The Case of the Missing Writer

Hello, there!

Miss me?

I know, I went from being pretty prolific in my social media to being a veritable ghost!  Unfortunately, I kind of expected that when I knew I had to go back to a day job.

I mean, I’ve balanced my work life, home life, and writing life before, but it was always a delicate balance, and being a neurodivergent person, a lot of my (limited) success in that arena depended on things being stable amongst all three.

Life has been anything but stable.  For a long time.  And now that I’ve started not just a new job, but a new career, one of those three things has obviously been upended.  Plus, my home life has been out of balance for a long time, due to having to move frequently (thank you Denver Metro for having a horrific housing/rental market…)

So what does that mean for the future?  Am I back on social media starting today?

No.  :(

The New Career

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I started a new career as a technical writer!  Well, it’s actually a bit more than just that.  Officially my title is “Business Process Analyst” which I’ve learned basically translates to “Technical Writer+”.

I generally keep my job separate from social media, but given that my job involves writing, I did want to touch on it just a bit, in a very general and vague sense.

Technical writing is a very different beast from creative writing, as you might imagine.  However, I was already semi-familiar with it, because as a computer sys admin, a big part of what I did was document processes and procedures for everything I did, quite meticulously.  And I was also a bit of an outsider in doing so – sys admins generally aren’t good writers.  They generally don’t like writing.  Every job I ever worked had a dearth of documentation, and I usually spent a considerable amount of time and effort fixing that.

My bosses loved me for that.  (In fact, my current manager hired me in this new career because he remembered how diligent I was with documentation!)  People who took over after I’ve left a job loved the documentation!  It is something that’s very much needed in the technical field, and yet is so very often ignored or overlooked.

But becoming a Technical Writer, let alone a Technical Writer+ (err, I mean, a BPA), it’s a whole other bag of worms!  Because I’m not just learning how to manage my system and then writing procedures as I figure it out for myself.  I’m not even just focusing on one system.

I’m focusing on an entire program!

Things that I previously ‘let other people deal with,’ like program management, suddenly is front-and-center for me.  Policies, processes, procedures, for all aspects of a technical program, are now my business.  I have to learn it all, so that I can write about it all.

So the past two months have been a bit of an information overload.  That, more than anything, is why I’ve not been on social media.  Why I haven’t been writing, or editing, or really doing much of anything creative-writing-related.  Because when I get home, I’m exhausted.

However, there is one good thing about all of this – I’m SO much happier where I’m at, doing what I’m doing!  Before now, I went from one toxic work environment to another.  But finally, I’m in what finally feels like a good-quality work environment with coworkers who actually care (about their work AND about their coworkers).  My manager is encouraging and helpful, and I’m not frustrated every single day!

And I’m not stressing out over keeping computers operational.  Instead, it’s now my job to help enable the people responsible for keeping systems operational.  Basically, I’m more of a support person now.  And my stress levels are ever-so-grateful for that!

When Is My Next Book Coming Out?

So with my writing life being impacted so heavily by my new career, when is my next novel coming out?

Believe it or not, that’s not being impacted by this at all, not yet (and hopefully not at all).  Project Sirius 2 is still coming out this year!

Unfortunately, there’s a move coming up for us soon.  We live in a really ratty, stressful apartment complex right now, and so we’re gonna move soon.

Once that move is done, I’m gonna give myself some time to unwind and relax and live life.

So, my current plan?  Project Sirius 2 should be out this Fall.  That’s my goal.

The Awakening came out in September, but I don’t think I’ll make the one-year mark on book 2.  Instead, I’m thinking closer to the end of October.

What comes after that?  I still have to write the Sword of Dragons 5.  2 chapters are written, and that’s all.  I fully intend to use NaNoWriMo this year to make a huge dent in it, but I’d be shocked if I finished the entire novel in that single month.  Then again, I’ve shocked myself before.  And if home life gets better (IE: our new apartment is less stressful to live in), who knows, I could find myself with another major creative outpouring :)

But for 2024, only a single novel is expected to be published.  My goal for Sword of Dragons 5 is sometime in 2025.

I wish I could write more.  I wish I could do what I did in 2020 and get 4 novels written!  But as long as I have a day job and don’t make enough on writing…that’s just not possible.

Speaking of my writing career and how it’s doing!

Surging Popularity of the Sword of Dragons!

I’m pleased to report that the Sword of Dragons saga is enjoying more attention than ever before!  For the first time ever, book, eBook, and Kindle reads are consistently happening!  I mean, as consistent as can be.

Let me put it to you this way – in years past, there were times where I’d only get a single sale in a month, and then a surge of four or five, then something more middling, then nothing at all.  KENP reads came in spurts.  A single person would apparently read book 1, then 2, maybe 3, and then possibly 4.  I could almost always track when a new person found the books because there was never any evidence that more than one person was reading at the same time.

Now?  Now I’m getting multiple orders of at least book one every month, often leading to sales of the other books in the series!  Usually it’s either book 1, and then a little while later, books 2, 3, and 4 all at once, or sometimes, all 4 books at once (and at least a handful of times, The Orc War Campaigns!)  And KENP reads?  I’m often seeing every single book being read a little bit at a time every single day!  Which means at least 4 people are reading at the same time!

“Oh woopey, 4 people at the same time!  That’s not impressive.”  Oh, yes it is.  For an author who, as I said before, saw maybe one person per month reading, a sudden uptick like this, that has lasted for months, is FREAKING AMAZING!

This is the biggest step forward I’ve ever seen in my writing career!

What’s the source?  Well, it started with a marketing boon.  I finally found a video (click here to see it) that explained the Amazon advertising algorithm, and how to navigate it, in a way that I could understand (previous videos or help documents just didn’t click in my ADHD brain).  So I changed how I managed my ads, and within the first month of that change, I started seeing surges in new readership!

Following that, only a month later, I drastically had to (once again) reduce my advertising budget, killing off all advertising for some titles (Project Sirius :( ) so that I could keep the momentum going for Sword of Dragons.  But it’s still paying off, and in fact I’m seeing momentum building for Sword of Dragons despite not changing how much I’m spending on ads!

Another part of it – with the surge of new readers has come more ratings, and largely good ratings!  (Plus a new, glowing review on Amazon for Rise of the Forgotten!)  I think as my ratings numbers increase, and RotF stays above the 4-stars mark (which it so far has easily done), I might continue to see this momentum building!

In short, it’s a really, really good sign :D  And once things settle with my new career, I intend to take what I learned for advertising with Sword of Dragons, and apply it to Project Sirius to try to get interest in that series going, especially after book 2 comes out!

How You Can Help

I am immensely grateful for each and every one of you who reads my novels!  I know there’s been a slight uptick in new readers to this blog, too, and I’m so glad you’re here!  I hope you’re willing to show me some patience over the coming months as my life undergoes various changes – that’s the first way you can help (showing patience with me) ;)

The other way?  The biggest way you can help?  Please leave ratings for any of my books that you’ve read on Amazon, as well as anywhere else you’re willing to leave a rating on!

