10-5-2011

Happy Autumn and Happy October. It's been raining for the past several days, and I love it! Went to Bishops today - it was enjoyable.
Now for the big surprise! I did some writing last night! Nope, I'm not lying; I really did. It was only a page, but definitely better than nothing. I've been doing a lotta thinking about what I'm going to do with story from here. My mind has been clouded for the past month (mostly since the kids have been gone - underneath a cornucopia of other thoughts). But now it's finally clear and I feel like writing again. So I'll hopefully be doing more writing tonight!

9-28-2011

Kittens died yesterday morning. I buried them by the pond at sunrise and stood there for half an hour crying. I was with Stuart when he died – cried the whole time. I know it’s silly, but it’s really hard to watch anything die like that. Good news is I did get a new kitten. His name is Alaric. He is a Maine Coon, and will grow to be quite large.

Got a terrible hair cut today. Almost everyone says I look awful…

9-25-2011

It’s been over a month since I’ve done any work and it is beginning to fall under the pitiful category. I really, really need to get back to work. To be honest, I haven’t even been thinking much about my work lately, which is extremely unordinary for me – it’s usually all I think about. But ever since Tom disappeared with the kids, I haven’t been very focused. I know I’ll see Brandy, Keith, and Lane soon, but chances of ever seeing Tiffany are starting to look thin. I don’t believe I could ever have the capacity to truly hate another human being, but I dislike Tom and Debbie on a very high degree.

                Anyhow, that’s not why I decided to write. The main reason is that I’m hoping this will give me an ounce of inspiration, or at least motivation. “The Phoenix of Azar” will be undergoing some serious changes soon. Nick came up with some very good ideas, which will help me incorporate The Source of Evil more and give Ixion believable motive. However, Cian is giving me quite a bit of difficulty these days, and to be truthful, I’m beginning to forget a lot of what I originally had planned. I’m going to blame it on the continuously changing plot. Lordie, I can’t even think straight right now…

                …Hooked on an amazing song called The Flame of Youth, by Dragonforce. Listening to it now in fact…

                …Sarah threw a party for the kids today. Was interesting – and worth the trouble, I’d say.

                Worst for last: Avery is dead. I can’t believe it’s true, and it’s just now starting to set in as I’m writing this. How can she have died? Didn’t the little idiot know how much I loved her? This is worse than when Arella died, and in the same ranks as when Circle died (Circle was Avery’s older sister from another litter – she looked just like Avery, but instead of having a lightning bolt on her brow, she had a circle, hence the name). Avery left behind two kittens: Stuart and Celina. They are much too young to be without their mother. They can’t even lap milk from a dish yet. I’ve been feeding them every two hours from a medicine syringe. As of this moment, they are both alive, but I’ve been worried for Celina. This morning she was quite sickly. She wasn’t eating well and couldn’t walk. She can walk now, and I’ve been forcing her to eat, but I won’t be surprised if she dies. Unfortunately, I told my little cousin Dani that she could have Celina when the kitten was old and strong enough. Now that the cat is sick, Dani is broken-hearted. I felt so guilty when she found out – she started crying, and I just didn’t know what to say. I can’t lie, then she’d be really disappointed if Celina doesn’t make it. I’m really trying to keep them alive, but I can’t do any more than I can do, right?

9-2-2011

Haven’t done any actual work on the actual novel itself, but I am working on a synopsis. Unlike the last one, this one is chapter by chapter, and a bit more detailed. It’s becoming quite useful, as I’m starting to see issues arise, that I hadn’t seen before, when jumbled in with the mass of text. I have a few things that need to be sorted out – most importantly why Cian wants the princess in book one. I mean, it used to have a purpose, but the more the story changes, the more the purpose becomes completely irrelevant. So now I have to decide why Argent is so important to the main story. Cian is really trying to get to Alexander. The only thing I could see working here, would be if it was his intention to wear Alexander down before making his attack on him. But would kidnapping his children really do the job? And why Argent? Why? Why? Why? I need serious help with this. Just more to think about, I guess.

                I finally decided to change the name if The Shadow Kingdom. From this day forth, it will be called Abaddon, which is the biblical place of destruction.

                …wondering if Leaf becomes too OOC in his confession scene… 

9-1-2011

Happy September! I love this month – it has such a lovely name. It reminds me of the colour green and spices. Before I say anything else, I must announce that Avery has had her kittens (about three days ago). She led me to an opening that went under the house, so I’m guessing that’s where her kittens are hidden. I haven’t seen them yet, but she has evidently been nursing, so that is certainly a good sign!

