Hello my lovely readers. I’m sorry for the late posting for May; as a teacher, the end of the school year is always hectic. I wish I could say I’ve made more progress on editing The Enduring Flame, but all of my time went to dealing with last-minute preparations for end-of-year activities. I also didn’t complete the sewing I wanted to do, so that exploration into my other main hobby will have to wait as I feverishly spend this week sewing outfits for my honeymoon.

What did I do this month? I managed to find time to read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom so that I could watch the Netflix show Shadow and Bone. I had read the Shadow & Bone trilogy in 2020 right at the start of the pandemic, and mostly enjoyed it. I loved the world, the magic, and the villain, but was lukewarm on Alina and Mal, our main protagonists. I rated each book a 7/10. The Six of Crows duology succeeded in some ways for me, but fell flat in others; I also rated it a 7/10.

Spoiler warning for the show and books.

Before I delve into the show, let me say what I enjoyed about the books and what fell flat for me. For S&B, all those things I mentioned above were the highlights. I absolutely loved the Darkling, and honestly, I wanted Alina to go with him, then proceed to thwart him via manipulation of his loneliness and odd vulnerability toward her. Fighting darkness with darkness, if you will. I also enjoyed some of the side characters, like Nikolai and Zoya, and the creative use of the world’s elements. However, Mal was not a character I enjoyed at all. He was rude to Alina and seemed to serve no other purpose than as a half-baked love interest. To be fair, Alina wasn’t a very active protagonist, so I also struggled to like her as much as I did the other characters.

For the duology, I still loved the world and seeing new parts of it. I liked the politics within Ketterdam as well as the other countries, being shown Fjerda and having glimpses of the Zemeni and Shu peoples. I enjoyed the twists and turns of the various heists. But, just like S&B, I struggled a lot with the characters. I enjoyed the main PoV characters, but I had trouble connecting to them. This is a critique I often see: the characters are supposedly teenagers, and act that way in some regards (especially romance), but are then hyper-competent in the heist. That disconnect never really went away for me, and it soured the reading a bit.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I still enjoyed these books. I’ll reread them at some point, probably before Season 2 of the show. I’ll recommend them to fans of YA Fantasy. The flaws were not enough to make me stop reading or dislike the experience, and only took away from what could have been 8/10 or even 9/10 ratings.

With such neutral feelings toward the books, I was intrigued by the show. I’ve grown from a child who despised any changes in an adaptation into a person who understands the necessities of the transition from page to screen. I enjoyed the books, but I’m not a Grishaverse die-hard fan. I watched with an open mind, curious to see what changes would be made.

I wasn’t disappointed. The show managed to thread a fine line between honoring the source material, radically changing backstories and interactions, and making subtle changes. The world came to life with incredible sets, costumes, and effects, the actors all did an incredible job (especially Jessie Mei Li and Ben Barnes), and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching it. The creators also had a great eye for detail, bringing in elements of the books with a subtle wink and nod instead of drawing attention to them.

But did the show correct the flaws of the books? In some ways, yes. In others, no. Alina became a more active protagonist, even driving her own romance with the Darkling. Certain elements, like the “mean girls” of the Little Palace, were toned down or glossed over completely, which was fine by me. I work in a middle school, I don’t need to see that drama in my entertainment.

Yet even with showing us Mal’s PoV – his friends, his hurt at Alina’s leaving, his hunt for the stag – I found myself still disinterested in his relationship with Alina. We had more glimpses into his character, but I realized that he had no motivation other than finding and helping Alina. The reason I like the Darkling so much, other than having a fondness for villains who seduce heroines, is that he’s motivated. He wants something, and he’ll stop at nothing to get it. If Alina is gone, what does Mal want? It’s unclear, even in the show, and I hope that we get more development for him in later seasons.

On the other side of the coin, we have the Crows interfering with S&B’s plot. The characters are much the same, though their circumstances are different. However, all of them are aged up: Kaz is a few years older than Alina, while Inej and Jesper appear about Alina’s age (early to mid twenties). This helps resolve the competency issue while still allowing for them to be immature in their relationships.

I really enjoyed how the Crows were brought into the show. I kept guessing how their heist might align with Alina’s plot and how they would be brought into the climax. This is a massive change to both source materials that I found extremely well done. I was rooting for them and their one million kruge job, while also wanting Alina to find her way out of her bad situations. The ending, where the crew helps Alina to escape Ravka, sets up more interactions in the future while still adhering to character motivations.

