It might sound from those two paragraphs like I don't think this story is any good, which is not true - it is quite enjoyable, for all my above griping and critiquing.
Keeping Track of Terms
Every now and then, I come across something that already seems so effective that I have no need to alter it to fit my own way of doing things. The most recent example of this is a post from Marie Brennan (author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent, among others) discussing, of all things, ways to prepare your manuscript for the copyeditor.
Blood Magic S2:E9: Bread and Steel Re-Release
This almost did not happen. At least, not in the way that you're seeing it. I knew this episode needed significant revisions, especially to the ending, which was a rush job last year to get the episode finished in time for its original release. On my first pass through, which is all that most of these episodes receive, I tried to get it right...and I failed.
Blood Magic S2:E8: Rest for the Weary Re-Release
For all that it is structured differently, and the inclusion of the historical plotline could be considered controversial, I enjoy both parts of the story.
Verdon’s Tragedy Sneak Peek
As you hopefully saw in our recent weekly writing update, I finally finished the first draft of Verdon's Tragedy, a side story set in the Fo'Fonas world. Even if revisions go smoothly, I don't expect a release date sooner than December 2022, but I want to share some thoughts about the story and the writing now.
Blood Magic S2:E6: Contaminant, Part One Re-Release
In the original release post, I claimed that Kiluron and Doil needed more active roles, and that this should not have been a two-part episode. I disagree with my former self.
Destiny of Kings Release
I'm very pleased with how this story came out, and I'm excited to be sharing it with you. So I'll stop rambling on about writing, and instead let you get to what you probably came here for: reading a new fantasy story. IGC Publishing proudly presents Destiny of Kings.
Blood Magic S1:E9: Unbalanced Re-Release
Some of the episodes I've written for Blood Magic have been memorable to me, for one reason or another: the first two because I wrote them and revised them so many times before they became part of this series, the season one finale, Borivat's story in Cracks in the Ice, or even the recent Contaminant. In some cases it might be because of the amount of time I spent on the writing, or how difficult the writing was, or, less commonly, how much I personally enjoy a given episode. Should I admit that I remembered very little about Unbalanced before I did my pre-revision re-read?
Staging: Making Rockets and Stories More Effective
Other than indulging my penchant for expounding on space-related topics, and perhaps providing you with some insight into rocketry, I bring this discussion up because it informs a way I have been slowly coming to approach writing. I, probably like a lot of new writers, was approaching the writing of my stories like a single-stage-to-orbit. When I sat down to write, I had an expectation in my head that I would sit down and craft all of the components of a story in a single pass, and that revisions were mostly just for changing around wording and cleaning up typos. Which, it turns out, is really challenging to do, because stories are complicated.
Blood Magic S2:E7: Contaminant, Part Two Release
how much I struggled with the writing, and why that was. I won’t rehash those difficulties here, but the result was that I was put far behind on my writing for this episode, barely even starting it before the month began. Plus, part two proved to have its own difficulties, some related to the troubles with the first part, and some entirely original, which led me to even write August’s episode out of order (which you will read about when episode twenty goes live next month). The short version of this post: Contaminant would really benefit from my new staging revisions methodology.
IGC Publishing 