                I haven’t really done any work at all on XV. Been too stressed out. But I have been able to think a bit more clearly lately, and have been thinking about my writing. Mostly trying to work out issues that already exist, rather than trying to tackle the plot further by pushing forward. I know I’ll have to get there eventually, but I want to make sure I’m completely into what I’m doing when I get there.

                I lost a friend the other day. He said that he couldn’t be my friend unless I agreed to go out with him, or find him a girlfriend. It’s sad, because we were really good friends, but in the end, it was his decision, not mine. And I hope he remembers that.

                On a brighter note, I bought a cd by these two men who call themselves 2Cellos. They are amazing! I’ve never heard such beautiful cello in my life. I’m totally addicted to their music now (and they aren’t too bad looking, either – but men who play cello are sexy. That’s a fact). Before, I really wanted to learn violin, but now I’m considering learning cello. I’m probably too dumb to learn either, anyway. And lessons cost like…way, way, way out of my budget. So maybe I’ll learn the flute instead… 

8-13-2011

Just finished Chapter XIV at fourteen pages, interestingly enough. I’m now at 86,418 words. I’m a bit nervous at the rising word count. I’m now certain that the finished draft will be over 100,000 words. A huge difference from the 71,000 words of the first draft. I’m just hoping to keep it under 112,000 now. I’ll just have to wait and see. And I’m really glad to have gotten the chapter finished! November will be the two year mark for the start of the book.

                I decided to change the name of the realm from The Realm Beyond to Royaume-delà, the French term that translates to The Realm Beyond, but means afterlife kingdom. I’m still in awe over that. But I really like the sound of Royaume-delà. Now I just have to learn how to pronounce the word.

                School starts in two days! Well it’s 10:30 pm right now, so in an hour and a half I can say that school starts tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it, but I hope that I can get the FA situation figured out. If I don’t get the money, I’ll have to drop out for the semester, and I’ll lose my Medi-Cal. Don’t want that to happen!

8-12-2011

Did a bit of work on some previous chapters tonight. I’ve decided to make Argent and Whisker meet Ixion instead of Pothandas in the portal. I also cut out Pothandas from the prologue. I figured he was in on the action too soon after being kidnapped by The Shadow Kingdom. I still have a long way to go, including moving forth from where I am now, and going back again for more tweaking.

                I’ve been doing some plotting for the final battle. Haven’t worked it all out yet, though. I am really thinking about bringing Juanita into the action. I think it would add a bit of humor (at least, what I have planned certainly would). My idea is to make her pose as a soothsayer in order to distract either Ixion or Jeremiah. Not sure which, yet. Or maybe it will be a good portion of the army.

                Also thinking more about how to involve Tanner more into the storyline. I’ll think of something eventually.

                Thinking about it, it’s funny how many names other people have helped me come up with. Tanner was one of them, chosen by an old classmate. Sarah came up with a lot of them, including Alevus, Airmid’s last child, and Pothandas. And a few others have thrown some in. Well, at least I can take the glory for most of them. I love coming up with names – but not nearly as much as I love writing about the characters! If I ever get this finished, it will be the first novel that I have completed through and through (because single drafts of other works don’t really count). I’m more enthused about this one than I have ever been about any others.

                Oh, yeah! Avery is pregnant! I was hoping she’d hold out until I got her spayed, but Oliver just never could let her be. I hope she takes care of them – our cats have a tendency to abandon their kittens (but that’s usually the grey ones who do that). I hope she gets through the pregnancy and birthing okay. She is a runt, so she’s awfully small. Best of luck to my baby.

8-6-2011

School begins in ten days. I had been dropped from one of my classes (due to missing prerequisites), but luckily was able to register for two gym classes and am now back up to full time.

                I wrote an “orchestral symphony” using the Stringed Instruments feature on the keyboard. It’s not too shabby. I’m calling it “After the Battle” and it is dedicated to my book.

                As for my writing progress, I’ve jotted down a few words here and there, but Sarah has had my computer the last few days, so I haven’t been writing too much. I’m extremely bored with this scene. I cannot wait to get the second Augment scene finished up so I can move onto the events after the Vithar Mountain Range, as I have already finished VMR scene and a few scenes even before that. All in all, I’m going to have a lot on my plate soon. I sure hope I can get into Math 50 so I can get back to taking needed classes – I don’t need gym to graduate. Oh well, it’s a healthy class. 

