Quarter 4 Update
Yay, time for the quarter 4 update!
…huh. I haven’t put out any blog posts since the quarter 3 update. Awkward.
Anyway.
Blades Reforged Launched!
That’s right, my first series Blades of the Goddess is now COMPLETE!!! :D
Over the course of the past year, I have put out four books — three novels and one short story collection. It’s been a wild ride, but I can now say I have a full series out! It brings me joy every time I think of it. It’s been a VERY busy year, not just with the books but also with other my other job(s) and personal life. But hearing feedback from readers has been extremely motivating — I can’t believe how many of you have connected to my characters and world, and have told me you can’t wait for more! It’s amazing. I’m happy I was able to create something that has brought joy to other people, and I hope you all continue on with me in the future!
Over the past year, I put out almost one book per quarter. I will say, I will be slowing down a bit now haha, but more on that later!
Writing and Edits
The majority of the editing that happened last quarter was focused around getting Reforged ready to launch, of course. The copy edits and the proofreading were completed, as well as all the final formatting. I’m glad you all seem to enjoy how everything turned out!
It has unfortunately been so busy that I did not get the chance to write any of the blog posts I have in mind (though I have started the next one, and I have a few guest blogs coming up as well). I even forgot THIS blog had to be written, and this is mostly just a report of the past three months, nothing story or world related. But I started a new job in June, and I have been trying not to kill myself with work. So for the foreseeable future, blog posts might get more spaced out.
But I have been planning for the next books (which is the more important bit, honestly)! Usually, November is a big writing month, and I hope this year won’t be any different. Well, a little different — I won’t be doing NaNoWriMo for reasons I won’t get into here, but I will be doing Sarra Cannon’s Rough Draft Challenge. Will I hit 50,000 words on my next book next month? Who knows, but I guess we’ll find out. As such, I will be spending this month prepping for the write-a-thon next month. I have my notebooks, pens, markers, highlighters, and washi tapes all ready to go! And I spent the last quarter doing a lot of thinking about how I want this duology to go, and what I want to happen in it, and what I want it to be about. I already have a lot of notes :) Soon… I’ll make my index cards.
Ream
Ream has been a ton of fun! I’ve been working on a ton of art stuff when I do have free time, and certain tiers there get to see it in advance of everyone else. Chibis, the Movorae, Ander’s fish, No Words Only Wargs, the cover to my next book… Ream is the place to go if you want advanced pictures :3
I also implemented a new welcome package for anyone who subscribes at any tier. This includes a metal bookmark exclusive to my Ream, among other fun little things. I LOVE designing merch, so this was a fun little kit to put together.
Hopefully when I can pick up doing the blog posts again Ream followers will also get more of the canonical primary source documents! I also love putting those together (it’s the academic in me), it’s just very time-intensive. As of now, though, all the primary source blog posts here have their fully formatted equivalents available for free on my Ream. Feel free to check them out!
Other
I will say, I have done a lot of events this past quarter, and I have more coming up for quarter 4, as well! The Chepatchet Author Series, a signing at Tatnuck Booksellers in MA, the Scituate Farmers’ Market, and more were all super fun to do — and they let me meet some of you all in person, as well!
Coming up, I have the Scituate Art Festival, a Halloween event at Tatnuck, Rhode Island Comic Con, and the Rhode Island Author Expo, among others. You can check my Upcoming Events page for more info, or follow me on Ream or subscribe to my newsletter :)
Some of you noticed that Blades Reforged did not launch on Campfire yet. I feel like I’m a little too behind right now to give that project the attention it deserves, but it WILL be coming, probably in early 2025. I still need to finish fleshing out Colors of Magic on Campfire, and I still have a few shorts that need to go into Broken Blades. But I haven’t abandoned this — I still think Campfire is an amazing way to experience books in general. I just want to be able to do mine right. Well, right for me.
There has been major progress on the audio book for Lost Blades this past quarter — the first round of recording and review has been finished! That means most of the work is complete, so I can hopefully share this with you all soon :D
Looking Forward
Okay, so I have a full series out. What comes next?
The short answer is: more books!
The long answer is, of course, a little more complicated. I am (clearly) already working on my next book, which is the first in a duology, so I’m not stopping writing. However, I WILL be slowing down.
I managed to launch the entirety of Blades of the Goddess in a year (exactly a year: Lost Blades came out September 12, 2023, and Blades Reforged wrapped the series on Sept 12, 2024). These are not short books, and a lot of people have asked me how I achieved that. The truth is the first draft of Lost Blades was completed in November of 2020, and I sat on it while continuing to work on the rest of the series. When I made the decision to publish, the draft for Broken Blades was also done, as well as two of the short stories, and I had about seven chapters of Reforged drafted. So over 50% of the work was complete — I just had to finish Colors and Reforged.
I no longer have anything behind the scenes, more or less ready to go. So that means things will slow down, as I do not wish to kill myself. The plan for now is to have the first book in the duology come out late 2025, and the second book mid-2026, but I don’t want to give any firm dates until the first draft (the part I struggle with the most and takes the longest) is done. I am hopeful to finish the first draft of the new book in early 2025 (maybe late this year, if I am super productive!) so we will see how it goes!
But I have A LOT of books in this world I want to write. I know, in fact, the next seven books that will come out, including the duology. That should keep me publishing for the next 4-5 years, and I have ideas for more books after those, too!
I hope you all stick around. I’ll be announcing the title and cover of the next book in my newsletter and on Ream soon, so I hope you’ll join me there, as well!
Cheers!
