My Writing Schedule//In which you realize that I don't have any super powers

(images via Pinterest)

"How many WIPs are you working on?" you ask. "One? Two?"

You see the look on my face and feel the blood drain from your own. "Three?" you ask in a hoarse whisper.

Well, I say suddenly dropping all quotation marks and returning to my regular blogging style. I'm sort of working on closer to five... no sorry, six. Forgot about that one.

Yup, six WIPs. Actually they are nice and evenly organized, like so see:

Two editing projects

Two first drafts

Two novellas

Now before you think I have some sort of super human ability, I am not working on all of these at once. I have a writing schedule that I'm working to stick to, in order to balance all of these projects. But before we discuss my schedule let's talk about what these projects even are.

The two writing projects are as you probably guessed it, Rage Like the Gods (sitting at around 110k and still going very very strong) and An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods which is a newer project so the word count isn't overly inflated on that one (yet)

The novellas are Between Gods and Demigods and a sort of super hero story that I'm working on as part of a multi author series which I have yet to fully announce. Now these two don't actually make it onto my schedule because Between Gods and Demigods is actually already written and is waiting to be edited. And the other novella is in the process of being brain stormed.

The editing projects actually have the majority of my attention, as you will see in the schedule below. They are A Winter Dark and Deadly (which I'm about halfway through editing), and League of Thieves, a project I wrote back in 2018 that has been sitting on my hard drive since. I decided to finally crack it open and polish it up to try querying it to trad publishers hopefully this year. I will 100% have to do a post featuring League of Thieves very soon, where I finally say what it is about and introduce you all to my disaster children. But for now here is the schedule that I use to try to get me to balance all of these writing projects:

Monday: A Winter Dark and Deadly

Tuesday: either Rage Like the Gods or An Immortal's Guide to Defying the Gods

Wednesday: either Rage Like the Gods or An Immortal's Guide to Defying the Gods

Thursday: either Rage Like the Gods or An Immortal's Guide to Defying the Gods

Friday: A Winter Dark and Deadly

Saturday: League of Thieves

Sunday: League of Thieves

And that's basically it, I'm still working out the kinks and trying to figure out if I start writing at different times I will be able to do more than one project a day, but for now this is the schedule that I have and I'm sticking to it.

Introducing the characters of An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods// In which I pretend that there is no book one

(images from Pinterest)

 Now don't get me wrong, I love An Assassin's Guide to Cheating the Gods with my whole heart and it is going to be an extremely stabby bloody brilliant book revolving around a character that I straight up don't know how to classify. Too good to be a straight up villain, but perhaps too unrepentantly bad to be an antihero or hero. Oh yes that book will be very fun to write, and did I mention bloody?

Because like vampires.

But for the time being, the sequel is actually the story that has my interest and that I am working on writing regularly (alongside RLtG and AWDAD, one of these days I am going to have to write about my weekly writing schedule and how I juggle working on all these WIPs but before I do that I am going to have to announce the other WIP I am currently working on in secret and before you cry out in horror "WAIT YOU ARE WORKING ON ANOTHER WIP???" I would like to remind you that it is a secret so shhhh...)

This trilogy (which now has a name, that name being Blood of the Gods) is uniquely suited for me to be able to follow my muse and work on the sequel first

those unique factors are...

1.) An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods has an entirely different cast of characters than are in An Assassin's Guide to Cheating the Gods. In fact this book takes place more than twenty years and four RLtG books after the events of Assassin's Guide. Which means that very little of its plot has even anything to do with Assassin's Guide. This independence from each other's plots is why I consider these books more of standalones even though they are all a part of the Blood of the Gods trilogy. (as a side note it does have a lot of connections with books 3 and 4 of RLtG including some of the main characters being introduced in those books, but I already know those connections so I can incorporate them as I go)

2.) None of the books in the Blood of the Gods trilogy have a set release date I have to work towards. I plan on releasing them eventually, but RLtG book one is not even out yet. So I have time to work on them casually and even out of order due to the fact that the first factor is a thing

Phew. For those of you who weren't following here is the brutally abridged version: I'm currently working on Blood of the Gods book 2: An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods

And here are the characters...

