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Book 2 Chapter 60-Tidewaters
Alexa, play Repartir from Le Roi Soleil.
Edit: For anyone, a cover art contest is open on Discord! Please feel free to submit a cover if you're interested in participating!
2024-01-20 15:43:54 +0000 UTC View PostCreation Notes Batch 1
I was typing up some of the things I jotted down in my notebook over the last year and decided to organize them a little. I'll be posting them once in a while for anyone who's interested. These are more or less notes on the character concepts and relationships.
2024-01-17 00:35:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Book 2 Chapter 58-The Tide Rises
Thank you for your kind words and understanding! I am feeling much better now despite still testing positive 10 days in, but that's outside of my control, so I'm just keeping my mask on and doing my best not to infect anyone at my workplace since I can't work remotely.
2024-01-10 15:50:18 +0000 UTC View PostCOVID-Related Update Delay
Hello everyone, I have unfortunately contracted a pretty bad case of COVID and am feeling too under the weather to do much. The first update of the month will be cancelled, but we should be back in the game by Jan 10th. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for the inconvenience!
2024-01-03 16:33:41 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 57-Resonation
Happy New Year everyone, thank you for joining me in 2023! Hope you all have a great 2024, and I'll be back with another chapter next year.
2023-12-31 16:16:14 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 56-Warped Reflections
Hope you all had a great Christmas!
2023-12-27 03:45:43 +0000 UTC View PostHappy Holidays!
Happy Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas, and Happy Kwanzaa to everyone! I will try to crank out two more chapters before the end of the year as per schedule, though they might be slightly delayed due to holiday shenanigans.
2023-12-24 15:35:59 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 55-Murky Waters
Some ramblings on an unrelated note: I was going through some of my old notes for the story, and the plaque scene with Chujiao when Kayla cut things off for good (the meeting that pissed Ashina off) was initially going to be much longer.
I actually like the old script a bit more, but given how a lot of plot details had changed along the way, it no longer fit in the story. The scene was initially going to take place in the late afternoon, and Chujiao's reaction would not be immediate realization. Kayla would have been speaking to Chujiao while standing in front of Wenyuan's plaque, so that it looked like she was speaking on behalf of the plaque, and there was going to be this whole thing with the sunlight from the window moving from shining on the plaque to drawing a line on the ground between Kayla and Chujiao as Chujiao finally realizes that the man she loved is gone for good. The original scene was going to be a lot heavier, but at that point in the actual story, Kayla was already brimming with new plans involving the reforms and so on so forth, having shed the emotional ties of the old Wenyuan much more thoroughly than in the initial outlines, so it makes less sense to write it that way.
Anyways, it's always interesting to look back and see how the story doesn't always go according to plan even when I'm plotting by an outline. But when you get into the details, it doesn't make sense for a character to act or not react and then more scenes get squeezed in, other scenes get cut or shortened, and entire side-plots emerge of their own accord.
2023-12-21 16:03:08 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 54-Chuluo Khagan
So the Cultural Notes section is a little long this time, but it really can't be helped. Sorry in advance!
2023-12-16 16:12:45 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 52-Ill At Ease
Update: Sorry for the typo! Title is Ill At Ease, not ill at east. I am belatedly realizing that ill looks exactly like the Roman numeral for 3 when the first letter is capitalized, but until I think of a better title, we'll be sticking with this one.
2023-12-06 14:51:37 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 51-Circular Trap
Thank you for your patience, everyone! My brain was so fried after the work week that I had to rewrite so many scenes that came out as utter nonsense.
2023-12-03 16:15:27 +0000 UTC View PostDecember 1st Update Delay
Hello everyone, hope you're having a great end of November. Unfortunately, due to work going overtime for the past week, the update scheduled for tomorrow will be delayed for about 1~3 days. This will not have any impact on the rest of the updates. Thanks for your understanding and hope everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is staying warm!
2023-11-30 13:37:37 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 47-Wedding
Thank you for your patience! I know the Cultural Notes are a little long for this chapter, but traditional Chinese weddings had a LOT of rituals involved.
2023-11-13 15:53:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter Delay Notice
Hi everyone, I'm sorry but I have to postpone the chapter release by 1-2 days because of work. This will not affect the update schedule for upcoming chapters. Apologies and thank you for your understanding!
2023-11-10 21:36:55 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 45-Confusing Fishes for Dragons
Hope you all had a great Halloween! I have no idea how to make the side menu appear, but if you would like to jump between sections, you can search for Character Index, Cultural Notes, or Chapter Content. Please let me know if you guys have a better idea or preference for how to navigate the document!
2023-11-01 13:08:39 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 44-Personnel Changes
This chapter focuses on the chaos in the court as everyone braces for what's coming next. The waves are getting bigger, but the storm hasn't hit yet. Also, are you guys able to access the side menu for skipping between sections or does that not actually work?
2023-10-27 15:10:22 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 42-Jackals and Wolves
Not to shove information down anyone's throats, but since it's been a really long time since it was last mentioned, here's some context for the last scene in the chapter: Kayla first mentioned her own familial situation back when she asked Hu Qing to make a plaque for Wenyuan, and there's been a few other sparse mentions here and there after Wenyuan's soul fully merged with hers. But most of Kayla's mentions of her own past, especially when Wenyuan was still around, don't go back further than being an RA at college, and the vast majority of what she talks about are the three years of her post-college life as a broke cashier.
2023-10-17 14:16:10 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 40-Realization
Hoping that my scheduled post actually works this time: I'll be otherwise occupied handling twenty screaming children at a family reunion, including one particularly troublesome nephew who has a track record of climbing into my trash can, eating something off a tree and then puking onto my plate and my clothes, as well as jumping off flights of stairs (he was fine).
2023-10-07 13:44:28 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 39-A Heavy Price
I don't know why the grammar suggestions kept trying to change the title to A Heavy Prince? What's going on with spellcheck these days?
In this chapter, Kayla is forced to re-examine her plans at the very last moment, but it's also the final instance of reflection before the reckoning.
2023-10-02 17:53:40 +0000 UTC View PostBook 2 Chapter 37-Night of Uncertainties
Thank you for your patience, everyone! And for my new patrons, a big welcome! Please note that you can skip between Cultural Notes/Character Index/Chapter Content via the headings on the sidebar in the document. It might not pop up automatically, but you can open it on the left side of the webpage.
2023-09-23 17:24:43 +0000 UTC View Post