What is the main difference between your original vision for Impassioned and the final version of the Queen’s Rising?

The bones of the story are the same. Brienna struggles to find her calling and passion, and after going through a challenge at the summer solstice, she finds herself joining a secret revolution to take down a usurper king and restore a queen to the throne. 

Part 1 of the original draft was much longer. There were more scenes of Brienna with her arden sisters at Magnalia that I ended up cutting for the sake of pacing. I also had more scenes of Brienna in Beaumont, with Jourdain and Luc, that had to be cut to move things along.

I would also say the original draft was focused on her recovering the Stone of Eventide and becoming a mistress of knowledge. When I went through edits with my editor, I changed a few of the subplots, some of which are a tad bit spoilery so I won’t mention them here. But making those shifts brought out more emotional conflict for Brienna and also honed the desire and purpose for the revolution.