8-1-2011

                Not too far into the chapter yet. About four or five pages. I’m approximately 83,000 words into the edit. Still quite a way to go yet. I just hope that the plot isn’t too much all over the place. I want to make it interesting without going over the top.

                Airmid is going to get pregnant at the end of the second book, and the trilogy will end with the birth of Alevus Eleanor Petrelli, a golden-haired baby. Alevus got her golden curls from her grandfather – Airmid and Leben's father. After the series is complete, I’ll start work on the book about Leben. I’m also working on an entirely different middle-grade book right now, and am struggling to keep up with both. I just want to get the first book completely finished by the end of the year – wish me luck with that.

                Ahaha! I just looked back at one of my other journal entries – it says I want to be finished by 90,000 words! At the rate I’m going, I think it will be over 100,000! I sure hope not!

7-21-2011

Been thinking a lot about finishing up and getting published lately. Uncle Ed told me to write a letter to Oprah, asking her to review my novel. If she agreed to do this, and if I had my novel available for sell on Amazon.com, I may just be able to sell a few copies. We’ll see what happens. I’m still on Chapter XIII, and I finally figured out what will happen. Amyr makes up with them and tells them to go to a town called Atara’s Peak, where they will find a mage named Paradox, who is a genius with riddles.

                Well, much to my surprise, Atara’s Peak ended up being a town based around the old west. My initial plan was to make it a mountain range, but the trio is already scheduled to travel to The Vithar Mountain Range, and I don’t want too much of the same thing. The trouble with a western setting is that I have very little knowledge on the time period. I’m just sort of winging it for now – utilizing the bits I picked up from all those Gunsmoke episodes I watched with my grandpa when I was twelve. It’s not much to go on, but better than nothing.

                My grandma was taken to the hospital yesterday. She’s not doing too well at all. I hope everything works out and she can come home soon. All I can do is wait and see.

                College begins in less than a month. I’m stoked. Can’t wait. And I feel much better about getting rides from Uncle Pete now that he has agreed to let me help pay for the gas I use. 

7-15-2011

I have now reached a few hundred words over 78,000. I can’t believe that this draft is already 7,000 words longer than the first draft, and I’m just over halfway finished with it. I’m still working on XIII. And I’m finding it amazing how much you can learn from your characters. I think I learned a lot about, not only Leaf’s character in this chapter, but about people in general. I’m still debating on how to go forward from here on out. I don’t want to make things too convenient for them, but I also don’t want to send them on a run-around. So I have look for some balance in between the two. I’m not quite sure what I’ll go with, so I’ll mention more when I figure it out.

                Two days ago Sarah wrote the first FanFic for my book. It was severely OOC in almost every sense, but it was entertaining and humorous. Now I’m wondering if it can really be called a FanFic, if the person writing it knows so little about the book that everything is OOC. Oh well, I think there are only two or three people in the world so far who know more about what will happen than Sarah does. Those are either people who’ve already read the first draft, or the people who politely sat through the my tedious recap of everything that happens. 

7-12-2011

This morning I received an email from a man named Thomas Pitock. I almost deleted the email because I didn’t recognize the sender and the subject line said “keys?” and nothing more. I don’t know what made me change my mind, but I opened it, and to my surprise, this Tom Pitock had found my missing keys and flashdrive! I’m still in awe that anyone managed to find them. My gratitude is greater than I can express. I lost those darn things eight months ago! J

                So I’m now working on Chapter XIII. I never like writing the thirteenth chapter of any book. It makes me nervous, as it is my unlucky number. Hopefully I’ll finish it soon and get on to the Kingdom of the Condemned scene. I’m hoping to finish this draft, another light edit, and order my first editing proof by the end of the year. After research of several different online printing companies, I decided to use Createspace, which I believe is also a POD publisher through Amazon. But they’re prices are decent, so I’ll have them print my editing proofs. It will cost about $70.00 for ten proofs. Another site I looked into would have cost me $400.00 for the same number of proofs!

                I’ve been having a lot of self-doubt about my writing lately. I just feel as if it will never be good enough for the general public, let alone the publishers. I know I’m really going to have to improve my skill if I ever want to get anywhere. I’m mostly worrying about character motive and credibility right now. I suppose it would just be best for me to finish the current draft before I try to start smoothing things over again.

