I delayed the actual update just a bit in order to make sure I had some other plans finalized and announce everything all at once. Here’s the status of the story releases I used to do here, as well as my plans for the Hotplots & Synonym Roles channel.

The Stories

I’ll be using two platforms to try and build more readership for my serialized stories, Laterpress and Wattpad. Laterpress is a website built after the style of Kindle Vella but that doesn’t seem to have the same restrictions on content cross-posting that Vella does. I wanted a platform with a built-in audience, which Laterpress is a little bit worse at since it’s new, but it’s the best location I found where I can easily monetize my writing without being forced to put it all behind a paywall and remove a bunch of content from this web site. Wattpad has a massive built-in audience, but I’m concerned they may want faster-paced writing than I offer. We’ll see if I’m wrong. On both of those platforms I’ll begin by reposting the Tales of the Laisian Empire stories from here, though I’ll post them in their first-edit forms, which makes them a bit longer. As a result, they’ll all be broken into two or three parts and I’ll post them twice a week. Feel free to take a look at those updated versions on either platform.

For content here, I really wanted to maintain this location as a place where I can put some early drafts of stories, as well. I mainly stopped because I ran out of new content to supplement my existing books and wasn’t able to keep up with the demand of writing and posting a new story every couple weeks. To address that concern and revitalize this space, I’ll be pulling an old draft of the prequel to Wake of the Phoenix and editing that into a serialized version, releasing that on this platform. When I run out of Tales of the Laisian Empire stories for Laterpress and Wattpad, I’ll be cross-posting those, as well. That means that reading this blog will be an advance look at future installments from Laterpress and Wattpad, which gives those who support this blog something special for their dedication. The draft of the prequel novel is 80k words and I’ll be turning it into a serialized story at 1500 words per post, so I expect to have content for quite some time from that source material. Those posts will go up once a week.

The YouTube Channel

I’m very excited by the plans I have for my YouTube channel, HotPlots & Synonym Roles. I already have over ten video concepts and am beginning my recording today. I am concerned, however, that I might run out of content to edit while I talk about the topics I have on hand. I love to hear from readers what they want to see in that space. Part of the goal is to demonstrate editing styles and techniques in order to build my editing services so I can keep writing and publishing the stories I love. But another part of it is to give readers real access to my writing process and let them see what my stories go through to become their best selves for release. As a writer, I’m probably a bit too focused on what would help me and my writer connections write better. Please let me know what you, as a reader, really want to hear about in my videos!

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Welcome Back, Me!

Well, I’ve been quiet again lately. In January I announced that I would be making some changes to this website and would update the blog when I had those plans made. Planning took longer than I expected. By a lot. Here’s where I stand.

Should I give up on this blog?

I hope you don’t, but it has become an endeavor that I won’t be able to return to with the consistency I had hoped. I have a few other plans to solve that issue, however.

First, I’m starting a newsletter. I know, you’re probably thinking “Wait, your blogging failed so you’re going to start sending writing to people’s inboxes? I don’t think that’s going to work…” The point of transitioning from a blog to a newsletter is that my newsletter will be very informal. Instead of a well-researched article on elements of publishing, fantasy books or shows, or storytelling, each newsletter will be short and will just be a few thoughts on stories I’ve engaged with lately. Sometimes that might be a comment on how frustrated I was with Rings of Power, or how I found the movie Missing surprisingly entertaining despite not really liking the storytelling style. Sometimes it might be a discussion on what I’m thinking about a particular trend in fantasy and then a question on what my readers think. And every now and then, my newsletter will just be me offering something free to those people who choose to subscribe. I’ll release another blog post when newsletter subscriptions are available. Hopefully that will be later this week.

Second, I’m starting a YouTube channel named Hotplots and Synonym Roles: Real-time editing with a real-life editor. This is an effort to combine work and get editing done on my writing projects which need my attention while providing content for my fans. Currently the focus of this channel will be editing my own work, but once I’m a bit more caught up on that, I will be accepting short submissions to edit live for another author, potentially with that author on the video to discuss the edits. More on that plan when it is closer. The YouTube channel currently exists and you can subscribe now if you would like. I expect my first videos to go up mid to late May.

Finally, I will still be releasing longer, more comprehensive updates and/or thoughts on this blog at least twice a year, hopefully 4-6 times a year.

What’s going on with the story collection?

