Dusk Gate is only up to ~95,000 words. I’m pretty sure I’d have done better, but… Mother Nature had her say in things. My area of northern Utah got hammered by a wind storm this past Monday night, and it knocked out power for over 180,000 people. While we had a generator, it made it very difficult to concentrate on writing, and we only got power back late on Friday. Fortunately, we didn’t take much damage (unlike the many uprooted trees, smashed fences, and the like that I’ve seen), but it definitely was a shock. I’ve never seen quite this bad of a wind storm in Utah, though one in 2011 had higher winds.
While this has set me behind where I wanted to be, fortunately I’m not on a specific deadline for Dusk Gate, and I’m still on-track for my personal timeline for it. I hope to have the final draft done by the end of October, so that I can move on to the next book of Lilith’s Shadow, which I’ve titled Queen’s Journey.
I have lots of plans for Lilith’s Shadow, as well as Through the Fire, Beesong Chronicles, and other stories which have never seen the light of day. I’m just trying to take them each a step at a time.
I really hope you’re all doing well! Feel free to comment if there’s anything you’d like to see more of! (Even Ancient Dreams, for that matter. Yes, the main story involving Sistina and Phynis directly is done, but I still have plans.)
Ancient Dreams 
Glad to hear you’re OK, I’ve got forest fires to contend with; I live near Mt Hood in Oregon (near being defined as within about 30 miles). Power for me went out Monday but was fortunately back up on Tuesday afternoon. I’m looking forward to Dusk Gate whenever you release it, along with the further adventures of Lilith and Joy. I would like to see a bit more of the Ancient Dreams stories going forward from Crisis of Faith, as it’s apparent that some of the darker gods are looking to be pests again.
Hope this finds you well.
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I hope you end up okay through all of this! I know at least one person in the Oregon area who’s affected as well, and I’m really hoping the fires get under control.
I think Dusk Gate will be interesting because the main protagonist is so… scathing, in a lot of ways. I think of her as not having much patience for what she considers stupidity, and pretty much no brain-mouth filter. Fortunately, not all of the characters are like that, or it might be exhausting.
But I hope you’re well when you read this, and that things stabilize for you!
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I’d like to see a book based on how emonael went from a demon Lord to a goddess personally. I’d also like to know what became of her demon subordinate that likes wearing the robes of angels
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A fair idea! I’ve considered that idea a few times myself, mostly in short story format.
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Glad your doing super happy your doing well and still writing I am just a fan boy of all your work at this point so as long as your writing something new I am jumping at the bit to get it and more Lilith please where we left off is driving me mad I wanna know I wanna know.
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Hehe. I promise, the next project after Dusk Gate is Queen’s Journey, book five of Lilith’s Shadow. And after /that/ is Queen’s Gambit, book six of the series, and the finale of the main story arc I’ve been planning since book 1.
Not saying that’s the end of Lilith’s books, though. Just the end of that major story arc.
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I would appreciate something from Ancient Dreams in line with Brian oakes but I’m a bee i, I’m a bee i, but not a bum-ble-bee …. Seriously, if you continue with the same style, I’m happy
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Fair! I’m keeping a list of things. ^_^
The sad thing is, so many ideas, not enough time to write them…
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Hi I love all your series that I’ve read so far, I like to read them on KU then I buy the Audiobook version after it’s out & I’ve got enough extra cash to spend. Si far my fav is your Ancient Dreams series I’ve got all 5 of the audiobooks & I re-listen to them probably about once every other month, I can’t get enough of them I originally came across your books & decided to read Ancient Dreams right around the time the 1st book of the series came out on Audible, cuz it was in the similar books list that Audible has when you finish one of their audiobooks. I had just started in on the new genre related to dungeon cores, I had already read The Divine Dungeon by Dakota Krout, as well as The Slime Dungeon series by Jeffrey “Falcon” Logue along with a couple other stand alone dungeon core stories, anyways the point was that I was trying to find another Dungeon Core audiobook that I could listen to, while waiting for Dungeon Madness: The Divine Dungeon Book 2 to be released and liked the look of Ancient Dreams book cover(the original cover, but I think the new cover is a way better cover after listening to the series, it’s reall close to how I pictured Sistina from your description of her when Lily 1st saw her after she formed her body for the 1st time) & after read the blurb for the story I was intrigued. So I instantly bought it, without looking to see if there were any other dungeon core stories that I could choose instead, & I was really happy that I took that chance, cuz not only did it have the dungeon core aspect along with the dungeon crawler perspective, it also had such a fantastic story woven in. The intro into how Sistina(well actually she was Evendrial at that time) came to be stuck in the gemstone was fantastic. In fact you surprised me there when she 1st got sucked in to the gem, I thought to myself ah that’s an interesting way to become a dungeon core,(see I thought that she was going to stay in the gem like in the other dungeon core stories I’d read up to that story) but no you threw in a twist & had the gem crack open & her soul merge with a…tree?