                I got Nichole a puppy for a late birthday present. I brought her home on Saturday, the 9^th. Nichole named her Mika, and I’m stuck puppysitting the darn thing until Nichole gets back from her vacation!

6-21-2011

It is the first day of summer today – and extremely hot! Not to mention that we don’t have any water. I guess something is wrong with the motor, and the uncles say it may be a couple weeks before we get it fixed. I swear, I’ll go to the pool and pay three bucks to take a shower.

                I’ve been working on Chapter XII lately. I’m pretty far into it now, just about ready to fire up the main event of Oren. I can’t wait to get the next trial done and move on to the third. Plus, I have the scene before that written already, so it will be easy when I get there, just insert it into the main document. I’m now about 73,000 words into the draft. I’m probably going to send it to an online press and order an editing copy (I probably already mentioned that). I think I’m going to use Book Patch, because I like their formatting better than lulu .

                Sarah made up a song about my book yesterday, using the tune of Fireflies by Owl City. I don’t remember all of it, but I remember something along the lines of the following:

                “Argent didn’t have a daddy, so she called on Leaf and asked what she should do. Leaf said “f**k off,” and they began to wonder aimlessly in the woods. Then Leaf looked up and said “there’s Whisker.” Then he looked up again and saw Whisker in a new light. He got all flimsy and weak, then he kissed her on the cheek, and they got married and had kids named (the names were so off-the-wall I can’t remember them).”

                Anyhow, by the end of the song, Leaf was in prison for sexual assault and abuse, and Argent so kindly pointed out that she could not love Leaf because he was supposed to die the following week. I hope it is obvious that my sister has never actually read the book, but simply knows the names and genders of the characters (however, at one point, she mention Galtero and Leben).

                I redrew the map – again! It looks pretty good so far, but not done yet.

                Well, my toe is still numb – going on two weeks now – so I shall make an appointment to get checked out. Some of our cats might have rabies. 

6-14-2011

Although this will likely end up typed in a word document, the original copy was composed on my typewriter (which Uncle Pete and Sarah gave me for my high school graduation). I haven’t had much chance to use it as of yet, so I thought I’d mess with it for a while – after all, I’ve had it since then and now I’m going to be a sophomore in college in two and a half months. Sarah has been borrowing my laptop, so I really have little other typing options, unless I use her desktop, which doesn’t contain a copy of my journal. I’m having fun, anyhow.

                So, I have reached 71,000 words today. I am currently working on Chapter XII. XI went extremely well and very quickly. I am about six or seven pages into XII, and will hopefully get more done tonight. I added a new scene, which takes place in a town called Oren, a secluded town in The Eber. So far it’s just a bunch of events leading up to the main event in the town.

                My favorite character from this new scene is an old man named Lester. He is the senile character with the glasses, and who continuously repeats himself. There are a few other new characters, including Myles, who is 100% on Argent’s side. He helps them out quite a bit, as does his friend Garm. Then there is Amyr, who is less than friendly. He is te one who initially gets Argent and her friends into trouble. He isn’t necessarily a “bad guy”, he just has certain ideals and a culture to which I myself cannot even relate.

                In other news, half of my toe is numb, and it is really bothering me. And now my foot is falling asleep. My toe has been numb for just about a week now, Maybe I should make an inquiry to the doctor. That, I will be able to do once I receive my Medi-Cal card.

                Two days ago I gutted a catfish for the first time in my life. It was gruesome – I had to use my bare hands, and I accidentally squished her liver. She was fat eggs, and I got those all over my clothes. Yesterday Sarah and I went swimming in the pond. Tomorrow I am going to send a random letter to a random address that I have selected from the phone book. 

6-2-2011

I really need to get some work done on my book – but since I haven’t today, I think I might as well mention that my little sister graduated from eighth grade tonight. It was amazing. She is so gorgeous. I only wish that my father would have permitted her to hug Sarah and I, or at least speak to us. How I miss her so, and my other little brothers and sisters. One day.

If it wasn’t for Brandy, I may not have ever started writing, or at least I wouldn’t have started so young. When I was eight and she was five, I wanted to frighten her during naptime, so I composed my first poem by the title of “Monsters.” I still have not forgotten it, and never will. My mother overheard me reciting it to my sister, and praised me for my skill. Since then, I could always be found with a pencil and a sheet of paper. I wish I could be found with one now, but the most recent bit of my book is on Sarah’s computer, and she is playing The Sims right now, so I can’t get the darn file. Else, I’d be working on Chapter XI right now.

