Tempered in Battle is currently up to ~25,000 words and climbing, with the story coming surprisingly smoothly so far. Though I’ll admit an attempt to add a bit of excitement to a section is rapidly spiraling out of control… we’ll see how it turns out! It feels like it’s appropriate for the situation and characters, mind you, it’s just… not what I expected to have happen.

Artwork for the first book is coming along nicely as well, I wouldn’t be surprised if I get the cover sometime this coming week, but we’ll see whether that’s the case or not. I’m pretty happy with how it looks, and I’ve got a good idea of what I want for the second book’s art, which I’ll commission immediately after the first is complete.

Just to reiterate my plans, possibly in more detail, here’s my plan on how to handle the Embers of War trilogy (it better be a trilogy…):

• Complete the draft of Tempered in Battle. I expect this will be toward the end of June, possibly mid-July.
• Begin my read-aloud of book one. I’m currently debating between Crucible of War and Honed for War for the title. Either way, as soon as I do this, I’ll be scheduling time with my editor for it, and put up the book for pre-order.
• On completing the editing pass, I’ll send it to the editor and immediately begin my read-aloud edit of Forged in Conflict, book 2, and put it up for pre-order (probably 2 months after book 1).
• Tempered in Battle is intended to follow the same pattern, though it’ll require two editing passes rather than one. I should have plenty of time to do so, though.
• After all three are handled, I’ll be working on Talyn’s Saga.

Just to be clear, this is only my current plan. Things could throw everything off, so I can’t guarantee everything will work out as I hope.

Have a great week, everyone!