I am still working on developmental edits for Tales of the Laisian Empire, Volume 1. As I said above, I plan to use my new YouTube channel for editing in order to streamline my various goals into one thing. That means that you’ll be able to watch me edit my story collection before purchasing it. If I get enough subscribers, I’ll even transition the edits into livestreams so my followers can comment on the decisions I’m making as I make them. The goal is to use this method to get the necessary edits done in time to release the book this year. Since that particular project is 10-11 stories that are relatively long, I may not release the entire editing series before the book comes out, but I’ll make sure the entire series gets released.

What about new stories?

I understand that a some of you enjoyed my fiction writing on here and I want to try to preserve that. At this point in time, I am too swamped catching up on publishing to get anything new ready for release. As a result, my plan is to do some writing on the second short story collection in downtime between my other projects so long as it doesn’t delay the release of any of the projects my current readers and followers are waiting on. What I would like to do is release them on a serialization platform like Kindle Vella to increase readership and make it easier to engage with me about the writing, but I dislike the inability to make the stories perma-free on those sites. I don’t yet know enough about those options to make a plan for that yet. I may use Wattpad, though I don’t write to that platform’s largest demographic. Regardless of how I release new stories, the edits to turn those initial stories into a collection for release will be live-edited on my YouTube channel. More details later in the year when I have more knowledge of what I can do there.

Another note about Twitter

I received a notification recently that Twitter has adjusted its interface system and WordPress will not be able to cross-post my blogs to Twitter any longer. Be aware if I suddenly vanish from Twitter even further that it’s all Twitter’s fault…or so WordPress would have you believe. They might be right, I don’t know. I wasn’t in the negotiating room.

Fantasy of the Future

I want to talk about a trend I’m seeing in fantasy of late: No one takes it seriously for what it is. That’s a weird thing to say for me, because for as long as I can remember, fantasy has been perceived as a thing for slackers, goofballs, and dreamers. People for whom reality is just a chore, and the stereotype is that they spend much of their free time pretending to be a knight or an elf or a princess. But for me–and for many of the fans who love “old school” fantasy, it never was that. Fantasy is a place of complex character dynamics and intertwined plots. Of forces beyond human control vying for supremacy and proving that even the most insignificant among us can make something better, even if only for a few.

And then there’s the new Willow.

Let’s talk about Willow

I have genuinely enjoyed the new Willow so far, but I don’t know that I think it’s a good show. It has the same problem that the first installment of the Hobbit trilogy had. There are moments that speak to the core of me and draw on everything I love from fantasy. Bilbo Baggins runs head-first into fire and danger to defend Thorin Oakenshield despite everything, knowing he’ll die but unable to abandon someone he so admires. Kit defiantly insists she’s going after her brother whether her mother wants her to or not because that’s her family and family is everything.

But right before Bilbo saved Thorin, The Hobbit spent an entirely too long scene as a silly 1980’s side-scroller video game in the goblin tunnels. And when Kit is desperately trying to find her father, save her brother, and find a way to believe in the woman who’s going to save the world, we take a random detour to have a fist fight with no stakes that pops up out of nowhere and no one cares. No trolls show up in the middle of the fight to bring them to their senses. Willow himself just kind of shrugs. It’s comic relief of the worst kind: The kind that assumes no one actually cares what’s going on. The point of comic relief is to break the tension and give the audience a break, but this comic relief breaks the entire story. Nothing really matters anymore because, if something gets too serious, we’ll just pause for a random aside with some silly antics and then we’ll move on. Often everything is magically fine again afterward.

This is deeply infuriating to me, because I so love the good moments that I can’t just ignore the bad, weird, or random moments. Instead, they take something exceptional and tear it to pieces and I just want to shout at my screen for the writers to care about what they’re making, dammit! And yet, I enjoyed both The Hobbit and the new Willow. I rewatch The Hobbit somewhat regularly, and I’m interested to see where the new Willow goes, pretty impatiently awaiting the next episode’s release.

Nettle & Bone

This is actually similar to my opinion on a newly released book called Nettle & Bone that I recently read for a book club. I don’t feel like it’s well written from a story construction perspective–I make that distinction because each individual scene is exceptional–but it is a very, very fun book. I am having a lot of fun with this book, but I don’t actually care about any of the characters.

Nettle & Bone is a fairy tale retelling about a princess who goes on a quest to murder her sister’s husband because he’s an abusive spouse, and it has some really interesting potential. It completely ignores all of it. Instead, the entire book is an endless string of quippy one-liners and the MC feeling shocked, confused, scared, horrified, or some combination of those emotions. It is astoundingly shallow, and somehow delightful.