I did dream about my book last night, though. Well, it was mostly about my book. Leben was there, but Sarah was Argent and I was Whisker. Sarah had Feoras and I was supposed to meet her at Subway, at the address of 1800, where we would escape to UC Davis college. Oh, and Xavier wasn’t the Stone of Virtue, some Davis student named Cecile Fernado was instead. She had gone missing from the school. My father was some bad guy who was trying to destroy the world. Oh, and I’m not sure how he fit it, but John Waite was there too. But he wasn’t a singer, he was a ventriloquist…and he accidently shot his brother. I gotta stop eating Cap’n Crunch before bed….

Sarah just threw a gumball at me…  

6-1-2011

The power is out right now. It was been since a bit before seven, and it is 7:47 right now. The only reason I’m able to write in my journal is that I charged my laptop all day.  It still has about 70% life left. Well, PG&E said that they’ll either have the power on or have an update by 9:45. That’s still about two hours away! I’m losing my mind, sitting here in the dark.  A pole must have gotten struck by the lightning.

On another note, today is my best friend Zena’s birthday. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her! J

Got some work (about six pages) done for Chapter XI. Still have a way to go until the draft is complete. Well, gotta save battery, so until next time…

5-29-2011

I almost cannot believe it, but I finished Chapter X! I resolved my Writer’s Block about two days ago, when I decided to take Dharma from the second book and introduce her in the first one. She is, so far, exactly as I imagined her to be. In Chapter XI Dharma will take them to the Yellow Sea (or rather a town near it) and they will proceed to search for the second Augment. After they obtain that, they will head towards The Kingdom of the Condemned, where I will insert the broken bow scene. Argent will head out to get the final Augments, and everything will unfold from there. It won’t be much longer now. I’m currently at 60,000 words, and will probably be finished by 90,000. Hopefully no sooner than that, because I want to make sure that everything doesn’t happen too quickly. I’m just glad to have gotten the chapter finished. I’ve been stalemated for a long time. I’ll try to write more tomorrow, but now it’s time for bed. 

5-25-2011

There are tornadoes all over right now! Unusual for California. So far there have been five known, one of which I just saw form, Live on Channel 3 News. Looks like another one. We are only an hour or so away from where they’re touching down, and there is nary a cloud in the blue sky. It’s moving away from us, anyhow. But I still worry for those who are in its line of fire. Looks like rotation is dissipating a bit. It’s 7:28. The warning is supposed to end in two minutes, and it has been in effect since just after five. This is quite interesting. I just thought I would mention it because I’ve never seen a tornado live – on TV or no.

                In other news, I finished another scene from later on in the book (in fact, it’s from after the last battle). I also reedited the Broken Bow scene. I’m suffering from serious Writer’s Block right now – at least for the chapter on which I am currently working. It hardly makes sense that I am having Writer’s Block during edits. This should be the easiest part. But no, it is much more difficult than the first draft. I think it is because I am, every day, improving my skill, so I can better pick out what won’t work and have to work harder to make everything fit nicely. I’m nearly two-hundred pages into the edit, and about 58,000+ words.

                The question I am pondering now, is what can happen in a well? Maybe I should simply cut that part out? I don’t know. I’m quite stumped right now. I may end up having to do more work from scenes later on in the book. I just want to get the edit finished, because I am eager to get to the second book!

                Oh! Warning is gone now and hasn’t been renewed, and the rotation has dissipated! 

5-20-2011

The world is supposed to end tomorrow at 6:00 pm. Hmmm. That means that in three quarters of an hour it will end in New Zealand. I suppose we’ll see when it gets here. Kind of reminds me of Y2K and the whole issue with the computers shutting down.

Oh well, I got some more work done on Chapter X. Stayed up half the night thinking about my book, then stayed up the other half having crazy dreams about Albert’s father being a villain from a book. What did I eat before I went to bed last night?

5-18-2011

First and foremost, I just put on a pair of pajamas that I haven’t washed in a long time, but they smell like shampoo, so that’s a mystery. Secondly, the dogs are going mad with barking so I hope no one tries to break into my house. Anyhow, that’s not why I’m writing. I have good news,  good news, bad news, bad news, good news, good news and I don’t know what else.

