It’s overdue for me to post an update on where I’m at with writing, publishing, and life. The last couple of months have been busy after the Oaths & Vengeance release. I’m happy to see many people have enjoyed it, and the novel has received some wonderful reviews. Sales and page reads are still not where I’d hoped, but they have been steady. New readers are giving it a try, and I’m still getting occasional late ARC reviews. Better late than never, though!

Someone sent me a screenshot of an email from Amazon this past weekend showing they received a recommendation for Oaths & Vengeance, so I appreciated seeing that. I have noticed a ranking improvement in the last couple of days with more page reads and sales. That might be contributing to it, along with a couple of small ads I’m currently running. If you get an email from them for Oaths & Vengeance, you’re welcome to let me know if you’re inclined. It helps me gauge the visibility of the book.

Below, I’ve included some updates on my life behind the scenes that you can read if you want, or you can skip that to only read the writing updates down the page if that’s what you’re mainly here to see.

LIFE UPDATES

Life has also been busy with my oldest returning to school and my youngest finally starting pre-k. I get more time to write and do author stuff now that they’re both out of the house during the week. The only exception being when one or both are sick and have to stay home. So far, they haven’t passed their illnesses onto me, but I’m sure they’ll get me sooner or later.

My four-year-old has a terrible habit of guzzling too much water while he eats and then throwing up as a result. At home, I began watching him for that once I identified the issue, but I’ve had to go pick him up three times this school year because policy dictates they can’t stay if they vomit, even if it’s because he overfilled his stomach. His teachers are aware of it, but they have a whole class to watch, so I don’t expect them to do like me and sit there through the meal watching his water intake.

To put this into perspective, around the time he turned two, I noticed he was drinking an unusually large amount of water during the day and waking multiple times during the night demanding more water. His crib was by my bed back then, and he’d wake me by chucking his water bottle at my head. You haven’t lived until you’ve been woken like that, let me tell you. He has an excellent throwing arm. Just ask our previous living room TV.

Anyway, I did the math and realized he was up to about a hundred ounces a day (not including juice and milk). Of course, I took him to the doctor as soon as possible. While we were putting him through countless tests to determine the cause, he rose to about 150 ounces of water a day (not including other beverages). That is a lot for a toddler. His urine always came out completely clear.

He was peeing so often that even with sending him to the toilet before bed and waking him during the night to go to the bathroom, he still overflowed his diaper and got his sheets wet every time. Because his urine was so diluted, there was no yellow stain and the scent was lighter, so I had to check them by feel. I was doing a crazy amount of laundry. I even doubled his diapers for bed and that still wasn’t enough to hold the flood.

We completely ruled out type 1 & 2 diabetes after they ran labs several times over a period of months, along with other things they checked with x-rays and ultrasounds (can’t remember it all). Finally, we had to do an 8-hour water deprivation test at Children’s Hospital that was sheer hell. He had to get a blood draw every hour and his urine sampled. For most of that time, he cried and fussed since he couldn’t eat or drink. The test had to be done there to get rapid lab results and in case his health suddenly deteriorated, which is why it’s a last resort test.

It took until 6 1/2 hours into the process to finally see his pee turn pale yellow. They were checking for Diabetes Insipidus, which is when the body can’t retain water and the person can easily dehydrate if they don’t constantly drink. It’s a pituitary gland issue, rather than the kidneys. Those with this condition will always pee clear, which was why we were looking for his urine to turn yellow. With that test, they ruled out the last possible issue, and he was diagnosed with a love of water (polydipsia). It only took tens of thousands of dollars in tests to figure that out, lol.

Over the next couple of years, I got him to slowly drink less. He is down to 50-60 ounces a day now, but once in a while he goes higher, and we get the throwing up problem if it’s a lot at once. For those wondering how a toddler could possibly drink up to 150 ounces in a day (plus other fluids) and not end up hospitalized or dead from overhydration, it’s different if the uptake is incremental, rather than sudden. His body adjusted as he increased his consumption and it made him crave the right kinds of foods to keep his electrolytes balanced. That’s basically how the endocrinologist and nephrologist explained it to me, which were the two main specialists he saw during this time. With his case resolved, and after some monitoring for a bit after that, we no longer have to see them anymore.

Now, I’m the one who sees an endocrinologist yearly because when I went for an MRI on my neck two years ago due to horrible pain there (turned out I had a long list of issues with pinched nerves, bulging discs, and disc degenerative disease), they happened to also catch an abnormality on my pituitary gland. After a second scan to focus on that area, they found a small benign tumor there.

