Book 1 – Afterword (and Book 2 Blurb)

Note: If you haven’t read the final chapter (Chapter 47) that was released today, read that first.

Book 1 is now concluded! Thank you all so much for your support, and I hope you continue to enjoy The Hedge Wizard moving forward into Book 2.

This is just a small collection of my thoughts on the project so far, and if that doesn’t interest you, the important thing to know is that there will be no pause to the upload schedule. Book 2 will begin on Tuesday following the standard release rate.

Book 2 Blurb:

Hump triumphed over the challenges of Bledsbury Dungeon, but it wasn’t without a cost. Imprinted by the soul of the wolf dragon, Hump must master his new power if he is to have a hope at being ready for the Dragon Keeper Trials. But the soul is a frail thing, and he fears what part of him might have been lost.

In need of help to further his training, he and his party set off to find an acquaintance of his master. The last he heard of her; she’d set up a lab at Fishers Lake trying to learn the mystery behind the largest fish in the world.

With the truths of the world unravelling around him, Hump must learn to trust his friends and his own power if he is to stand against the lurking threats, or risk being devoured by them.

With the interesting bit out of the way, here are my thoughts!

When I first posted The Hedge Wizard to Royal Road, I was extremely nervous. While I only started writing Hedge Wizard this year, this book was the culmination of six years of practice.

I felt a lot of pressure.

If it failed, it would mean I would need to rethink how I do things: my writing style, my portrayal of characters, even the type of story that I find interesting. This was all on my mind during those first few weeks of posting. I set a goal of 1000 followers. If it hit that, I would know I was onto something that worked.

And then it hit Trending (Rising Stars for the newbies amongst us). And Azarinth Healer gave it a shoutout, along with Houndsman, Mark of the Fool, and Tower of Somnus. It's been amazing to see all the support, and now Hedge Wizard has now crossed 4500 followers, which is surreal to me. The most mind-blowing thing is that no matter what time of day it is, somebody is always reading my book. Which is both awesome and nerve-wracking at the same time!

The story isn’t perfect, but I have loved writing it, and have done my best to make it as polished as I can. There is still plenty of room for improvement, and I have a ton of notes from all the feedback I’ve received in DMs and through the RR comments. I’ll be working on ironing out these details slowly outside of my typical writing time.

That’s pretty much it. Thanks again for all the support, and I hope you continue to enjoy the Hedge Wizard into Book 2. So far, I’m liking it even more than Book 1. It’s spread over a longer period of time, so there’s far more opportunity to build on the magic and characters, which I think has been great, but I’ll leave that for you to decide.

How you can help

Now that you’ve read Book 1, it would be amazing if you would leave a review on the RR page, or upvote other reviews that you agree with. Best Rated is my primary source of new readers, and every rating really does make a massive difference.

Thanks for reading. I’ll see you on Tuesday.