One element that was extremely rushed in the show was Alina’s training: we have one scene of her fighting Zoya in physical combat, but that’s it. One montage of her preparing to train with Baghra. I wanted more. I wanted to see Alina hone both her body and her magic, and I felt that this area was sorely lacking. We also don’t have a great idea of the other Grisha and their various alliances and perspectives. Fyodor and Ivan are fun, but not seen often. Genya and Zoya receive some development, but not David. We also have less of a sense of the greater politics with the Apparat and the king, which are vital later on in the story.

Is the show perfect? No. It has its flaws, but overall, it’s clear that the writers gave a lot of thought to how they would move this story onto the screen. I don’t know if I would rate the show higher than the books (7/10, maybe an 8/10 depending on how they adapt later on), but it certainly matches its source material.

What are your thoughts?

Hello my lovely readers, I come today with a couple of great announcements as well as the conclusion of my reflections blog series.

First of all, I am so proud to say that my short story, “Through the Blackthorn,” will be one of 12 stories in the anthology We Cryptids edited by Vivian Caethe. Each one is a noblebright urban fantasy story about cryptids finding their place in society and dealing with their relationships with humans. “Through the Blackthorn” is about Beitild, a huldra who is isolated from and harassed by humans due to her tail and hollow back. When a human asks for her help, Beitild is hesitant, but learns that not all people are the same.

You can preorder either an ebook or print copy, which should be released in September. Check it out here.

My next announcement concerns the third and final book in my Sovereigns of the Dead trilogy, The Enduring Flame. I met my goal for finishing the first draft by the end of April, and am now working toward edits. The editing process is always laborious, and with my upcoming honeymoon (and subsequent sewing projects in preparation of it), I’m not expecting to have the book ready for beta readers until July. I’m hoping that the readers will finish it within a month or two, leaving me time to get the cover and final edits done before November/December. I can’t make any promises at this point in time, but at least I have a completed draft and notes for the first round of edits.

Alright, let’s move on to character reflections! Last month, I talked about Cara’s progression and changes. The other main POV characters had far fewer changes, so I’m going to talk about them all this month: Gwen, Sandu, Seanna, and Jagger.

Jagger, as I mentioned last month, was originally a teacher of sorts at Cara’s school. He was a master spy, and this pretty quickly turned into him being an assassin-for-hire. The Nightcats morphed into Fauste’s Shiv, and Jagger’s relationship with Raven solidified into a loving marriage. Jagger’s always been a surly bastard, and he’s always had a soft spot for Sandu. Many of his chapters remained consistent throughout multiple drafts of The Lantern-Lit City.

Gwen was a bit odd for me. She started out sweet and naïve, then became a little more petty and childish, then ended up somewhere in-between. Her marriage to Druam fluctuated throughout the drafts: in some, he kept putting off the wedding that she was begging for. In others, she tried to escape said marriage. Her magic always played a role, but it grew over the course of many drafts until it became her defining goal.

Fun fact, in one draft Gwen falls in love with Mavian and tries to run away with him instead of marrying Druam.

Seanna’s progression was fairly quick. In the first couple of drafts, she was a kind, compassionate queen who wanted to help Druam with his lady drama (this was the same draft where Gwen tried to leave him). By the third draft, Seanna became the petty, conniving queen. She was always going to be pregnant, but the fact of her sexuality came in a bit later. Originally, she was straight and into one of the male characters. However, it never sat quite right with me, and I realized that Seanna was really a lesbian. This influenced a lot of her other character beats, and ended up one of my favorite changes in the whole series. Sometimes, you have to listen when a character tells you who they are.

Finally, we have Sandu. Tied with Druam, he’s my personal favorite character (though don’t tell the rest that), a happy-go-lucky guy with a tragic past. Despite his rough life, he somehow manages to find a way to get through it and still come out smiling. He has always functioned as the character who brings Cara out of her shell and grounds her in reality, serving as the straight man to her supernatural abilities.

In early drafts, Sandu was a graduate of the Nightcat school and served as a spy. He was also in love with Renna, who tragically died in a fire. Later on, after I scrapped the Nightcats and tried to figure out how Sandu would come into contact with Cara, I found the perfect way to tie him to both her and Jagger: Sandu as a bounty hunter. I gave him a gambling background and family issues, which drive every decision he makes, and voila, we have the Sandu that comes into the published manuscript. He’s the rogue with a heart of gold, and though he may not steer the plot, I see him as the emotional through-line of the entire series.

That’s it for this week. Hopefully it’s been interesting for you to see how the characters grow and change throughout the writing process! Which character’s progression did you enjoy the most? Which of their arcs in the published books is your favorite to read?

Next month, I’ll likely do something a bit different and show you some of my sewing projects. Happy May!

A month ago, I wrote about my completely abandoned ideas for The Lantern-Lit City. Today, I want to examine the story changes that Cara went through before the final manuscript.