                The first good news, which is the only bit that’s relevant to this journal, is that I’m four pages further into Chapter X than I was a few days ago! Yes! I actually worked more on the book! But now, I’m probably going to change all of it, because it just wasn’t working out the way I wanted it to. So, if I don’t procrastinate, I should get some of that done tomorrow.

                Good news part II. Sarah and I went to the Animal Shelter this afternoon and ended up leaving with, what we were led to believe, were two female rabbits. Sarah named hers Bonnie and mine Whisker, because I wanted to name it after a character from my book. But when we got home, my rabbit did something to Bonnie, that a female rabbit shouldn’t do to another female, so I checked it out, and what do you know? Whisker is a he! That’s the bad news, because we only had one cage.

                Sarah packed him (who we afterwards called Doug) up and took him back to the shelter in exchange for a female. Bad news part II? Sarah called and said that the Animal Shelter gave her two guinea pigs instead. I was quite upset, what with not having a rabbit and all and I do not like guinea pigs. Which leads to good news part III.

                Sarah went back in to buy another rabbit, but they said she could just take one for free. Bad news part III, they were all out of does, so she got the buck that I said I wanted at the shelter (not Whisker, who was the one I ended up with by mistake).  

                More good news? They gave us a free cage for my rabbit, some bedding, a food dish, a cage for the guinea pigs, water containers and such. They also offered Sarah a peacock for five bucks, good news again was that the uncles said no! I cannot stand birds! They’re so creepy!

                My bunny rabbit is named Cecil, and he is sooooooo adorable! I just hope Dear Avery doesn’t jealous. Jeez! These pajamas sure smell nice!

5-15-2011

I discovered a wonderful thing called Google Translate! I cannot believe how much fun it is. I think you can translate between 49 languages, or something like that. Anyhow, I have taken up the habit of translating my book into French, and then back into English. When I do this, it fills in some of the words with the closest match it can find (sometimes the translation of a word isn’t an exact definition with the original input, and reversing the translation will give you the exact definition in English). I made an amazing realization this morning as well. I was reading the English-French-English translation for Chapter II (some of the stuff it comes up with is so funny, I’ll put in examples in a bit), and where Tanner was supposed to say “How else would you get to an afterlife kingdom?”, it said “How else would you get to the realm beyond?” (all lowercase). I, for the life of me, could not figure out why it said realm beyond where it was supposed to say afterlife kingdom. So I went back online to Google Translate, set it for English to French translation, and typed in “afterlife kingdom.” The result was Royaume-delà. I copied this into the text box and changed the translation to French to English. The result said “realm beyond.” I couldn’t believe it! Who would have thought that the exact French translation for afterlife kingdom means realm beyond! It’s astounding, because nowhere in the phrase “realm beyond” does it mention an afterlife. I still can’t get over it! It’s amazing how things work out like that. The Realm Beyond was not a planned title, it just sort of stuck. I’m in awe.

Here are a few examples that cracked me up:

“Makeshift noose” was translated into “Rope of fortune”

“She can’t have gotten far” turned to “It cannot be obtained until now”

“Just be still, okay?” turned to “Just do it again, okay?”

“Thank you, Sir” turned to “Thank you, Mr. President”

One from another book that really cracked me up was Poppa turned into Cushy. So the line “I’m not Poppa,” is now “I’m not Cushy.”

5-9-2011

Finally did some writing – just not with Chapter X. I did manage to get some edits done for Chapter II and for the prologue. They both turned out well, although I’m certain I’ll be visiting the prologue again. I really need to get this finished (as I continue to explain). I really want to submit to Baen by the end of the year – or hopefully the end of summer would be nice. Took out the scene with the rabbit-thing and instead made it so that Tanner and Argent meet directly after she ends up in Ghostalia. He also finds out that she is the princess sooner. I’m hoping to work more on X tonight, but will probably do some edits for IV, so that everything coincides with II – as IV was previously were Argent first encounters Tanner. I don’t think I will keep Conall in there at all, and if I do, it will only be as Aaron’s pet…which gives me an idea. I’ve been trying to think of a weapon that is rightfully his. Maybe it will be a special weapon (not sure what yet) specially crafted by Abel, that has the ability to shift into a Cian cat. At the beginning of each new prince’s (at least the owner of the weapon) life, it will be reborn as a Cian kitten and live its life again, sort of like the legend of the phoenix.

Also pondering a resurrection issue with Galtero’s wife, but will have to incorporate more back story into the third novel. Also had a brief thought about Tanner being framed for a crime in the third book. I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to the top, I guess.