Better still, on top of those ratings, please leave a written review!  Something as simple as “I liked it” or “I thought it was okay” is good, but if you have the time and want to go into a little bit more detail, you’d be helping not just me, but you’d be helping future readers decide if they want to give my book a chance!

In fact, that’s one of the best things about reviews – you’re not just helping the author, you’re helping your fellow readers find the right books for them (by steering those with similar taste in the right direction!)

Beyond that, you can like, comment on, and share my social media posts, like this one!

Thank you for reading! :)
-Jon Wasik

Life Update – Audiobook Finished, Back to the Grind

Hey everyone!

I know it’s been a while since I wrote a blog on here, and I’m so sorry for that.  I’ve been trying to ‘keep up with’ posting on Instagram and Facebook, and being the introvert that I am, that…pretty much is all the energy I have, when it comes to social media.

And I’m honestly not sure it’s worth it.

Instagram is no longer a photo app – it’s all about the videos.  Scratch that, it’s all about the reels, which are limited to a minute and a half.  Recording any meaningful content in that short amount of time?  Not easy.  And I had to take something like 30 to 60 takes each time, trying to get it right while compressing the topic to 90 seconds.

I think I might give up on that.  While my initial foray into reels proved promising, with new followers and a couple of comments, it quickly died out, and is stagnant.  Again.

I guess I just suck with social media.  *shrug*

Burning Skies Audiobook Coming Soon!

It’s…been a battle.  I intended to record one audiobook per month once I was furloughed from my day job.  I succeeded with Rise of the Forgotten!  Then I got sick for the month of November with a throat thing.  Started recording in December, made pretty good progress, buuuut….grew increasingly frustrated with the noise in my neighborhood getting worse and worse.

And, well, things just kept getting delayed.  I finally, finally finished recording Burning Skies in January, and started editing.  Editing took a lot longer, because the noise I mentioned in my neighborhood?  It meant that I had to re-record a bunch of sections.

But finally, as of last week, editing is finished!  And I spent the first half of this week listening to Burning Skies “in the wild” to see how an average listener might listen to it.  I found some minor things, about 6 chapters needed breaths removed throughout that somehow wasn’t audible during my editing phase, and a couple of lines needed re-recording, but all in all, I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Especially Nuuldan, the dark dragon?  Oooh.  I channeled Sam Witwer’s version of Darth Maul when I recorded those lines, and they came out sooooo good!  I can’t wait for you all to hear it!

Yesterday, I uploaded all of the files to ACX, and submitted for approval!  So, assuming no quality issues are detected by the ACX techs, Burning Skies should show up on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes in the next 2 weeks!

So despite the setbacks, I battled through, and completed my second Audiobook!

Now…what’s next?

Wellllllllllll….

Assessing The Situation and Adapting

So after all of the delays with Burning Skies, I knew I was running up against a wall, time-wise.  My furlough only allowed me 3 months of paid-for insurance by my employer, and unemployment only allowed a little more than that.  My plan had been to record Rise, then Burning, then start auditioning for jobs to actually get paid for my voice work.

That last part was originally supposed to start in December.

When I hadn’t finished recording Burning Skies until January, I knew my original plan was in big, big trouble.

Then I started looking into how much I could expect to get paid as a voice actor going through ACX, without an agent, without a director or producer or editor, with me doing all of it.

So here’s the thing.  Audiobook narrators, and voice actors in general, don’t get paid for however long it takes them to do the job.  We get paid for a product.  We get paid Per Finished Hour of audio, or PFH.

Let’s say it takes me an hour to record a segment.  That’s an hour of audio, right?  Not necessarily, and especially not as a beginner.  I make mistakes.  I have to re-record.  I’ve learned that, in order to keep my flow on a story, when I mess up, I just immediately re-do that line or wherever a good break is to edit later.  Sometimes that’s only a little bit, and sometimes I mess up a lot.

Then, later, I have to go back and listen to and edit that hour.  Editing involves cutting, adjusting, and generally takes 1.5x as long to do, at least for me (dunno if I’m missing some trick of the trade…)  So that hour recording actually took 2.5 hours of my time to polish, and I may end up actually only having 50 minutes of a final product.  Maybe more, maybe less.

As a beginner, as a nobody on the ACX platform, I could probably expect the lower end of pay for jobs, which is a range of $50 to $100 PFH.

Now, let’s do some math, yeah?  I know, I hate math, too.

Rise of the Forgotten came out to about 10 hours finished.  At the low end, that would mean $500, at the high end, $1000.

In theory, that should have taken me 25 hours to finish, with the 2.5x math, right?  Less than a week, in theory.

It took me longer.  A lot longer.  It basically took me a month from beginning to end.  Now granted, throughout that month, my voice started weak and I couldn’t record for 8 hours a day, so that’s probably why.  Some days I could only do one or two chapters at most, my voice was still recovering from previous days of recording for 6 or more hours.  That’s part of it, your vocal chords are a muscle that need to be strengthened over time.  By the time I finished recording RotF, I was doing pretty good!

But it basically took me a month to finish.

Sooooo…if this was for someone else’s project?  That’s $500-$1000/month.  Before taxes, not  counting medical insurance or anything.  That’s it.

That is not enough to live off of, even in a dual-income home.  Not even close.

So that has led to a…difficult decision.

Back to the Grind – Day Job

After figuring all of that out in January, and knowing that my medical and unemployment benefits were about to run out, I knew I had no choice – I had to go back to a day job.

I really, really didn’t want to.

And I’m so, so incredibly frustrated!!!!  Of course my body decided to get a new illness in the middle of all of this!  Of course I then had to re-build up my vocal chords afterwards and take longer than I should have to record Burning Skies!  Of course everything had to fight me every single step of the way!

At least, that’s been my thoughts lately.  I’m not happy about how it all played out.  This…this was supposed to be my chance.  This was supposed to be how I was able to become a full-time creative.  I didn’t expect to get rich, I didn’t want to get rich, I just wanted a sustainable income!

Maybe, someday, I still can.  It’ll be easier with ‘professional’ gigs, where I have an agent and a producer and I record my work, send it off for someone else to edit, and then move on to the next project.  Maybe, but that’ll mean trying to get an agent to represent me, just for starters.  That’s a big if.

But for now, I have to take care of myself and my family.  I have to make sure we don’t end up on the streets.  And let’s face it, with practically zero social safety nets in the U.S., that’d be a scary prospect.

So I started applying for jobs on indeed.  Sys Admin jobs.  It literally made me nauseous when I first started looking – I not only didn’t want to go back to a 9-5 job, I really didn’t want to go back to the immensely stressful Sys Admin career, where employers increasingly take advantage of employees, adding more and more work and hours without any added pay.

