August 12, 2023 - Update

Hi!

When I started book nine I spent a lot of time discussing how beginnings are difficult for me and it takes me a while to know if I’ve started in the right place. Luckily, for eight books, I’ve gotten it mostly right and very few changes were necessary.

I did not get it right for book nine. I’ve already revised a couple of chapters and made some significant changes. The last week (maybe two) has been the most difficult two weeks of writing since I started this series.

From the beginning I’ve struggled with how much information to share about the greater story and last week it became apparent to me I had taken the wrong path. Unfortunately for me, I had already written multiple chapters with detailed world-building that had taken an immense amount of thought and time to create.

Will all that information make it into this book…most likely. But I can’t release it now, which put me even further behind. Then to top it off, I finally admitted a significant amount of what I’d already posted wouldn’t work for this new direction.

So I found myself with chapters I couldn’t post and the need to rewrite and rerelease chapters I’d already posted. To salvage what I could I needed to blend the new storyline with the existing story which is difficult and time-consuming.

It was a brutal writing week filled with a lot of stress and it’s only now in the early hours of Saturday that I think it might be okay.

What this means for you:

- I will leave the existing posts up so you can see part of what I plan on hiding.

- The infamous chapter six is now gone, along with that whole area/location.

- There are significant changes starting in chapter five as I brought forward a storyline I meant for later but realized it made more sense here.

- I’m reposting chapters five through twelve.

- Chapters eleven and twelve are new content

You can see I’ve rewritten six chapters and added two new ones this week. I am sure there are tons of mistakes as I haven’t had the time to reread any of it. Throw in the massive rewrite and merging of storylines, and it is a recipe for errors. Please let me know what you find in the comments. I always appreciate that.

I’ve reposted chapters 5 and 6.

I’ve opened chapters 7 (OLD), 8 (OLD), 7, and 8 for Root.

I’ve opened chapters 9 (OLD), 10 (OLD), 11 (OLD), 9, and 10 for Harvester.

I’ve added chapters 11 and 12 for Step Master, Blapy’s Favorite, Divine, and Axiom.

Enjoy!

I work so hard to get things right because I want to produce the best possible story I can. You deserve nothing less. Thank you for supporting the series.

Take care,

AFK