October Update

Hi everyone, just checking in with a quick update on the Mana Arts Saga.

Book 1: Web of Secrets is done with copy-edits, and the proofreader has the manuscript right now for the final round of revisions. I’m still aiming to release this on Amazon sometime in December, as long as the cover is done by then. In the meantime, I have the semi-final draft of Book 1 on Royal Road:

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/39108/web-of-secrets-modern-cultivation

Honestly, there weren’t many changes to Book 1 in terms of story content. Most of it was small world-building tweaks to help the continuity later in the series. Still, the revised version is available!

Book 2: Web of Dreams: I’m in the process of re-writing this book right now. Unlike Book 1, this has a lot of story changes, and I wanted to establish those changes before I wrote any new content in the series. The big changes are:

• I replaced the character Hector with Arturo. Arturo wasn’t originally introduced until Book 3 of the series, so this gives him a lot more page time, back story, etc.

• I’m adding a few new flashbacks for Kalden, in addition to Akari’s flashbacks. Originally, I tried to keep the flashbacks to an absolute minimum because I thought people wouldn’t like them. But the exact opposite turned out to be true, and several commenters on RR asked for more. When I explored this idea, I realized it was a perfect way to dig deeper into Akari and Kalden’s relationship/romance, and to establish their character arcs for Book 5.

• Adding at least one new flashback for Akari where her mother demonstrates time mana. Once again, this was something people asked for, and it also worked perfectly to set up Book 5.

• I re-worked the entire beginning chapters to give the main characters some more agency and to cut down on the infodumping.

I’ve uploaded the first 1/3 of the revised Book 2 manuscript to a Google doc here, so you can feel free to check it out if you're curious (comments are enabled):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qaCXqnC1qZjPML5wche15bNPbInevOOLiSIa20O7ZVo/edit?usp=sharing

I’ve also marked the first Kalden flashback as “new scene” so you can search easily for that.

Book 5: Web of Chaos: I’ve been taking my time on the planning process here, because I think I got overconfident and rushed certain aspects of Questers Valley (lots of ideas, and very little sense of main plot progress). I have most of the plot for WoC worked out, so it’s just a matter of fitting everything together in a proper outline.

My goal is to have the first chapters of this book posted no later than December 2024, and to focus solely on that in the months that follow!

Thanks for waiting, everyone!