Before that, though, some good news: I have finished the first draft of Part 1 of The Enduring Flame (approximately 65,000 words)! Unlike The Fading Glow, which had three parts, The Enduring Flame will be like the first book with only two parts. As I draft the second half of the book, I’ll be simultaneously editing the first part while submitting to a critique group, hopefully shortening the process and involving beta readers faster than usual. If all goes well, the book will be ready for release by the end of the year.

Now, onto Cara. I’ll admit, she’s the character I struggled with the most throughout the entire writing process. As one of the two chief protagonists, it was essential to get her story just right…and that proved a chore.

In the earliest drafts, Cara was a student of a school founded by Earl Hawk. As she drew close to graduation, she discovered that the Archmaster and other teachers wanted to recruit her to the Nightcats, an organization of spies.

In these early drafts, Cara actually leaves the school to return home to her ailing “father,” a nobleman who would have later been revealed to not be her biological father. At home, she reunites with her brother and his family. When Jagger comes to collect her, there’s a mixup, and the brother’s wife is killed while wearing Cara’s cloak. This leads into a whole mystery that sets up one big question: who wants to kill Cara and why? 

After this, Cara and Jagger return to the school, and Sandu is assigned to help Cara with a mission in Riverfen. They travel there, the Masque happens, and Cara learns more about being sulpari.

In subsequent drafts, Cara was demoted from noble’s daughter into watchman’s apprentice. Renna, rather than dying in a fire at the school, was kidnapped, spurring Cara into action. While the shape of her story was firming up, the details had to be constantly amended up until the very end.

After Renna’s kidnapping, the next major event was Merick’s death. While I knew it had to happen fairly early on, the “how” and the “when” kept tripping me up. At one point, he was killed by Mavian’s soldiers on the road after Cara makes a stupid decision to attack them. At another, I think he was killed by prowlers after escaping the infested tower.

As Cara’s journey progressed, I found that she was sort of being strung along by events rather than making choices that shape her own journey. In one draft, Cara and Sandu come across Alex’s destroyed caravan. Then, she falls down a ravine, breaks her leg, and faces the prowler child while alone. In the Cascade Palace, Cara is aimlessly wandering about when she stops the attack on the queen, and it’s another aimless wander through the city that leads her to discovering Alex’s secret.

A lot of small tweaks had to occur in order to give her more agency: rather than finding Alex on the road, Cara goes directly to Mott and meets him while pursuing her own goals (e.g. finding a cure). On the road, Cara kills the prowler to defend her team. At the palace, Cara is actively searching for the Hooded Man and Renna, and so is placed with the queen during the attack rather than stumbling upon it. She also learns about the tavern and seeks it out.

There are a lot more changes that were made for her, but all of them contributed to a much stronger character. Of course, those were all for Book 1. Book 2’s events came much easier to me, and I knew where Cara was headed even before I published Book 1.

Another Bonus Drawing: This is, again, from when I was writing the very first draft in 2012. Cara was much more outwardly edgy. This isn’t at all how I picture her anymore. How do you imagine her?

As I revise the outline for my third book and am preparing to draft it, I want to look back at the many years between my first inklings of The Lantern-Lit City and today.

When I first brainstormed ideas, maps, and world-building for the series, I was still in high school (this was 2009/2010). Some ideas managed to make it from these very first notes all the way to the end: character names, plot threads, general world elements. Most were scrapped after the first draft (written around 2012), while others made it to final edits before being discarded.

Today, I’m going to dive into my old notes and drafts to examine my favorite elements that had to be left behind, many of which I’d forgotten about over the years. It’s an exploration into a much more juvenile me, with all the edge and tropes that a teenager can produce.

Let’s start with characters. In early drafts, there were many more factions and characters that I tried to weave into the storyline. This, of course, led to a disjointed mess.

One of the characters that wasn’t scrapped, but had his part severely cut down, was Olfrick Kron. He’d always been plotting against Wullum, Gwen’s brother, but he used to be an entire Point-of-View character that schemed against Wullum and worked with Mavian. Once I realized that his part was redundant and bloated the whole book, I minimized him to “distant threat” and catalyst for Gwen’s storyline.

It may be surprising to hear, but Cara once had a brother: Jer’my. He was married to Tambrey and had twins named Eaton and Elvy. He was spurred to hunt down the man who murdered Tambrey at the start of the book, as well as reclaim his missing children. He didn’t add much to the main plot, so I gave his family to Sandu and cut him completely. If you’re wondering about how much Cara’s backstory changed, I’ll get to that in another post.