But it feels like a movie trailer.

Surely there is more to this still coming, right? Not so far as I can tell, and that is the thing that infuriates me about it. It feels like this author–who is clearly extraordinarily talented at writing because, as I said, each individual scene is exceptional–just didn’t care about writing a complete book. Now, I don’t believe that of the author, mostly because of what I know about the author world and how difficult it can be to craft the story you want others to see. I think this author was going for a light-hearted retelling that had a unique flavor all its own and still kept the feel of a fairy tale. The problem is that it feels too much like a fairy tale in all the wrong ways.

Instead of feeling wondrous and heavy with meaning, if feels shallow and uncertain what elements are truly important. As pointed out by my book club, the author didn’t even name the three primary kingdoms. Just “the Northern Kingdom”, “the Harbor Kingdom”, and “the Southern Kingdom.” That’s perfectly common in fairy tales, but it adds to the shallowness that steals so much of the potential of this book.

This book could have been great. Not just entertaining, but truly, deeply amazing, rewriting the way that we as a reading audience view story-telling. The author has that skill. Instead, this is the Bullet Train of fairy tale retellings. It’s not good, really, but it was pretty fun.

Make Fantasy Real Again

I’m not actually posting this to complain about The Hobbit, or the new Willow, or Nettle & Bone, all of which I enjoyed. And I’m definitely not here to point fingers at any of the other TV shows that have come out recently that have taken this problem to much worse extremes. Those I didn’t even enjoy, and most of them I couldn’t finish. My point is simply to say this.

I want my fantasy back.

I want the real stuff, where characters dealt with difficult problems and struggled against them, sometimes failing because of their own flaws and often being forced to live with the regret of the things they couldn’t change.

Don’t take that to mean that I think all fantasy should be a Game of Thrones clone, where the world is brutal and one minor error can cause you to be murdered unceremoniously (I did also enjoy the Game of Thrones TV show….until no one cared anymore). I want absolutely nothing to do with gore for the sake of gore like we saw in The Boys.

I’m talking about Lord of the Rings–the real one made by Peter Jackson before he was forced to bleed the franchise dry. I’m talking about Wheel of Time–the books, where Matt was a deeply traumatized person struggling to control the corruption that had gained power within him, Perrin was haunted by the terrifying wolf dreams he didn’t understand and had to go on a quest to control them, Thom mattered like, at all, and the story of Egwene and Ninaeve was about them deciding who they wanted to be, not deciding which men they wanted to fall over.

I grew up on fantasy that had something to say, not because someone somewhere was trying to shove a message into that fantasy, but because the people in those stories were deeply flawed and their challenges came as much from themselves as from the world beyond. Those are the stories I loved, and those are the stories I miss. I’m trying to write those stories and I know I’m not the only one. But I sure do miss that little stretch of time where the world took us seriously, and the stories we loved were treated with respect.

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone. Hope everyone had a great holiday season and has some exciting plans for the new year. I had some big plans halfway through 2022 and then…well…life happened. Again. Sorry for going AWOL a second time. I do still have plans for book releases and I want to update everyone on that. I also will be making a few changes to my blog/website and my writing schedule to make sure I’m getting content to my fans more consistently. Those plans are a bit in the wind right now, but I will let you all know what’s coming in the next couple months. But now for the thing I care about most:

Writing Update

First… I have been writing! My draft of the second book in the Artifice of Power saga is moving slower than I’d hoped, mostly because of issues with my day job and stress from that. However, progress has been made and I hope to have it out to beta readers later this year. That will push back the release until at least mid 2024 (I am very sad about this) but the better quality book will be worth the delay. Closer to now, I had planned to put out my first collection of related short stories, Tales of the Laisian Empire, volume 1 last year. I sent it to a new editor in September and she found a lot of ways to improve the content, so that went back into revisions. That process is closing up, so my current goal is to have that collection ready for release in April or May. Here’s an updated estimate of my releases in this series:

