Selkie's State of Writing (Patreon)

Hey all!Okay, it's been a few months now, and again, THANK YOU all so much for being patient with me. I can't express how grateful I am.

Onto the updates!School's starting back up, which means I'm going to have more time again. I DON'T want to end up in another burnout spiral (which would be what, my 4th? 5th? Something, something, fool me once... at a certain point it's on me poorly managing stuff. Sorry again), so I'm keeping the same commitment, AKA 'Posts come when they come'. I DO write more when I have a commitment, but it makes life high stress, and unhappy for everyone.

Song of the Gift-Giver: I really like a lot of what I've done here, but I'm still lacking a serious A-plot that I can use to drive the story forward. I've got some ideas, but they're so-so. I'm also finding writing in the 3rd person to be tedious. I've got a full outline for the rest of the book, and I can happily land it, but I'm unsure I'm going to write out the full epic. At least, for now. With that said, Book 1 should end in a fairly satisfying spot. I also made the 'mistake' of resolving too many issues in book 1, instead of leaving them for the series... except that also gives closure. I'm going to leave open the possibilities of sequels and additional years in Camelot (Grimoire Games, Rituals of Power, exploring the library, etc.), but for now, my plan is to have Song be a nice, 200k word 'one and done', and a satisfying magic school-mystery novel, with reasonable stakes. I suspect I'll be done around chapter 100.

It has done a large number of things. It's scratched my 'school story' itch that I had building. It gave me a nice breather from the pure number crunch of BTDEM. I've extremely happy with my character building and development. The way the members of the coven bounce off and play with each other is excellent. I just need to remember that same energy as I move into my next project.

It's important to me that I finish things, and don't leave a half-dozen stories without endings lying around. Nobody enjoys that.

Speaking of:

Countless Joyful Dawns will continue on, until it's done. It's pure crack, and it shouldn't have too many more chapters before we're done, and the prophecy is complete. (For those wondering what it is: '... without being under water and on fire'. Yeah, we all know how this one ends...) At which point, I'm going to be starting my next series in earnest:

(Name WIP)Shadows of the Phoenix Ring'Hang on, didn't Auri...' - YES!

We are returning to Pallos!

I decided to have a semi-random start in a lot of ways. I sat my (non-fantasy enjoying) wife down, and had her do some character creation. Which lead to gems like 'Can we do the 90s as a fantasy setting? I like the 90s' and other such lines that cracked me up. I've shaken Pallos up some - thank you, Jormungandr, for rearranging the continents for us - and it's going to be the plotline I hinted at in BTDEM, Portal Wars. AKA the veil gets shredded, invaders notice Pallos, and all hell breaks loose.

After a short, 3 book introductory arc or something.

I suspect Thalia's going to sound and feel a lot like Elaine, because at a certain point the lines between me and the character blurred, and I poured my heart and soul into the book. It's part of why it's done so well, versus the far-less-pouring in Song, and it's felt a little 'flat' to me. That, or I'm my own worst critic.

Anyway! That's the update! See you soon!Cheers!Selkie