Finally, there were the Nightcats. These were later renamed Fauste’s Shiv and became a background organization for Jagger. In early drafts, though, they were a school and spy society working in the service of Earl Hawk. Many characters were directly involved with them: Jagger, Raven, Sandu, Renna, and Cara. Their purpose was to recruit Cara as a spy, send her on a mission with Sandu, and have Jagger figure out the mystery of yet more murders. However, they dragged down the action of the first third of the book, and I eventually remade them into a more sinister group that remained firmly in Jagger’s backstory.

Some cool world elements that I had to scrap include a race of goblins that turned out to be half-elf, half-dragon hybrids that lived underground (these were gone by Draft 2). There was also a beautiful, magical forest right outside Riverfen called the aratire. It was a sacred place for the Valadi and was involved with an abandoned plot thread for Sandu, Alex, and Cara. Many of its mystical elements were reworked into the Whispering Woods.

While it’s been fun to look back at Drafts 1 and 2, I’m so happy I had brutally honest beta readers who told me what was and wasn’t working. All the above ideas have some merit to them, but just weren’t right for the story I ended up telling. What surprised me the most, though, were all the changes that occurred with the main characters, especially Cara and Gwen. Stay tuned for posts devoted to these ladies and the other PoV characters, as well as updates for the third and final book of the trilogy, The Enduring Flame.

Bonus: here’s a drawing I made back in 2012 when writing the very first draft. What part do you think she would have played? (And please forgive the less-than-stellar artwork: I quickly discovered that my talents lay in the written word and not in visual arts.)

The Fading Glow is officially available on ebook! Check it out on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T4N1S8X

And just for fun, The Lantern-Lit City is on sale for $0.99 to celebrate.

After a chaotic year, I am so happy to announce that The Fading Glow, the sequel to The Lantern-Lit City, is finally finished! It will drop on January 31st, 2021, with the ebook available to preorder if you want it the moment it becomes available. Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T4N1S8X 

Thank you to everyone who read and loved The Lantern-Lit City. If you get a chance, please leave a review either on Amazon or Goodreads, as it helps the books to gain traction and a wider audience.

I’m so excited for you to continue the journeys of characters I love so much. What better way to start the new year than with a new book?

Bonus: Here’s some art of a scene from the book created by a Reddit user who wanted to practice his artwork. You’ll have to read it to discover this character and her strange journey.

“The screams of dying men punctured the night sky. Blood splattered over the ground. Drest tasted it on his tongue.”

The First Encounters anthology, including my short story “The Pack,” is now available for purchase on Amazon, either paperback or ebook. There are 10 speculative fiction stories in it, both fantastical and scientific. “The Pack” is set in the same world as The Lantern-Lit City, featuring prowlers when they were first discovered and feared.

NaNoWriMo was more difficult this year than in the past, partly due to work stress and the pandemic, and partly because there were some elements from The Fading Glow that I’m still working out. However, I wrote the first 50,000 works of The Enduring Flame, and I’ll finish its first draft in the spring.

Unless there are delays with the cover for The Fading Glow, it should come out by late December or January.

For the last two years, I’ve used NaNoWriMo to help me with the first two drafts of The Fading Glow, the sequel to The Lantern-Lit City. Now that The Fading Glow has been reviewed by beta readers (and is in the final revisions stage), it’s time to start Book 3: The Enduring Flame. The final book in the series, it will finish up the story I first dreamt up 10 years ago.

This year, I’m also working on some short stories. I have a story, “The Pack,” which will be a part of an anthology called First Encounters, coming out soon. A sequel anthology, Second Law, will be coming out next year, so I’ve been developing some ideas for that. A couple of other anthologies that I’m interested in have put out calls for stories, and I may spend some NaNoWriMo words on first drafts for those as well.

It’s been a busy year, and I hope to write more and publish more in the next one. I have so many ideas cluttering up my brain, and some of them may even be worth something!

Happy Halloween, and remember to vote!

Ultimate evil is simple to denounce…unless that evil lives in you.

Cara is a monster. Inside her dwells a creature akin to the undead prowlers that roam the kingdom. When a mysterious man kidnaps her lady, Cara ties her identity to the quest to free her. If she succeeds in the rescue, it will prove that she’s not evil. But danger lurks along the way to the fabled city Riverfen. Cara’s inner beast is a benefit and a curse, saving her life and endangering her in turn. As she gives into it more and more, Cara fears what such a bonding will produce.

As Cara battles her inner self, Princess Gwen hides her forbidden sorcery from the world. After being forced to flee her home by an anti-magic Inquisition, Gwen finally has the chance to pursue her enchantments. But her spellcasting provokes the very man whom Cara pursues.

Each woman’s power could free her…or doom the lantern-lit city.

This epic fantasy by Vista McDowall is for those who love courtly intrigue balanced by violence, complex magic systems, a lush new world, and diverse characters.

The Lantern-Lit City will be available for purchase soon.