Hell’s Ascendant is up to 32,500 words, and is proving a little harder to write than either of the previous two books of the trilogy, though I suspect that’s because I’ve been pushing myself hard so far this year. I’ve already decided to take a couple of weeks off after I finish the book, since I haven’t taken a full week off in… I’m honestly not sure how long. I’d have to go through my updates to figure it out, but I don’t feel like doing that right now.

Either way, the book is coming along well, and has a great deal more action in it than either Heaven’s Fallen or Mortal Gods, or at least will. I’m not dead-set on this being the end of the Mantles of Power series, but I suspect it’ll close it out as a trilogy. I suspect this is simply because I think in trilogies, but I couldn’t say for sure.

Also, now that Heaven’s Fallen has been out for a few weeks, I finally feel like I can talk about it a little. One of the things I’m not sure came across in the book (mostly because it didn’t matter) was that each of the worlds, whether the heavens, hells, or mortal world, is a ‘flat’ world, not spheres. Oh, they aren’t perfectly flat, they’re on a curved surface to give a horizon, but there’s a very distinct ‘edge’ to the mortal world in particular. The heavens and hells are enormously larger, and though the inhabitants haven’t found the edges, they also exist. In the setting, the edges are all ocean and take the form of thick fog banks. A ship or creature can go into the fog, and it seems to go on without end. If they ever turn back, though, they immediately emerge from the fog where they entered it.

A secondary aspect of the world is that despite the heavens and hells being called that, or mortal gods existing, they’re all considered mortals by the larger universe. They aren’t ‘true’ angels or demons in the terms of most other settings. And when I say the larger universe, their worlds are just a small, strange fragment of the same universe as Through the Fire. If Ruethwyn or Isalla really wanted to, they could find a way of going to meet the other, but it would require hopping between worlds and a long, dangerous journey. This is why the magic may seem similar, even if they don’t use the same terminology.

I was about to go on at length about more aspects of the setting, but most of them are minor at best. Instead, I’ll leave things here for the week. I hope everyone has a good week! I’m looking forward to Mortal Gods coming out, and we’ll see how Hell’s Ascendant develops! It’s going to be explosive, I know that much.