At one point, I started wondering about trying to find other jobs.  Maybe as a proofreader or copy editor.  I started looking at those jobs, and felt like I had a leg up on those, since my Bachelor’s degree was in English.  But a lot of it was ‘gig’ work or temporary contracts, not a reliable source of income at all.

Then I thought…what about technical writing?  I started looking into that.  It looked…promising.  I’d take a definite pay cut, tech writers aren’t paid nearly as much as sys admins, but it was more than I was getting from unemployment by a significant amount, and we’d already proven that, if we had to, we could make that work!  So, why not go for it?

I posted on my private Facebook about thinking about going tech writing as a career, not really thinking anything about it.  But then, that same day, an old co-worker called me up and said he was a manager on a program in dire need of a proper documentation program, and he knew and liked my work in that regard (I’ve always built up the documentation programs for any job I was a sys admin at), and he wanted to hire me!

A few weeks later, and here I am, about to start not just a new day job, but a new career!

I’m excited.  I’m terrified.  I’m anxious.  I’m all over the board about it!  But one thing is for sure – I’ll be glad to have a steady paycheck again.

For more than one reason.

What’s Next?

Remember how I was saying that my neighborhood was getting worse and worse with noise?  Well, honestly, worse and worse in general.  This apartment complex is utter shit, the management company that took over after we moved in is horrible (Seriously, second time Greystar has taken over an apartment while we lived there and turned it to shit!  How are they surviving as a company??)

So with a steady paycheck again, we’re gonna move to a better apartment/neighborhood.  One that doesn’t stress us out, and one that won’t interfere with my ability to record audio.

Until then?  No more recording.  It’s too frustrating.

But once I’m settled into my day job and get a new daily routine going, I will continue writing and publishing novels.  The Sword of Dragons needs book 5, and Project Sirius book 2 needs to come out this year!

I don’t plan on publishing Sirius 2 until after we move, though.

I’m going to probably pull back from Instagram – it’s just not worth the effort I put into my videos, I get no engagement.

I’m probably going to delete my Patreon.  Absolutely no one seems to give a shit about it or has any interest in supporting me through that platform, so no sense keeping it online.

But overall, for the next few months, I’m going to focus on two things – moving, and mental/emotional health.

I’ve worked for employers who don’t give two shits about me for too long.  I’m hopeful that this new job won’t be like that (the manager’s a pretty cool guy!), but either way, I’m going to focus more on taking care of me, and being healthy and better.

I have no doubt that this new year is going to be full of even more change.

I’ll try to be better about keeping you all in the loop here.  After all, this blog is a better avenue for that – I’m a writer!  Writing is what I do best :)

Assuming anyone is still around reading this, and assuming anyone has read all the way to the bottom of this rather long post, thank you for your support and patience!

Until next time!
-Jon Wasik

Juggling Different Creative Efforts

Hello, there!

Welcome to 2024!  Let’s hope it’s a better year than the previous four!

I thought I’d kick things off by just letting you all know what I’m working on these days, and where I’m at with them.  So let’s dive in, starting with my next audiobook!

Burning Skies Audiobook Coming Soon

Earlier this week, I finished recording Burning Skies!  That doesn’t mean it’s ready to go, not by a long shot, but it is a huge milestone!

What’s next?  Well, editing primarily.  Throughout the process of recording, I occasionally took days off from voice work and did editing, so I’m not starting from scratch on it, but I do still have about 3/4’s of the book audio files to edit, so it’s still a long ways to go!

I also know for a fact that there are some dialogue sections I’ll need to re-record.  Especially for the crystalline entities known as the Navitas – I started off voicing them one way in one chapter, and then later changed my mind and voiced them different, so I’ll need to re-record those earlier dialogue sections.  Not a huge deal, and shouldn’t slow me down much.

After that, I’ll need to ‘listen to it in the wild,’ taking the MP3 files and listening to them while driving, exercising, etc, to see how it sounds and if anything needs additional work.

Project Sirius Book 2 Will Be Out This Year

I finished writing Project Sirius Book 2 (title still undecided) last year, so the hardest part is already done ;)  Today, taking a break from, well, everything else, I started another round of proofreading on it.

Once that’s finished, I’m hoping to start working on the publication package.  I’m…well, sad that I haven’t gotten further feedback from beta readers.  But I can’t wait forever, so I’m going to move forward on this one.

Right now, due to the whole job furlough situation, I can’t afford to engage the cover artist, but that situation will probably be resolved soonish.  (More on that further down.)

I already know what I want for the cover, and should be able to communicate it very easily to the artist, so I expect work on the cover to go fast :)

The Sword of Dragons Book 5 Stalled

Unfortunately, writing book 5 of the Sword of Dragons has…stalled.

And I can’t really point to just one reason for it.  Part of it is…struggling with stress and anxiety, so creativity is hard to come by.  (That whole job furlough thing.)  Also, due to the delays to audiobook recording, I focused heavily on that lately, and that left little time for any other creative efforts.

Will I start it up again soon?  That’s the plan!  Though it’s a bit frustrating, because I really want to write Project Sirius Book 3!!!!!

Anything Else On The Side?  Why, Yes!

Long-time readers of this blog know – I’m a gamer.  It’s one of the ways I decompress.  But when I game, I often find myself playing survival games that allow building structures, ships, etc.  I’ve loved building starships on Starfield, for instance!

But a big project that I’ve collaborated with my wife and my best friend on is getting closer to completion, and I’m excited to share it with folks soon!  In the video game 7 Days to Die, we’ve recreated the Raccoon City Police Station from Resident Evil 2 Remake!  It’s taken months, and there’s still a lot of work to be done on it, but most of that now is detail work :D

Back To Work?

Speaking of my job furlough earlier, I’ve reluctantly acknowledged that, for now, I cannot yet make a living off of voice acting.  As a beginner, the most I could expect is maybe $1k/month, depending on the projects I could get outside of recording my own books (and those pay considerably less ;) ).

That’s not enough, by a long shot, to live off of.  Hence why I always intended to try to segue into it part-time at first.  As does happen frequently in my life, those plans are always shoved aside.

So I’m going to start actively looking for a new day job.

I don’t really have a choice.

My novels are selling better than ever, but still fall far short of ever becoming sustainable, my voice acting isn’t even close yet either, and there has been zero interest in my Patreon :(

What does that mean for creative stuff?  It means the output frequency is going to drastically decline.  Who knows when I’ll finish writing my next novel.  Who knows when I’ll finish my next audiobook.

I’m back to square one.

But I gotta do what I’ve gotta do to survive.

On the bright side, I acknowledge that a lot of my resistance to day job work has been toxic managers or work environments at the last couple jobs I’ve worked.  So I’m going to try to be a bit more discerning with whom I apply to and accept a job from.  I recall from past experiences that I absolutely loved I.T. work when I was with companies and had coworkers that I loved!

True, I might not have a choice at first, I might have to take whatever comes my way right away.  But I’ll definitely try for better.

