Virgins and apples
Along with my Stars Fall Out revision, I’ve also been drafting Bitter Machines, the sequel(s) to Stars. Working this way has some pros and cons. Cons? Drafting a second, likely 200,000-word book takes a bit …
It’s quite simple, really
In this excerpt from Stars Fall Out, Vilari walks into her new life as the first-ever student of a mysterious, engineered magic, and finds that Professor Ghordaa lives up to the rumors. This is another …
One does not simply walk out of the bakery
It’s been a long, long time since I posted an excerpt (or anything else, for that matter) on the blog. In a figurative, internet-posting sense, I’m a terrible juggler; if I’m updating my newsletter regularly …
An Unexpected Song from a Faraway Place
This is the last of the excerpts I’m posting for Stars Fall Out, and it’s one of the earliest in the book. My main character steals a magic vial with the power to instantly travel …
In Case You Didn’t Get My Previous Message
Aside from some excerpts concerning the magic vial, most of my snippets from Stars Fall Out haven’t dealt with the magic in the book. Many of the scenes I could’ve posted are too spoilery, and …
Knowing Better Isn’t Doing Better
I started posting excerpts of Stars Fall Out when I was halfway through the draft. As a result, I haven’t posted excerpts of a lot of the early action that defines the book, including the …
That Awkward Moment When Your Stolen Magic Vial Actually Works
Last week, I posted a short excerpt from Stars Fall Out in which my main character runs like hell after stealing a magic vial from her sister’s professor. All she knows about the vial is …
That Awkward Moment When Someone Catches You Stealing a Magic Vial From Your Sister’s Professor
It’s tough to find a good first draft excerpt. Something that isn’t too clunky, too spoilery, or too rife with notes-to-self and bracketed terms I need to research. After starting to post excerpts at the …
A Fearsome Beast
This excerpt features Master Zanhori, known as one of the greatest living oneiromancers, who travels throughout the Kirosz Empire with his three fearsome beasts, negotiating for peace where he can, and sometimes leaving destruction where he can’t.
I Finished Stars Fall Out
My completed first draft of Stars Fall Out is 234,000 words, 173 scenes, and 1125 pages, with a printing time of two hours. I posted on Facebook that hole-punching would be my hobby for the …
A Double Manifest with Stabilized Water as An Anchor: Coming up with Magic Jargon
I’ve found I have two methods for developing my magic systems in Stars Fall Out, and I’ve used each one exclusively for a single type of magic. First there’s the Painstaking Research method, which I’ve …
That Time I Discovered My Character Has Coronavirus
Rereading some of my scenes in Stars Fall Out lead me to develop the theory that I gave one of my secondary-world characters coronavirus.