(all images below are from Pinterest, all rights to their creators I take no credit for them)

Talmryn

POV character number one//Half elf//Accidentally slept for a thousand years//Reformed vampire who actually wants to be a vampire again so I guess that means she isn't actually reformed//Was The Queen of Thieves once and she will do it again

Rhysaff

It's a deadly business being Talmryn's fiancé but someone has to do it// Has two emotions smugness and amusement and that's it//Is such a rebel that he became a  law abiding Magicker instead of an illegal sorcerer just because his parents didn't want him to

Ragla

Second POV character//I hunt vampires, what's your super power?// I'm not a werewolf because I have anger issues, I have anger issues because I am a werewolf//My best friend stole my boyfriend but I'm cool with it they're actually really cute together

Jolfric

Be a mercenary they said, it will be fun they said//Do not ask me how I lost my eye, I will cry//I act tough for someone who will literally agree to anything you suggest without argument//My brother stole the woman I love from me and I'm not okay with it even if they are cute together

Varenich

Third POV character// Ragla's baby brother all grown up and off to save his sister// Actual proof of how nice guys finish last// It's his own dang fault why is every one of his goals utterly impossible//Was originally only a side character but I loved him too much//Is actually perfect

Irina

Legitimately the sassiest person to walk the earth// Still is somehow sweet though// The gods knew I was too powerful which is why they took my memory// Seriously though, I have no memory but I think I've been around for a while// Thank goodness for vampirism right?

Jarena

I used to be a POV character until I was reduced to The Best Friend//But I am a super great best friend//My parents are from An Assassin's Guide//I'm considered a bit eccentric but everyone loves me anyway

Demetri

I could have been a Magicker but then I thought why not just brew potions all day instead//My genius is usually misunderstood so it's a good thing I'm cute // I would literally cross the world for those who are dear to me

And those are the main characters from An Immortal's Guide. I consider this the book where the secondary characters get their own stories because five of the characters listed above are actually introduced over the course of the RLtG series. Now technically due to my character sorting system Jarena and Demetri are actually side characters themselves, but since they were originally going to be main characters (until Varenich stole the show in all of his perfectness) and this book doesn't have a whole lot of other side characters to begin with I thought I would include them here.

I will do an Assassin's Guide post introducing the characters once I start working on it more steadily (same for book 3, A Lady's Guide). For now, here is An Immortal's Guide to Betraying the Gods. Yes it is book two. No, book one isn't written yet. BUT I'M WORKING ON IT ANYWAY. And yes, I'm having a crazy amount of fun with these crazy characters. As evidenced by the fact that this was supposed to be a serious post, but well it wasn't.

Jaye and Ravven: love or lunacy?

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I'm here to talk about a story I haven't spoken of as much of late, Of Gold and Iron. I haven't posted about it a whole lot since I have published it, despite the fact that I am hoping to publish its sequel Of Stars and Shadows late this year. I suppose I've been too focused on A Winter Dark and Deadly but fret not, once AWDAD is done this sequel will have my full attention (well... as much undivided attention as it is possible for one of my WIPs to get)

But with it being Valentines Day I thought why not talk about one of the most complicated pair of characters I have ever written.

When writing a tale about a faerie and a human, things were bound to get messy. I've read a few faerie books and one thing stands out. Love between a faerie and a mortal may not be forbidden per say, but it is definitely ill-advised...

With that said I thought I would celebrate Valentine's Day this year by giving some snippets that hopefully will provide a glimpse into the complex nature of the relationship between Jaye and Ravven...

"I have barely even met Ravven and already I am sick of him and his condescending behavior. I guess we don’t need a rule about not falling in love with faeries after all. No one in their right mind would fall for one of them."

 

"Ravven smiles and spreads his hands out. “I believe that we must come to an… agreement in order to get out of this alive. One where we both have equally to gain or lose if we succeed or fail. Respectively, of course.”

"But Ravven doesn’t say it. He doesn’t say anything at all. He just stares at me the same way that I’m staring at him. As if waiting for something that isn’t going to come."

“I trust you, pest,” Ravven says, and then he leans forward and brushes his lips against my forehead. I freeze, too warm to be ice or marble, but too hard and immovable to be truly alive. “And only you.”

Add to Goodreads.

Of Gold and Iron is on a blog tour right now you can find out more about that and the stops as well as enter in a giveaway for a chance to win my other books here.

And you can purchase your own copy of Of Gold and Iron and ready this darkly romantic tale for yourself here.

And for those of you who have already read OGaI here are a handful of snippets from OSaS

"Lovely to see that some things never change. You may be a cold-blooded killer, but at least you are still just as infuriating as ever."

“What happened to you?” I whisper, staring into his eyes. Gray eyes, devoid of color. I hadn’t realized how much I had come to rely on his eyes for guidance to his mood until they are staring into mine without a single expression.

“You did,” Ravven replies, pulling away."

(Images via Pinterest)

"Ravven ducks his head, “Unfortunately strange as it may seem, I do trust in you more than I do anyone else here.”

