Wow - how has it been almost two months since I last posted? I had so many ideas - and I still do - for blog posts, but I guess life just kept lifing. I have been struggling to find time to do my beta reader swaps, let alone write or edit my own novels so it’s really no surprise that I haven’t updated the blog, I suppose.
Just to show the Google gods that this site is active, here is a quick update:
Rissa Must Die: Four beta reads completed!
Forbidden Ember: Three beta reads completed! Having a fourth beta reader going through it now.
The Acolyte’s Heresy: Four beta reads completed! Having a fifth and sixth beta reader going through it now, as I try to edit to stay ahead of them.
I am feeling really good about RMD and FE. Obviously, I am still open to making changes based on the fourth beta reader’s feedback, but structurally both RMD and FE feel “sound” to me. I still want to fix my tendency to overwrite, improve on my scene-setting, and make each character’s dialogue sound distinct, et cetera, but I am confident about the characters, the plot beats, and the emotional arcs. My goals for 2027 is to finish another prose edit and post on Reddit to recruit 2-3 beta readers on that version (February for RMD and May for FE?).
TAH I want to make better. To me, it makes sense that I am struggling with it because it is longer than RMD and FE combined. But the real challenge is that I do think the first part could be improved to be more exciting. I know the middle part is great - everyone loves the middle part (which isn’t what you usually hear!) - but the first third and the last third can be sharpened. I think my other challenge with TAH is that it can go longer and be split into multiple books, but I’d really like to keep it one book. Also, I am trying to write a companion book… I would like that companion book completed because it will have crossover for TAH. So anyways… there is a lot more I want to “do” with TAH that makes me feel paralyzed between “I need to fix this” editing mode and “I want to write this” creative mode. TAH is the crown jewel of my therreth novels, so even though I know it’s already pretty good, I don’t want to put it out until I know it’s truly the best that it can be.
It’s a short update, but like I said, I have a lot on my plate (still beta swapping, editing, and trying to write the fourth novel…). But I also updated this website with the most recent version of the first three chapters!
I also added an excerpt from each of the books: when Rissa first sees Rhenise (on-page), when Anisha first sees Therise, and when Kara first sees Serena. Since these female friendships are so central to the novel, I thought that was the excerpt I’d like to share. I might update later but for now, you can enjoy that interaction without even having to download anything!