Anywho, that’s all I’ve got for today.  Thanks for reading!  And if you feel like helping out a poor, starving writer/voice actor, tell your friends and family about my work, like my posts, subscribe anywhere you can, and especially to my Patreon page!

-Jon Wasik

10 Year Anniversary – Completing the First Sword of Dragons Novel

Hello, there!

Cover by Christian Michael

This month marks the 10 year anniversary for when I finished writing what would become my first published novel, The Sword of Dragons (later rebranded as Rise of the Forgotten, The Sword of Dragons book 1)!

While the novel wouldn’t see publication for a further 2 years, it still was a remarkable accomplishment!  Since then, a lot has happened, and a lot has changed.  One of the more notable changes is how I write novels today compared to how I wrote them back then.

I once wrote about my method for developing and writing novels, but I think the time has come to revisit that, and discuss how that has changed.

Back Then – Planning Every Chapter

Ask any novelist about plotters vs pansters, and they’ll probably probably state which they are, why, and maybe what they think about the other type of writer.

Back in 2013, I was through-and-through a plotter.  I developed chapter-by-chapter outlines for every novel I wrote, starting with the Sword of Dragons book 1.

I’d start with an idea for a story, write those ideas down, and start to develop a plot.  Once I felt I had enough ideas and themes figured out, I’d write down what I called the “general plot progression,” telling a basic version of the story from beginning to end.

Once that was done, I’d then go back, and start writing the basics of what would happen in each and every chapter, going into as much or as little detail as I felt was necessary to remind myself what should happen in each chapter.

After that, I’d begin writing the actual manuscript.  I’d usually have two word documents up on my screen, the chapter I was writing, and the chapter-by-chapter outline, so I could constantly refer back to my notes.  I generally tried to stick with my notes, and was really just ‘filling in the details’ as I wrote.  Sometimes new ideas would come to me, and I’d go a little off course, but I didn’t want to stray too far.  I didn’t want to have to re-develop the rest of the story.

How had I come up with this method?  In a way, it stemmed from how I developed my old fan fiction, Star Trek Dragon.  Starting around season 3, I had a general idea for the entire series, and a more specific idea for the season.  To help ensure there were no plot holes or ‘wasteful’ filler episodes, I plotted each episode out, ensuring that every episode contributed to the overall story.

This served my very well for developing a series.  When the first iteration of the Sword of Dragons failed to impress anyone, and I decided to rewrite it from scratch, I adopted this process.  Aside from a horrific 4-year writer’s block about 1/3rd of the way into book 1, it kept me on-task, and helped me write the story you all know today.

Because of how successful I perceived that method to be, I kept it up.  I developed Burning Skies with the same method, kept the momentum going, and then continued with Secrets of the Cronal.  Back when I wrote the first version of Legacy, Chronicles of the Sentinels book 1, I likewise wrote a chapter-by-chapter outline.

I felt like this method worked very well for me.  There were only a few times where it didn’t, like in Burning Skies when I added about 4 new chapters that I hadn’t originally planned while I wrote it, but all in all, it worked!

Except…

There was one problem.  And the first time it ever reared its ugly head was when I wrote Secrets of the Cronal.  I had a very solid plan for how things would go in it, including at the end when Reis was meant to betray Cardin and the others and steal the Sword of Dragons.

If you’ve read Secrets of the Cronal, you’ll know that didn’t actually happen.

It was the first time where a character so viscerally refused my plans for them.  This wasn’t who Reis was.  The actions I planned for him were so against his character that it broke the story.  And because so much of the plot I’d developed, chapter-by-chapter, depended on this happening, when I got to that point and realized it couldn’t happen…writing came to a full-on stop.  I not only had to re-write that chapter, but I had to figure out how the rest of the novel would play out, not to mention the rest of the series.

I felt shackled by the plan I had come up with.  So, finally, I said, “Hell with it,” and I threw the rest of the plan out the window, and I just ‘went with it.’  I wrote whatever came out.

Later, going through revisions and proofreads, I had a lot of cleanup and adjustment to do.  Secrets of the Cronal had one of the longest production and post-production times for any of my novels back then.

And it got me thinking – maybe plotting every single chapter wasn’t the best way to go.  It kept me from letting the story evolve in the direction it needed to.

Then, in 2019, everything changed.

Neither Plotter nor Pantser – The Hybrid Approach

In 2019, I had an idea to revive Legacy, and it involved a complete re-write.  At the time, I’d been reading the Dresden Files, and I liked the approach Jim Butcher used – a single character’s point of view, rather than a myriad.  I had been thinking of how to make Chris Tatsu a more interesting character, and the story overall more interesting, and then it came to me – it needed to be a more personal story for Chris, and the single POV would facilitate that.

I also knew that some of my original plot ideas wouldn’t work with this new, limited POV, plus some of the plot elements just…didn’t make sense or weren’t interesting.

Fresh off of writing Secrets of the Cronal, I decided that instead of going back to the drawing board, so-to-speak, and writing down a new chapter-by-chapter outline, I’d just…wing it.  And Let the story go in whatever direction it needed.  Sure, this might introduce inconsistencies and errors, but those could be cleaned up and corrected in editing and revision.

With that freedom, I flew through the first draft!  I was so enthusiastic about it that I couldn’t stop writing!  When pandemic hit and my day job came to a virtual stand-still, this only made it easier, and before I knew it, Legacy was completed.

I capitalized on that, and after developing the basic plot for book 2, I wrote Retribution, and then once again, after spending some time developing the plot for book 3, I wrote Champions without a chapter outline.

I’d never written so much, so quickly, and I was proud of the work I’d created!  I was so happy with this new method of half-plotting (IE developing the general story) and then half-pantsing (writing the story without outlines, letting it take me wherever it needed to go) that I adopted the exact same method for writing Advent Darkness.

Now, those of you who don’t like Chronicles of the Sentinels might point to that series as an example of why this new, hybrid method is a mistake.  However, Advent Darkness has been lauded as my best-written work so far, and kicked off a resurgence in popularity for the Sword of Dragons saga!  So, while I still don’t really understand the relative failure of Sentinels, clearly Advent Darkness is proof that this method works, and works damn well.

It’s how I wrote The Awakening, as well.  I’ve shared The Awakening with more beta readers than any previous novel, and responses to it have been highly encouraging!

Of course, how a story is written obviously isn’t the only reason for a story’s success or failure.  But I do feel like this method helps me develop and write better stories.

The Future – Will I Change What I’m Doing?

As a writer, I’m going to continue to evolve and change.  Any writer worth their salt should.  To say, “I’ve found my method, I’m never changing it,” makes you unable to adapt to a changing world and to changing stories.

For now, this method very much suits me, and at this point, I’ve written more novels in this method than the plotter method.  But who knows what might happen tomorrow.

All I can promise is that I won’t stop writing.  :)

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

The Awakening – Project Sirius Book 1 Cover Reveal and Release Date!

