The release of Chosen of Chaos went pretty well, and I’m happy for the most part! There was one thing, and I think that’s that I didn’t manage expectations of the story quite right, just based on some of the reviews. Despite me being mildly concerned that the lack of an overarching plot pushing things forward, none of my early readers seemed concerned about it, but it appears to have been a point of some contention. Just to clarify, I personally saw the story as being closer to a serial in format, composed of several adventures. On Friday I updated the book file to reflect this, splitting the book into six parts, so if you haven’t seen that, you can get Amazon to push the update. Nothing else changed, though! Oh, and I did have an overarching plot for book 2 from the beginning, so when I get to that it’ll be somewhat different. Now, on to other information!
I have a narrator contracted for Chosen of Chaos, and the audiobook will be coming, though it’ll take some time. The audiobook of Queen’s Journey is in-progress, and should be finished around the end of March, and will go up on stores as soon as they approve it. I’ve also been working on Queen’s Gambit, which is up to ~28,000 words at this point, and I’ve been idly working on Adept of Chaos as well (~10,000 words there). I’m making progress!
On a slightly different subject, I suppose I ought to talk about a few of my plans from the beginning of the year. Chosen of Chaos has thrown off all my plans, as has my bought of writer’s block that I had in February, but that wasn’t the biggest issue I ran into. Ironically, having too many potential projects ran me headfirst into a bit of choice paralysis, which didn’t help the writer’s block at all. The issue is that I had two series that needed completion (Lilith’s Shadow and Soul Bound) and a couple of new projects, as well as old series I’m planning to continue (looking at Through the Fire here). I eventually decided that I need to finish the first two before moving on, but at the same time I can’t let myself ignore my new ideas or they’ll stagnate.
One thing I want to note. I cannot write the next arc of Through the Fire until Soul Bound is complete. As I told someone recently in my Discord server, the events of Soul Bound are going to reverberate through the region, and it’s going on close to concurrently with what happens in the next arc of Through the Fire. Comparatively, Through the Fire won’t have a noticeable impact on what happens in Soul Bound, so it needs to be written in that order.
Now, if Chosen of Chaos does incredibly well, it’s likely that I’m going to juggle things around a bit. Or a lot. There’s something to be said for striking while the iron is hot, after all. However, at the moment it’s going to be a secondary project while I finish Queen’s Gambit and the as-yet unnamed book 2 of Soul Bound (the name will depend on whether I finish the arc in the next book or not). Anyway, that’s what I have to say! I hope everyone is doing well!
Oh, and if you enjoyed Chosen of Chaos, please leave a rating or review if you have time! Reviews make an enormous difference.
Ancient Dreams 
Are you insinuating that through the fire and soul bound are in the same universe as it were?
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Oh, of course they are! In Dusk Gate, you might recall the bandits talking about where the characters could be heading? One that’s mentioned is Devaran, a city which is at war with Palto. Palto’s the nation of demon-worshippers who appears a couple of times in Through the Fire.
So yeah, Ruethwyn and Xandra have been living a few hundred miles apart. I don’t think as much as a thousand, but I haven’t bothered working out the exact distances involved.
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Isn’t the Thorned Wood the domain of the world tree?
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So, the Thorned Wood is a little more complicated than that. The world tree is in a massive crater 200 miles across, which is the core of the Thorned Wood. From that crater extend five major branches of the forest, each ranging from just a few miles across to fifty or more miles, that expand over a good chunk of the world, like extremely long roots that reach almost every continent in the setting. The magic of the forest is such that even when it goes beneath the ocean, it repels the water enough that the trees can grow, and creatures can use them as (extremely dangerous) undersea highways.
Anyway, a narrow band of the Thorned Wood separates Palto from Selwyn (Ruethwyn’s Homeland), and there’s another branch that separates the city where Xandra was living (I can’t remember its name off-hand) from the Empire of Rantoran, which Deveran is a semi-autonomous member of.
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Any chance Adept of Chaos will have some intelligent orcs? I know it’s against the norm, but always finding an orc, without much up top, among the groups Evelyn knocks off felt – stereotypical?
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Mm, in Adept of Chaos? Possibly… but I’m not sure. The story isn’t likely to deal with lots of orc communities, though I haven’t determined what species is dominant on a couple of the systems where stuff will happen…
Honestly, I only really recall two orcs in Chosen of Chaos. One of them was a mercenary underling who was modestly intelligent, and the other was a bodyguard who knew enough to be nervous about Evelyn being in the room. I honestly considered both to be pretty much average for humans or non-humans.
In general, I try to focus on making sure that while certain tropes have a basis in ‘reality’ in-setting, that there are exceptions for the most part. There are exceptions to this, of course, like with goblins in Beesong Chronicles (I’m not fond of goblins in any form). We’ll see if any orcs come about. I’ll freely admit that I have a (possibly unhealthy) love angels, elves, and succubi, so they dominate my writing. But thinking about it, I have a cluster of character roles I haven’t filled that an orc would easily fit into…
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Well, then we need a half-elf/half-succubus character :) I do appreciate the 3 in fantasy, good shot at a good first impression… plus, there are so many flavors of elves :D (dawn, dusk, night, blood, forest, mountain, high, dark, drow, erofu, etrc etc. weeeeeeeeee).
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You mean like Essryl from Through the Fire? She’s half succubus, half dark elf. Though she was magically modified to minimize the demonic features… I’ve also had thoughts for another succubus-blooded main character, but that one’s pretty far on the back burner these days. Too many stories, not enough time to write. >_<
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I’m both looking forward to and dreading Queen’s Gambit. I don’t want her journey to be over.
Also still haven’t read Chosen of Chaos. Dealing with finding the correct health insurance is a PITA 😒
Question about how you create characters. Do you just write them or do you do research their personality? Example would be Lilith as she hits the INFJ personality dead-on (IMO). I guess I’m curious if that was intentional or just her nature. (This question extends to your other books too)
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I wouldn’t call it the end of Lilith’s journey. It’s the end of the story arc, but in many ways it’s the beginning of her journey, IMO. I’m not sure if that’s the best way to explain it, though.
Also… my deepest sympathies on health insurance. I remember having to scramble for it a bit a few years ago, and it wasn’t pleasant.
Now, as for the characters? I usually have a background in mind, and I just start writing. How they act, what they say, all of those little things is what informs the character’s personality. I don’t deliberately build them to fit a role, I write them in a way that feels logical to me. But very much, I don’t research their personality. Though I suppose that with some characters I DO ask myself what would lead them to becoming the way they are.
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I guess I should have made it a little more clear 😅. I was referring to this arc of Lilith’s journey. I’m expecting a several year wait before your insanely creative mind rolls back to Lilith. I’ve made it no secret, that Lilith’s Shadow is my personal favorite series (though every series of yours has a charm). I’ll just be a little bittersweet, ya know.
To be honest, I really like Soul Bound too. I’m definitely looking forward to that journey (+ Through the Flames) continuing. Those are probably weird choices for favorites 😅.
I /really/ need to make time to read Chosen of Chaos 😤
Hope you’re having a good day/week!
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Ah, okay! Yeah, that’s definitely a concern. My biggest problem is that sticking to just one story is hard for me. Too many ideas, too little time!
I’m not sure that I’d agree on them being weird choices for favorites. For me, Through the Fire and Soul Bound are in the setting I’ve been developing for the longest, so they’re near and dear to my heart. I do wish they did better, but that’s how life goes!
As for Chosen of Chaos… I think you do, but I’m very biased. I hope you enjoy it when you get there!
I’m doing pretty well, thank you! I hope you are having a good time, too!
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