Update: Two Stories, One Amazing Journey
Added 2025-09-16 12:00:50 +0000 UTCHey y'all.
We're coming up on two months since the transition to writing full-time began, and it's been a wild ride so far.
I've settled into a rhythm that I never could have imagined in my old life: writing Fate's Attendant in the mornings and editing Eight 5 in the afternoons. The ability to focus on just writing (with some job hunting thrown in sporadically) has been absolutely priceless for thinking deeply about the characters and the events in both books. As a result, I'm finding it harder and harder to imagine the return to the everyday grind of my former professional life. Writing is hard—it takes a ton of energy—but I'm starting to think I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Eight's progress: I'm well into an initial developmental-edit pass on Eight 5. Y'all had mentioned that the ending needed serious work, and you were right. I'm essentially rewriting the last few chapters to fix the structural issues, but I'm happy with the initial results. I expect to hand the manuscript off to my developmental editor by the end of the month.
Fate's Attendant update: Hong Fei's story is finding its groove. He's navigating the treacherous politics of the Yu household while discovering what his mysterious cards can really do, and the reception has been incredible.
The story is currently sitting at #18 on Royal Road's Rising Stars with near-universal 5-star reviews. Making it to the front page (#10 or higher) would be tremendous for visibility and a huge boost for this writing experiment.
To encourage the folks over there, I've promised to release two bonus chapters if we make to the front page, which of course I'll publish here first. If you'd like to help the story's climb, it's here: Fate's Attendant. Give it a follow, rate it, and share the link with your friends.
Looking ahead, I'm excited about where both stories are heading. Hong Fei has some major revelations coming up, and getting Eight's ending right feels like the perfect send-off for that series.
As always, thank you so much for your support. I've been telling the folks on Royal Road that a book is incomplete without readers, and that's never felt truer than now.
Comments
Thank you. I'm glad you've been enjoying the new story. Since I have the time now, I'm working hard to write clean copy from the beginning. That's slowed me down quite a lot—it's amazing how little one can write in five hours—but the pay off for readers is immediate. And it'll hopefully mean a quicker turnaround for publication later.
3seed
2025-09-16 22:58:04 +0000 UTCI hope the results for Fate's Attendant are what you hoped -- and that you can eventually not need to job-hunt but live off your writing. I'm really enjoying it. And as an aside, with mist Patreon authors I follow, I offer to do some basic copy editing for punctuation, spelling, homonyms, etc.(not that anyone has taken me up on the offer). But there's not much point making you that offer because I haven't found an error yet. I do a lot of proofing professionally, so give yourself a pat on the back for producing such polished work!
Ligeia
2025-09-16 19:29:11 +0000 UTC