Hey there!

Today’s the day – I am proud and excited to announce the cover reveal, release date, and pre-order availability of The Awakening, Project Sirius book 1!!!!

Without further ado (cause I’m sure you’ve already looked down at it ;)) I give you the front cover!

I am absolute in love with this cover!!!!  The artwork is amazing (and I’ll be going into how it came to be in a later post), and it just came together so well!  (You can click on the image to see a bigger version.)

Better still, here’s a look at the full print-edition cover!

That gives you a nice look at the back-of-book blurb I spoke of a few days ago, too ;)  And if you’re interested in the artist, check out Shupeipa on Fiverr!

So now to answer the really big questions…when will this be released, and where can you pre-order?

September 9th, 2023!

Just two months away!

And The Awakening is currently available to pre-order for Kindle or for print at Amazon.com, links below!  (Other print vendors will be listing the title very soon!)

Amazon Print

Amazon Kindle

Why separate links?  And if you’re super early to the party, why does the print edition not have cover art?

This is unfortunately one of those downsides to self-publishing.  It’s very difficult to coordinate simultaneous listings, because the self-publishing providers are inconsistent and semi-unpredictable.  When I pushed the button to activate pre-orders for Kindle, Amazon said it could take up to 72 hours.  My experience shows that it could be anywhere from an hour to 72 (in this case, it took 5 hours).

Similarly for the print edition, IngramSpark has sent all the data for the listings out to the vendors, but they are all inconsistent in how fast and how completely they get everything up into the listing.

But worry not, everything will link up in the next couple of days, and no matter which edition you buy, you’ll be getting the same awesome YA Sci Fi story with a snarky, LGBTQ+ protagonist :)

So tell your friends, tell your chosen family, tell anyone who’ll listen – a new saga begins!

Thanks for reading,
-Jon Wasik

8 Years Published – Ups, Downs, and What I’ve Learned

Hello, there!

Cover by Christian Michael

It has been 8 years since the original edition of Rise of the Forgotten was released (titled only The Sword of Dragons back then)!  May 6th, 2015 was a Red Letter day, when years and years of hard work, dedication, and story writing finally paid off.

I was finally a published author!

Since then, I published book 2, Burning Skies, then reworked them both into 2nd editions, and I’ve since released 3 more Sword of Dragons novels, and I’ve released an entire trilogy of urban fantasy novels.  Eight currently published titles!

My journey into the realm as a published author has certainly seen its fair share of ups and downs, and I’ve learned a lot.  Here’s some of what I’ve learned!

The Industry is Volatile

This industry changes fast!  A combination of constantly evolving interests in the world, advancing technology, and a flood of new writers makes things evolve quickly.

Many years ago, near the beginning of this crazy journey of mine, writers were optimistic.  This new democritization of publishing, thanks largely to self-publishing platforms like CreateSpace (now merged with KDP,) Ingram Spark, and similar, made it easier than ever to be published.

Back then, the surge in both questionable and quality stories and products became a wealth of new material for readers!  They eagerly devoured all the new novels they could, and fiction writers had a fair shot at making a decent living (but that was by no means a guarantee).  Everything I could find online mostly supported these assertions, and it seemed like only well-established, traditionally published authors, as well as people loyal to the “Big 5” disagreed.

Unfortunately, the tide has shifted, and it has done so rather quickly.  The tone of new articles on the subject has changed drastically, and chances of making a living off of writing fiction appears to have dwindled.

It has also had a rather negative effect on traditional publishing, though perhaps not directly.  I read years ago about how publishers were only putting serious marketing dollars into ‘known ROI’s’, which more or less left unknowns, newbies, and ‘low earners’ in trouble.  It’s been said that some new contracts from publishers require authors to engage a lot more in marketing (basically sole responsible party), and this has in turn led to some authors, even well-established ones, turning to self-publishing.

In short…it feels like the publishing trade is bleak.

However, at least for the time being, the one thing that does not yet threaten authors like it does other creatives is “AI”.  And I put “AI” in quotes because no matter what people are calling it, it is not true AI.  As one person put it recently, ChatGPT is basically an ‘advanced auto-complete algorithm.’  And spotting “AI”-generated content is reportedly super easy.

For now.

But as I said, this industry is volatile and could change fast.  Coupled with how fast technology generally advances?  This could all change tomorrow.

This Industry is Fickle

This kind of relates to the previous section.  One way to try to grasp the industry, and specifically your chosen genre, is to consume as much of it as you can, to learn what the norms for your genre are, and to figure out the trends, if you can.

Unfortunately, you can figure it out, or think you can figure it out, write a novel, and….well, by the time that novel’s out, it’s ‘obsolete.’  Much like computers.

Image Source – http://reviewitgirl.wordpress.com

However, this is nothing new.  I remember being taught back in college that if something super popular comes out, like back when The Hunger Games came out and suddenly teen dystopian was ‘The Big Thing,’ we were all warned in class not to try to write in that genre, because by the time you finished writing it, editing it, submitting it to an agent, getting representation, landed a contract with a publisher, and got it on the schedule, that ‘The Big Thing’ would already be yesterday’s news.

What did change for a time is how you were able to approach this with self-publishing.  When “The Next Big Thing” came out, writers could rapidly write up, edit, and self-publish books in that same genre (some of them within a matter of months!)  IE: it was actually possible to get on the bandwagon and ride it before the wave ran out.

And there were a lot of self-published authors who were able to do this and make a decent living.  They were the ones putting out a new novel every single month.

In many cases, they’re also the ones who eventually burned out and vanished from the public sphere.

For myself, I never was a ‘bandwagon’ kind of person.  This may have been what hurt me.  This may be why Chronicles of the Sentinels underperformed.  Perhaps there will come a day when it finds its audience, when readers will become as excited about it as the beta readers had been.

One thing would have helped, though, and still could, if only….

Marketing Is Key, And Is My Achilles Heel

This is no surprise.  I’ve written about it often.

Marketing is key.

And it is my greatest weakness.

Now, maybe if I had a lot of money to simply throw at marketing, I could do better.  But that would be akin to a shotgun approach.  Shoot a boat-load, and hope that what hits is enough to absorb what misses.

But I don’t have a lot of money to spend, and that means I have to be smart about marketing.  I have to spend money wisely.

Except….all the marketing advice on the web falls upon a difficult student.  Partly because I’m one of those extroverted-introverts.  That is, I’m an introvert, but I can and do engage in extroverted activities.  The only downside is that extroverted activities drain me, and I need to be introverted to recharge the batteries.

Marketing is an extroverted activity, and it is something that needs to be constant and consistent in order to be effective.  Influencers, for instance, absolutely must post a minimum of once a day.  Maaaaybe every other day.  When they start to go a few days, let alone a week, without posting ‘content’?  Well, goodbye followers.  Goodbye contracts.  Goodbye income.