This is honestly the most surprising statement I have heard in possibly my entire life and I am not quite sure how to process this information or react. “You really shouldn’t,” I say, swallowing, hard.

Ravven chuckles slightly and pulls his hand away to reveal that the blood has stopped. “You are still the only person I trust. Even if I trust you less now, it does not mean I trust anyone else more.”

"Thomas’s eyes flick to Ravven, “You actually love her.”

Ravven is silent a long moment, when he finally opens his mouth, I think he is going to lie but instead he says. “Unfortunate is it not?”

Whelp that is probably enough snippets for one day. Have you read Of Gold and Iron yet? And if so on a scale of one to ten how mad are you with me about that ending. Mwahaha... and Happy Valentines Day!

Magic vs. Sorcery: The Good, The Bad, and The Morally Debated

(images via Pinterest I take no credit for them)

I was trying to figure out what to post about next, and I realized that I haven't really talked about the magic system in my WIP Rage Like the Gods, which also happens to be the magic system in my other WIPs An Assassin's Guide to the Gods and its sequel An Immortal's Guide to the Gods (the joys of writing a series made up of books that are technically standalones means that I can work on book two and book one at the same time. I must admit 100% of the reason I am working on Assassin's Guide and Immortal's Guide at the same time is simply because I can).

And also the magic system in the upcoming novella I'm hoping to release in a few months, Between Gods and Demigods. Because they all take place in the same world... Ruskhazar.

So the magic system in RLtG is religion based.

I did a Q&A Blog Post a few months back where I really got into explaining the religious cultural views of the people in RLtG, so if you want a few more details, you can check that post. Mostly what I am going to focus on today are Meruna and the demigods. Not the character Meruna mind you, but the goddess she is named after (because the characters in RLtG are named after the gods which is where the title comes in... but yeah I digress). The Meruna I am talking about is the goddess of magic (and the virtues but that is slightly less important when it comes to discussing the magic system).

(am I over using parentheses?)

Anyway, all magic comes from Meruna, the gift to control magic was bestowed by her to the people of Ruskhazar, both elves and men (with the exception of the Highlanders who are actually magic immune). Magic in its natural form is basically an unseen force of potential energy that is literally everywhere. When a Magicker casts a spell, they are actually speaking to the magic and commanding it to do whatever they want it to do. Whether that is to cause the magic to form a barrier over their skin to protect them from harm, take the form of a fireball or storm of ice to attack opponents, or to be forced into a certain form and trapped in an item thus enchanting it. Skilled Magickers could even cause the magic to take the form of a non sentient being who could help them with various tasks or even in battle until it dissipates.

Wielding magic takes training and discipline and there is no limit to the spells that must be learned. To become a Magicker one must attend the academy for three years to even be considered proficient enough in spells to carry that name. Magickers usually carry a spell book to keep track of the spells they discover, without a spell book a Magicker would lose much of their power as they would be forced to rely on their memory alone and the limited spells that it can hold.

Due to the difficult to control nature of magic, some individuals turn to sorcery. Sorcery is not magic, it has nothing to do with Meruna and her gift with mankind and elvenkind, instead it is an extension of the power of the demigods (the children of the gods). Sorcery is earned by striking a bargain with the demigods, usually one promising servitude. In return they allow you to tap into their powers, and use it to your will, but their is always a portion of the sorcery you use that the demigod controls directly, and as such it can go against the will of the mortal wielding it if the demigod so desires it.

Usually sorcerers can only draw the power of a single demigod. And since its practice is illegal because it is considered too dangerous, many sorcerers only practice it in secret. However, due to its ease to use, the fact that you do not require spells, and have no natural limitations, many people turn to sorcery anyway. Sorcery has an affect on what is already tangible in the world. Unlike with magic, if a sorcerer wished to wield fire as a weapon or create a storm of ice, they cannot create it. Instead they have to already be in the presence of fire from torches or a fireplace, or of ice and then they can control that which already exists to their bidding. Necromancy, the temporary reanimation of dead bodies, is another form of sorcery and the one that is most heavily frowned upon (for obvious reasons).

Most individuals cannot control both sorcery and magic, they were not made to be wielded by one master and any attempt to do so will lead to only madness or in some cases death.

So that leaves the question for everyone with the magical potential. Which do you choose? The morally acceptable magic? Or powerful and dark sorcery?

I would love to hear which you would choose! Also don't forget to add Between Gods and Demigods to your to-read list here. If everything goes according to plan it will be out this May. There are only a few short months to go until I release the first introduction to the Rage Like the Gods world, and I couldn't be more excited.