Champion of the Dead is off to beta readers! Huzzah! This is my third round trying to come up with a satisfying sequel. It wasn’t that it was harder than the first, or that the other attempts weren’t good, it was that, well, there was a lot to sort out after the end of Savior of the Damned. Where did the book pick up after that? What parts of the story linger on after the end of the first? 

What ultimately happened was I was telling the right story but in the wrong ways. A lot of Champion was the two failed first attempts, cut up and recycled and presented in the form that beta readers are eagerly reading now. Some details changed, as they tend to when writing, but some details were cut and pasted straight from those two other failed second books. Most of the rest of one of them is salvageable as well, which is slated for the third book now. 

It has been an absolute adventure getting to stretch my legs and really dive into the meat of the story. With seven books planned and two short story collection ideas being considered I have a lot left to tell, and so it’s good I was able to find my footing and keep going despite tossing out around 80k words spread over a book and multiple novellas. Granted a large number of them got recycled, but it was still quite a setback. 

But it’s time to take a break. Tales From Hell has been delayed while I whip two stories into shape before it gets proofread, but I need some more distance from those as well. And, being neurodivergent, breaks aren’t as simple as “go do something else.” I need a project or three to keep me occupied, so what was I to work on?

Back in 2020, I wrote my second book, Neophyte of Decimus. And I needed to write it to get here. But man, it needed so much work I eventually decided to rewrite the whole thing. The premise was, in my not-so-humble opinion, fantastic. I’m obviously excited enough about it to rewrite the whole thing from scratch, after all, so it would have to be. I love the characters. I love the struggle and conflicts the characters find themselves in. But I was still a little too green to pull it off the way I had hoped the first time. But, with nothing else to occupy me, and me not being ready to move on from Champion of the Dead, I decided to dust off NoD to really make it shine. 

I’d say I’m about 2/3s of the way into it right now, and it is even more fantastic the second time around. All those things that tripped me up the first time are water under the bridge this go around. It’s love at second sight, as well as first. I don’t know if it’ll be slated after Champion or not. Regardless, it’s a bit early to be fully decided on the publishing order. But man, after releasing Savior in October 2023, and spending the last year writing and whipping Champion into shape, at the very least I need a brain break so I don’t burn out on Phaedra and company. So maybe I’ll alternate series for a while. It’s an option, at least. 

I think once I’m farther along in the divorce process too, and my life has calmed down from the chaos that the last year has been, I can look into more of a rapid release style. It’s mostly stress that’s keeping me from having Champion in your hands by now, if I’m being honest. Finding myself a single Dad, with an ex-husband that isn’t doing anything to support his kid, and everything else that’s been on, it’s a lot. Welfare doesn’t exactly pay the bills, and the only reason I haven’t had to crawl back to my abuser is because my family has stepped up to make sure I didn’t have to. And transitioning from being a stay-at-home Dad to a dad in school and trying to find a job, while also writing and doing everything else, it’s no small feat that I got here as fast as I did. 

But through it all, I was writing. Sure, my daily word count has shrunk from 2,000 words down to 200 a day, a goal I don’t always manage to meet, but it was enough to get Champion ready for beta readers. And once the stress is largely behind me I can always ramp up production again. Writing is one of my neurodivergent special interests, after all, and so I know that with enough time and healing I’ll be back in the saddle. But I’m still writing, and I’m going to keep writing no matter what.