That’s why you see ads over and over and over and over again on TV, on the Internet, on Social Media apps.  Everywhere.  Because being present in someone’s consciousness all the time is, for the most part, effective.

I’ve also come to realize that being neurodivergent is partly why this marketing tactic doesn’t work on me.  That’s good – I don’t spend my money on stuff I don’t need nor truly want.  It makes managing personal finances super easy.  On the other hand, it means I don’t understand marketing tricks.  They make no sense to me.  And ask any neurodivergent person, especially ADHD peeps like me – you can say, ‘do this, it works,’ but if you can’t explain HOW and WHY it works, it will never, ever set in for us, and we won’t do it.

It’s why “Because I Said So” never works on ADHD kids (pro-tip to any parents out there with neurodivergent kids).

And thus far, no one has been able to explain it to me in a way that makes sense to me.  I don’t understand marketing.  So I consistently fail at it.  The fact that The Sword of Dragons has become as popular as it is now?  That is through pure chance combined with word of mouth.

Is There Still Hope?

This is the big question.  Today’s article sounds…pessimistic, at best.

To be frank, I’ve struggled a lot with my writing career, more lately than ever before.  I’ve felt more hopeless.  However, I’ve also come to recognize that a big driver behind this is RSD, which I wrote about here.  Chronicles of the Sentinels underperformed, and that hurt, badly.  The relatively huge explosion that Sword of Dragons enjoyed afterwards, thanks in large part of Advent Darkness, isn’t enough to overcome that pain.

But being able to recognize why I feel that way does help.  Combined with the amazing cover art I now have in-hand for Project Sirius book 1 (more on that in a later blog :) ), and the fact that I think book 1 is actually really good, I’m starting to feel a little bit of hope.

So yes, there’s still hope.  I can’t be a consistent marketing person, true, but I CAN be a consistent writer – one who writes stories and consistently gets better as a writer.  I won’t follow trends, but I’ll stay true to myself.

Will I ever actually become a full-time writer?  I really don’t know.  But I’m not ready to give up on that goal yet.  And frankly, if I ‘make it big’ with one story one day, I now have a semi-large, and growing, library of books people can go back to and read.  That’s one thing I DO understand about marketing product – the more product you have, the more royalties you can get when you enchant a new reader who goes back to read the rest of your library.

So, I’ll just keep on keeping on, and see where the future leads me.

In the mean time, Project Sirius is most definitely coming out this year.  Stay tuned for future updates, including an actual title for book 1 :)

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

Looking Back At The Craziest Year, And Looking Ahead to 2023

I thought 2020 was crazy.

Then I thought 2021 was bad.

2022 was all, “Hold my beer.”

By far, 2022 was one of the hardest years for me, maybe even the hardest.  I feel like I say that every year, and maybe I should stop, ’cause every time I do, it’s like the Universe is ready to say, “Oh yeah?  Watch this!”

However, I’ve learned two important lessons.  First is a self-reflection lesson: the harder life is on me, the harder I push myself to try to make it better.  The second lesson is that this is not a sustainable practice, and I pushed myself way too hard this year.

So, what all happened?  Grab a warm drink and sit back, cause this is a helluva ride.

The Year of Getting Sick

It started right at the end of 2021 – I was recovering from my third hip surgery when I got sick.  Really really sick.  I ended up in the E.R., and found out I had a very bad Strep infection.  And let me tell you, when you’ve had 3 hip surgeries, one within a few weeks, the kind of shivering I was doing when I had that first round of Strep hurt.  I went from using a cane to back on crutches because I couldn’t stop shivering and therefore my hips hurt so bad that I couldn’t stand.

That also meant I was delayed going back to work, but my short term disability already ended, soooo I used PTO (Paid Time Off) of which I’d already had to use 40 hours of at the beginning of short term disability.

Finally got back to work…only to get Strep again in late February.  Only this time, all the tests (including COVID) came back negative at first, until a more comprehensive test showed I’d somehow caught a rare variant.  So what little PTO I’d started to build up at work, gone, and then some.  I had to negotiate with my job to still get paid despite not working and not having PTO for so many days.

Aaaaaaaand then we actually did get COVID in May.  Oh and this was after Colorado and the Feds stopped paying for COVID sick leave, so yep.  Bye bye PTO again.

Between that, post-operation appointments, and physical therapy, I have been at or near zero PTO almost all year long.

Mind you, I haven’t had any sort of relaxing vacation since the beginning of pandemic.  Sooooo…that didn’t help me.

Changing Plans – Housing Market and Selling

Something else happened this year that many are watching very closely – the economy started tanking.  And that included the housing market.  When we saw the early signs of it in June, we weighed all of our options, and decided we needed to sell our house, now.  There was more to it than just the stalling economy and stalling housing market, there were a lot of reasons it made sense.  In hindsight, looking at how things are now, I’m glad we sold when we did.

But…after surgery, after 3 major illnesses, it was a hard thing.  We downsized from a house to an apartment, which was its own challenge, and getting the house ready for sale, even though we had plenty of time…it wasn’t enough time, in reality.  I had multiple days of over 20,000 steps on the docket during that time.

Coupled with our lender being a nuisance and us having to threaten legal recourse if they didn’t give us our payoff quote, it was an extremely stressful time.

And the apartment we moved into should have been a good one, I’d lived in it before and had a really good experience with it.  Wellllllll…it had been sold to another company, twice, since I last lived here, and things have gone downhill.  And within a couple months of moving in, it was sold again, and despite promises and early signs that the new owners would be better…it hasn’t been.  In fact, it’s only gotten worse.

Publishing 4 Novels in 16 Months

Remember how I mentioned pushing myself harder when life got harder?  Through all of the stuff I just mentioned, I published 4 new novels in 16 months – the entire Chronicles of the Sentinels trilogy, and the 4th Sword of Dragons novel, Advent Darkness. 

I keep meaning to write a dedicated post about “What I Learned Publishing 4 Novels in 16 Months” but long story short – it was stressful.  It drained me.  Working full time and publishing that many new books is unsustainable.

But, ultimately I am glad that I did.  I now have 8 titles published under my name, and the most recent, Advent Darkness, has not only been successful itself, but it has garnered considerable interest in the rest of the series – December is turning out to be the best-selling month of my entire writing career!  And I’ve already gotten at least one 5-star rating on the new novel!

So while I don’t regret doing what I did, despite the hardships Chronicles of the Sentinels faced, I ultimately won’t be doing this again.  Which brings me to what the future holds (with a little more insight into what I did this year)…

2023 Plans – A New Novel, and A New Career

First and foremost, I’m sure most of you are here for one reason – you know me through my writing, so you want to know what my next book will be!

I’ve mentioned it before when I talked about NaNoWriMo 2022, and for the time being, I’m calling this new story Project Sirius.  My goal is to have the first novel published sometime in 2023, though I haven’t chosen a time frame yet.