The vast majority of these are just hanging out there rent free and never cause any harm. I think it’s a three percent chance they can cause some hormone balance issues and under one percent that they can become cancerous. So once a year I go in for various labs, scans, and eye exams (vision can be affected too), so they can make sure all is still well. That’s coming up for me later this year. I really panicked when I first got the news because my mother died of brain cancer from a tumor when I was nine years old. Hers was in a different location, so they assure me I should be totally fine. Still, I get nervous every time I go for the annual tests.

WRITING UPDATES

I’ve been making great progress with book two of the Realm of Zadrya Series, but there is a lot happening in this novel, so I’m taking extra care to weave it all together just right. By the looks of it now, I would not be surprised if this book ends up being in the 180-200k word range. For perspective, Oaths & Vengeance was 153,000 words after it was completely finished (some changes/additions were made during the ARC campaign after feedback that made it a bit longer than it was originally).

With the way it’s going with this installment, I’m not going to have it released by the end of the year like I’d hoped. Please forgive me! It should be with the beta readers before the end of December, though. When a novel is this long, I just need to make sure I give myself enough time to work through all the events and get them just right. At least with both my boys in school I have a lot more time to concentrate than in the past.

For those who really want to know what to expect without major spoilers (some minor ones), these are the highlights:

• A lot more of Darrow’s POV and his backstory so you will understand him and his motivations/behavior better. Also, you’ll see more of his friends. Darrow actually gets A LOT more chapters in this book, starting from the opening.
• What happens with Aella’s lovely murder garden. Of course, we can’t forget that.
• Some new and interesting plants will be introduced. One is adorably vicious, and I wish it was real. I might try drawing it at some point because I think I could manage it. The image is so clear in my head.
• As you can guess from the ending in the first novel, you’re going to learn more about the dark elves, Karganoth (their continent), and what makes them different than the light elves. There is also a lot of action scenes because of them.
• Darrow’s older Unseelie brother, Vas, will show up several times in this installment. You’ll also see more of Darrow’s older Seelie brother, Hagon, and get to know him better (as well as his wife that was only mentioned in book one).
• Aella will finally meet the rest of her in-laws (some of whom killed her family), so that will go about as you expect, but I’ve thrown in some humor to make it more amusing.
• You’ll also get to see more of the Andalagar Tribe, their culture, and meet more characters from among them. I’ve really enjoyed fleshing them out some more for this installment.
• The main characters will be visiting more parts of Zadrya in this novel and interacting with more races that are native to the planet (meaning non-fae).
• There is still humor and banter throughout because we can’t go without that.
• Reclaiming the fountain and all that requires will be one of the main focuses. Just wait until I reveal the cover for this installment and you’ll get to see what it looks like!
• You’ll get to know a lot more of the royal family for Zadrya.
• The nameless gods will have a little greater involvement in this book with more than one making an appearance this time. They have a role to play as side characters, and to meddle/help, but they’re not meant to take center stage (as much as gods in fiction love to do that). I just wanted a setting where they physically manifest and interact instead of just being figures people mention and pray to in a story.
• The situation with Ulmar, Aella’s evil cousin who now has a missing eye thanks to her plants, will be addressed.

Those are some of the main things that I’m guessing curious readers might want to know about the next book. I’m still not announcing the title, but for those who have the hardback copy, it is listed in the back of the book with my series listings because I didn’t want to go in and add it later. That format is a bigger pain to upload new file versions compared to the ebook and paperback.

I had one reader who requested that I list the races for the Realm of Zadrya so they’re broken down between fae and non-fae. That’s something I will be working on as well for the next book and may eventually add to the first one. I also have a list of all the plants and animals that I made up (meaning they aren’t borrowed from existing fantasy lore and are entirely products of my demented imagination). Let me know if you all would like those listed and defined in the book, or I can put up a page on my website for easy reference.

As for maps, I have a lot more than the two that were included in the novel. I may add one or two more for the next installment and have them professionally designed. For now, I do have them hand drawn. I could post those on a page on my website if readers are interested, so they can get a better visual of the various locations aside from the larger world maps you saw in Oaths & Vengeance. Let me know your thoughts.

Below, you’ll see an example of the Ivory Castle keep for an overall idea of how they look. It says Therress Castle because I drew this before I named it Ivory Castle. I needed this map very early in the writing process since the book begins with Aella moving through the keep. My drawing skills aren’t going to win any awards, but they get the job done for their purpose.

Anyway, those are my updates for now. As I make progress and get a better idea of my writing timeline, I’ll post updates here on my website. For my new readers, once the beta readers have provided their feedback, I go ahead and post the first 2-3 chapters of the upcoming novel so people can get a sneak peek. This way you see them after the major kinks are worked out, but the editor will still have to help me polish it. Shortly before that, I do the cover reveal and set up the pre-order.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask in the comments here or on social media. Hope everyone has a great week!