BookPlacement in storyTentative release plansTales of the Laisian Empire, Volume 1All content occurs before the beginning of Wake of the Phoenix, book 1 in the Artifice of Power sagaPlanned for mid 2023Artifice of Power saga, Book 2Direct sequel to Wake of the PhoenixTentatively planned for mid to late 2024Tales of the Laisian Empire, Volume 2All content occurs between the end of Wake of the Phoenix and the beginning of Artifice of Power saga, Book 2Tentatively planned for early 2025Artifice of Power saga, Book 3Direct sequel to Artifice of Power saga, Book 2Release not yet plannedTales of the Laisian Empire, Volume 3All content occurs between the end of Artifice of Power saga, Book 2 and the beginning of Artifice of Power saga, Book 3Release not yet plannedArtifice of Power saga, Book 4Direct sequel to Artifice of Power saga, Book 3Release not yet plannedTales of the Laisian Empire, Volume 4All content occurs between the end of Artifice of Power saga, Book 3 and the beginning of Artifice of Power saga, Book 4Release not yet plannedArtifice of Power saga, Book 5Direct sequel to Artifice of Power saga, Book 4Release not yet plannedTales of the Laisian Empire, Volume 5All content occurs between the end of Artifice of Power saga, Book 4 and the beginning of Artifice of Power saga, Book 5Release not yet plannedArtifice of Power saga, Book 6Direct sequel to Artifice of Power saga, Book 5Release not yet plannedWhat ever happened with SPFBO?

That competition is a lot to keep up with. It is really exciting and I encourage everyone to check it out, but it turns out I didn’t have the time last year. Also, as Mark Lawrence says on his website, it is not perfect. No competition can be. I was a bit miffed, myself, that Wake of the Phoenix got assigned to a blog which promised to post at least a summary review of every book it received and then never posted even a summary review of my book. Did they not get it? Did they run out of time? Was the file corrupted? Did they read the entire thing, hate it, write a scathing review, and then decide to be nice and keep it to themselves? I’ll never know. And somehow it’s a worse kick to know that Wake of the Phoenix was one of only 2-3 books they didn’t get to. I don’t blame the blog, although I wish they’d said something a little less definitive about getting to “all the books they were assigned”, but it was a blow to my self esteem that I didn’t expect. And, full disclosure, that’s part of what happened last year.

To give a quick shout-out to the good things from SPFBO, I met a lot of other writers and made some great connections. Also, Bristolcon recognized the SPFBO finalists last year and all finalists got a commemorative coins. I found a book I love to plug: The Assassin of Grins and Secrets. This is a weird recommendation from me because I haven’t read the entire book yet and it has an element that I genuinely dislike (one of the characters attaches a color to everything she experiences), but the quality of the writing is so good that I have to recommend it anyway. It’s near the top of my TBR this year and I’m very excited to see where it goes.

Are you going to any events this year?

I don’t have my full year planned out just yet, but I am going to San Francisco Writer’s Conference in February and will attend Pikes Peak Writers Conference in my hometown of Colorado Springs in April. I’d love to attend more events, but most likely those would have to be in the second half of the year, after I have some other things back under control.

I never see you on Twitter anymore….

That’s true, and you probably won’t very much. I check it occasionally and respond to discussions that interest me, but honestly, with everything going on, I don’t have a lot of time for Twitter. I wish there was a better place to connect with my readers. Feel free to shoot me a message on Goodreads or Twitter. I will likely see it in either place, but for the next couple months I’ll be pretty busy getting writing ready for release.

A Final Plug

If you’ve stuck this post out this long, first, thank you. Second, I’d like to make a request. This is something I’ll be doing and I’d love to build some support for this movement. In short, the request is: Buy Brandon Sanderson’s “secret project” audiobooks on Speechify or Spotify. I, personally, don’t like audiobooks (the format doesn’t work for me) and I don’t enjoy Brandon Sanderson’s books very much (it’s not a content thing, I just don’t connect well with his writing style), but I will be doing this because he’s placed them on Speechify and Spotify for a reason. That reason is that Audible, the uncontested leader in the audiobook world, is very, very unfriendly to indie authors. As a quick sneak peek into that, the standard, industrywide royalty for a independently published creative work (from video games to e-books) is 70%. Audible offers 40%, and only offers that if you go to exclusive with Audible. If you want your books available on other platforms, that royalty drops to 25%. I know this personally, having released my audiobook for Wake of the Phoenix last year. My narrator did an exceptional job and not only could I not pay him up front, he made almost nothing on the sales of my book. I chose to invest my time into this endeavor, hoping to build an audience, share my worlds, and maybe be able to do it full-time. My narrator is working a job and not getting paid. Brandon Sanderson has a much more in-depth discussion of this issue in a video he released in late December of this year. If you’re interested in hear his full discussion, it begins around time code 7:20 here.

Thank you again for reading this far. I plan on more frequent updates throughout this year and will keep you posted on the upcoming release of my story collection and sequel.