Artwork by Samuel Nordius

Project Sirius is a brand new story, and takes me back to my roots – Science Fiction.  And since it’s a new story, in a new Universe, I’m letting it stew a good while, and I’m going to slowly roll it out to various beta readers, more than any previous novel, to try to make sure it’s a story that readers will enjoy.

I recognize that most current readers are here because you’ve read my fantasy work, so you might be thinking, “Aww, why Sci-Fi!?  Why YA Sci-Fi in particular???”  From a writing career perspective, it’s probably not a good idea.  I should stick with what I’m currently known for and build upon that audience, right?  Especially, considering the growing success and existing fan base for the Sword of Dragons, I should do more high-fantasy/adventure, right?

But alas, my interests are too varied, and let’s face it, I have ADHD.  On top of that, looooooong before I wrote the Sword of Dragons, I was writing sci-fi left and right, and not just my Star Trek fan fiction.  I love it, I love reading it, I love writing it, and I always knew I’d get back to it.

“But what about the Sword of Dragons?”

I’ve not given up on it, don’t worry.  After all, things are just getting good, right?  ;)  But there won’t be a new Sword of Dragons novel in 2023.  Book 5 is going to be a slow development, just like books 3 and 4 were.  At the earliest, you can expect book 5 in 2024, probably late 2024.

I promise it’ll be worth the wait :)

Now, what about the whole “New Career” announcement above?  Wellllll…that’s something I’ve been working on since before we sold the house…  And while it semi-relates to my writing, it is definitely more.  And I hope to eventually transition my full-time job as a computer sys admin to this…

Voice Acting and Audiobook Narration

I’ve dabbled in voice acting off and on for years.  I auditioned for a ‘fan role’ in Mass Effect: Andromeda (I didn’t get the job), and I’ve off-and-on worked on recording audibook versions of the Sword of Dragons.

But that’s changed.  I don’t remember exactly what sparked it, but sometime in 2022, I started thinking about voice acting again.  I started looking at it.  And I saw a high demand.  I saw a growing demand, especially for audiobook narration.  I saw that, especially post-pandemic, most voice over talent worked from home studios, which makes it something I could actually do without having to move to Los Angeles or New York.

Coupled with a history in voice and experience with taking direction (over 12 years of choir), I decided to take it seriously.

I’ll write a full-length post soon, in fact I may even make the announcement via video in the next couple days (because unlike writing, voice acting is something I can do video spots of on Facebook and Instagram).  But I’ve taken several big steps towards making this change a reality.

For starters, I’ve recorded a full audiobook of Legacy, but I stopped editing it about 1/3rd of the way in.  Why?  Because I started taking voice over classes, and within the first few weeks, I realized that my recording was not high enough quality.  Since then, I’ve taken two full classes, and will be taking one to two more in the Spring semester.

And knowing what I know now, I feel far more ready and capable.  So my plan is to record my own novels first, to get my voice out there, and then I’ll start auditioning for other roles.

Of course, plans change.  Plans are fluid, they have to be adaptable.  But that’s the course I’m currently set on.

A Bit More Relaxing in 2023

The other thing I plan to do in 2023?  Take it easy.  The past three years have been hard on me, and I’ve been hard on me.  My body recently told me it was time to slow down.  So I’m listening.

Full-time job.  Voice Acting.  Publishing one novel.  And working on development of the Sword of Dragons book 5.  Those are my biggest plans for 2023.

And a vacation.  A real vacation.  I’m thinking Disney World…

She is my squishy!

That’s all for now.  Whew, that was a long post!  If you read this far, kudos and thank you!

I’ll see you in 2023!
-Jon Wasik

New Book Release! Advent Darkness Available Today!

Hello, there!

Today’s the day, Advent Darkness, The Sword of Dragons Book 4, is available!  I’m so excited to finally be able to share this newest adventure for Cardin, Sira, and Kailar!

New worlds, new adventures, and a new (if questionable) ally awaits you on these pages!  And since this is the first Sword of Dragons to be distributed by IngramSpark, the print edition is available in more than just the Amazon store!  Click the respective link below to get your copy from your chosen venue!

• Amazon Kindle
• Amazon Print
• Barnes & Noble
• Powell’s Books
• IndieBound Books

And once you’ve finished reading, please don’t forget to drop a rating or even a review!

Thanks for reading,
-Jon Wasik

Five Years In The Making – New Elements in Advent Darkness

Hello, there!

One of the cool parts about writing in a genre like fantasy (and sci-fi, for that matter,) is that things can evolve, change, and grow.  And when you’re writing a long series like Sword of Dragons, as the writer grows and changes, so too can the story.

Funny enough, I talked about this a little bit almost exactly five years ago, in a blog post where I was just starting to develop ideas for book 4.  I was unsure back then about whether I should go down the path I was considering.

Well, turns out I decided to go for it!  And I am so glad that I did, because it has enriched Advent Darkness in such wonderful ways!

A Little Bit of Steampunk Aesthetic

To start with, I’d had it in mind someday that Cardin and his companions would come across a civilization that had used a combination of magic and technology to create something unique, something he had never seen nor heard of before.

That idea was airships.  Now airships are nothing new for the fantasy genre, in fact Warcraft introduced them at least as early as the 2nd RTS game, and I think Final Fantasy did as well.  But for Sword of Dragons, most of the adventures have taken place on Halarite, where technology is minimal.  It’s one of the things that makes Halarite vulnerable – they’ve been ‘stuck in their ways’ for millennia, content with what advancements they’ve had, and otherwise relying on magic to make life easier.  Steel is a relatively new advancement, and they’ve only recently begun an age of exploration.

In short, Halarite was only just barely, and finally, on the cusp of sort of renaissance when the series begins.  Other worlds out there, however, have not been held back as much.

And in warfare in particular, gaining the best advantage you can is key.  One of the greatest advantages, as Obi-Wan Kenobi made clear, is the high ground.  The higher, the better.  It’s hard to get better than air superiority in a fantasy adventure, and that’s where the airships come in.

One character in particular came to be as part of this bold, brave new steampunk-esque addition – an airship captain.  There’s a lot of tropes I could have gone for with her, but in this case, the new airship captain is not a military woman, exactly.  Rather, much like many of the characters in Sword of Dragons, she’s a bit of an outcast.  Literally a refugee, commanding a crew of refugees.

She was also how I wanted to introduce another, important element to the Sword of Dragons…

LGBTQ+ Representation in Advent Darkness

The other new element introduced in Advent Darkness is a long-overdue representation of the LGBTQ+ community.

I’ve not really brought up such representation before, although keen readers will have detected hints of it towards the end of The Orc War Campaigns.  In fact, those hints, and the characters linked to them, show up again in Advent Darkness, but I’m not talking about just hints anymore.

I’m talking about legitimate representation.