¿ I was like whattt, where is he going with this, but you drew me back in with how you wove her trying to figure out what she was & what she could now do. (oh as a side note I really liked the part where she was trying to clean the water for her tree, especially the part where she had gone off track for a little cuz of her remembering something I think it was that there were different seasons in a year, but then she was like and now back to my arch nemesis the polluted stream, when she said that I started laughing so hard I had to pause the book for like 5mins it was hilarious & you got me t ok remember it & laugh outrageously again when I listened to Crisis of Faith, cuz of the part where either Phinnis or one of the jewels is talking to someone & explaining about how Sistina is of yhe mind that they need challenges & the other person in the covedsation says really, to which the 1st oerson responds with yeah I remember Sistina even muttered I wonder how you all would handle a polluted pond? Yeah I thought that was hilarious as well) Then you had the story involve much more than just the dungeon with out losing the dungeon core feel that I was looking for when I chose to listen to it. So after the rest of the original Ancient Dream Trilogy came out & I listened to those I decided I would give some of your other stories a try I’ve listened to the 1st two of your Lilith’s Shadow series, which were pretty good, I also have the whole Mantles of Power trilogy from Audible, that trilogy is my 2nd favorite series of your books so far. I’ve also got both of Beesong Chronicles audiobooks & I’m waiting with baited breath for the 3rd Beesong Chronicles book to be released on Audible. I’m pretty sure The Beesong Chronicles series will be my 3rd favorite series of yours but I haven’t gotten the chance to read or listen to your Through the Fire trilogy yet, so I could be wrong. I’ve also got your Touching Divinity audiobook which I liked alot & if you could write something with those characters I think it would be pretty good. Either that idea or what I’d like even more would be another Ancient Dreams book since you already laid the ground work for a couple different storylines from Crisis of Faith. You could do one on what happens with Diane & Wenris, with Diane trying to redeem Wenris. Also there is the Eternal Empress & the Eternal Wood waking back up, the Eternal Empress said something about it would take time for the ones who survived to wake up, that sounds like there is other Fae that survived there could be good story there. Plus you mentioned the part where Alexander’s real body is stuck in a dungeon & he wants to escape & he had that memory of a purple halo maybe you could have it include Zenith saving him somehow cuz him being imprisoned against his will would make him a slave so his protection could fall under Tyria who’s now back to being Madea, & maybe the story could involve Zenith getting help from That group of adventurers, that helped fight the monsters that attacked Westgate, since it looked like the groups leader had a crush on Zenith. Then there is whatever Emonael is planning involving that soul array that she’s constructing. Anyways yeah as you could see I really would like some answers go some of the plot threads that you dangled out, so yeah sorry about the kong winded post.
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Interesting! It took me a while to work through your post, but I can understand why you want to see more of those elements and characters. I’ll admit, Touching Divinity isn’t high on my list of things to continue, just due to how powerful the characters are. The other stories are all ones I’ve considered (with the exception of Alexander), and hope to get to eventually. So many things to write, so little time!
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Well, Ancient Dreams is probably one of my favorite book series since I picked up the trilogy, so i’m always glad to read more of the characters and world you’ve built there (just got through another re-read of all 5, probably like my 8th reread).
Would like to hear what more dangerous things Sistina has in the lower parts of the dungeon that Darak & co haven’t been able to get to (they are at the beginning of the Foundry, rt? or have they not gotten past the water levels after the last redesign), with the new ‘Zenith fan club’ adventures getting deep enough to show off what she’s come up with. But that’s a minor thread type of thing to include. I have to imagine Sistina hitting the 6 node stage of the ‘how to grow a world tree guide’ will kick off all kinds of new visitors from all over.
But I’m a fan of all your series, so whatever you’ve got planned I’m certainly likely to enjoy!
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That’s definitely an idea! I generally have a hard time writing dungeon crawls (they’re pretty boring for me), but a short story might not be too bad. Especially if someone in the dungeon rescues people after they get in over their heads…
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Yeah, I’ve appreciated your short stints in the Sistina’s dungeons, where they aren’t just 10 chapters in a row of a play by play per chamber (not that I don’t read quite a few other more traditional ‘dungeon core’ books that stay with that more). Still fun to hear little bits and pieces of the adventurers dealing with her ‘ant farm’ she set up for them to run for her amusement ;p (with real giant ants even… also of course, provides her defense from invaders… but still, they come to her and provide her entertainment, much to Darak’s dismay :D )
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