As you might have guessed based on the existing Sword of Dragons books, the world of Halarite, for all of its shortcomings, does not ascribe  to racism or sexism.  So it shouldn’t be a stretch for readers to realize that sexual orientation is also not something the people of Halarite discriminate against.  I leave the analogy of such attitudes to the discrimination of people of magic against people that are non-magic.

Image Source – http://legendofthecryptids.wikia.com/wiki/Airship_Captain_Sally

But before now, there has been no overt LGBTQ+ representation in the books.  The new airship captain is one such character that changes that shortcoming.  But it doesn’t stop there, either.  I don’t want to spoil the journey that one of our characters goes on, but it is an integral part of the journey.

I know that for some readers, this will be difficult to accept.  I know that for some other readers, they’ll be disappointed that I didn’t take it further.  Basically put, I know that I can’t please everyone.  What I can say to any such criticism from either side, however, is that this is the story I’ve wanted to write for years, this is the story I needed to tell.

Why didn’t I tell this story sooner?  Why wasn’t there representation sooner?  That’s probably a discussion best left for a dedicated article, but to put it succinctly, because I’ve grown and changed, I’ve come to accept parts of myself that I was afraid to, and I’ve come to realize that I was afraid of showing any LGBT representation in fantasy.  I was fooled into thinking that fantasy doesn’t have LGBT because ‘that’s just not done.’  I was wrong to believe that, and the people who have pushed that idea were wrong.

And these new elements to the Sword of Dragons?  They aren’t going away.  Not in future Sword of Dragons stories, nor in any other story I tell.

It’s the least I can do.

Thanks for reading!
-Jon Wasik

Note: the airship featured at the top of this article is from the Unigine Heaven Benchmark Software.  They do not endorse nor probably even know about me, my stories, or my blog.  The screenshot is used purely for aesthetics.

Advent Darkness – 1 Week Until Release!

Hello, there!

We’re one week away from the release of Advent Darkness, the fourth Sword of Dragons novel!

I can’t wait to share Cardin, Sira, and Kailar’s latest (and darkest) chapter with you all!  There are some unexpected twists and turns ahead!

Like all of the other novels in the series, Advent Darkness will have a character refresher in the beginning, but I thought it would be fun to go a little deeper into where the three main protagonists of this new chapter in the Sword of Dragons saga are at the beginning.  And maybe a little bit of behind-the-scenes info to go with it ;)

Spoilers for the first three Sword of Dragons are ahead – if you’re new to my blog and these stories, and don’t want the existing books spoiled, turn back now!

The New Prince of Tal – Cardin Kataar

The very last lines of Secrets of the Cronal left off with a bombshell – Cardin Kataar found out that the former King of Tal had left orders for Cardin’s father, Draegus, to be crowned King.  Except Draegus is in a sort of coma at this point, and cannot fulfill his duty.

This leaves it to Cardin to rule all of Tal in his father’s stead!  Cardin’s been through quite the transition, from a forgotten outcast, to the Keeper of the Sword, and now ruler of one of the Allied Kingdoms.  Except, the kingdom he’s left with is in shambles.  He’s no politician, and since Idrill Beredis let it spill to the world that Tal was essentially bankrupt, Cardin must figure out how to make the world work in the current political system, all without money to invest into the kingdom.

Worse still, the Allies view Cardin’s coronation as a breach of the agreement Cardin made in Rise of the Forgotten – he is meant to abide by the voted decisions of the Allies, not be a voting member.  So none of them are happy with the situation.  It’s an uphill battle for Cardin, and it leaves him zero time to pursue training with the Sword of Dragons.  All of this will come to bear upon Cardin and Halarite in the coming days…

Behind the Scenes – The bombshell ending for Secrets of the Cronal was not originally planned!  While I had always planned that the Prince would eventually succeed his father, and that his time on the throne would be short, I didn’t come up with the idea of Draegus and Cardin becoming rulers of Tal until I’d already written the King’s demise.  I had the idea right as I finished that chapter, and realized just how well it would fit in with my plans for the rest of the series.

A New Country Is Founded – Kailar Adanna

Kailar’s character evolved greatly in Secrets of the Cronal, and in the end, she is kicked out of the Devor Warriors, only to then be asked to advise Councilwoman Reyla as she seeks to unite Devor under a new, single rulership, and found a new country.

In Advent Darkness, the fruits of their labor comes to a head, and the new Devor Imperium is founded, with Kailar as chief adviser to the new Empress.  Except one very big problem presents itself before the new Imperium can even breathe – they have no navy, no standing military.  This presents a huge challenge for the Empress and Kailar, as enemies new and old threaten the Imperium.  So when an opportunity comes forward that sounds too good to be true, they may have no choice but to take the offer.

Except Kailar is suspicious.  So, Kailar being Kailar, she launches into an investigation and makes waves.

Behind the Scenes – When I wrote Kailar’s scenes in Secrets of the Cronal, I ended up going back and completely rewriting her first three or four chapters, because I’d broken her off from her character far too much.  She was originally far too submissive to the Warriors, and reacted rather than act, which was not who she was.  Of course, these rewrites made waves throughout the rest of the novel (she’s really good at doing that,) as well as Kailar’s future role in the series.  She warred with who she tried to be and who she truly was, and in the chapter “Kailar’s Choice,” she finally makes her choice.  That choice will play out fully in Advent Darkness.

Joined Souls – Sira Reinar

While ultimately triumphant in the end of Secrets of the Cronal, Sira is left with a whole new reality – she now shares her body and mind with the soul of an unborn Star Dragon, one whom she has named Raida.  Not only has this left Sira with a permanent ‘tatoo’ of Raida on her back and amethyst-hued eyes, but it also has left her questioning who or what she is.  Where does Raida end and Sira begin?

This event has had the unfortunate side-effect of bringing Sira’s promising career as a Warrior to a jarring halt.  Viewing her as possibly compromised, the Warriors placed Sira on indefinite leave, and this act has left her in a state of limbo.  Not one to sit idle for long, Sira eventually takes it upon herself to leave Halarite with Endri and help track down Nuuldan’s new allies.  In the process, she meets someone who makes her question everything she thought she knew about herself.  Whether or not this new ‘friend’ is an ally, well…that’s the story to tell ;)

Behind the Scenes – Raida came to be during a brain storming session in which I recognized that some of the best characters in stories aren’t human.  Magic Carpet from Aladdin, Baymax from Big Hero Six, the Cloak of Levitation from the Doctor Strange franchise, and Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon are examples I thought of, and I wanted to introduce such a character.  Thus the crystal in the village on Stella, and the eventual child-like mind that Sira regularly converses with in Advent Darkness.  Once I had the idea, I decided to see where it took me.  And it took me on an adventure I never planned for Sword of Dragons, but one that has become woven into the tapestry of the larger picture, and will influence the saga from here on out.

---

That’s all for today!  If you haven’t already, don’t forget to pre-order your copy before next week.  Until then!

Thanks for reading,
-Jon Wasik