SO... I'VE BEEN in a peculiar spot with my writing recently. I'd expected to finish writing the newest novel in the Silk and Steel Chronicles Weeping Flames about two to three months ago, yet still it remains in that purgatory of the 80% mark. I'm completely stumped on how to continue it. I'll aim to finish it within the summer and have it start posting once I hit the 90% mark, but we'll have to see how that goes...

Besides that, of course, I've been writing No Celestial. This is a post-as-I-write project, so updates are irregular depending on how inspired I am. Right now I am once again slightly stumped. I have the vaguest idea of how this story continues, but I really haven't thought about it enough. Updates will be a bit slower, but they'll come. I'm hoping to finish it by August.

The last update in this book was about Project Crescent, which I've ungraciously scrapped after around 30k words. I was completely out of inspiration and the story felt like it was going nowhere. Instead, I took bits and pieces from this project and some other ideas I've had and started making something new.

I'll list some of my inspirations and prompts to give you a sense of what this new series (either a duology or trilogy, depending on how it goes) would be like:

- I recently watched the Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds and was hella inspired by the Academy.
- I've always wanted to write academic rivals-to-lovers. I kind of had this with the Bridewater College duology, but Honoria and Theo weren't really academic rivals, if you get what I mean.
- I really wanted to create a cool magic system! A concrete, more hard magic sort of system, rather than the extremely soft ones I tend to write.
- I really need to try my hand in writing more romance. I know technically most of my books have romance, but it never feels particularly romantic. This one isn't all that cheesy and cutesy either, but there'll be more romance heavy content in some areas. I hope.
- I already wrote about this in an A/N on The Ballad of Eternal Glory, but after my first attempt at querying my manuscripts to agents, one of the major pieces of advice I was given was that my novels felt more Adult than YA. Which is a problem. Because I'm seventeen. So I don't know how to write Adult either. 
- To help solve this issue, I'll start shifting a couple things in my novels. More romance is one of them. The second is a faster pace. This series is full-on fast pace with a much more tight-knit plotline. The third is a slightly shorter word count. Now this really only applies to The Ballad of Eternal Glory (160k words), since most of my other novels are in the 90k to 120k point, but I'll be aiming for a word count of around 110k maximum with this one.
- I kind of want to write about terrible people. Now this cast is by no means evil, but they've done some pretty fucked up stuff. And they're pretty fucked up people who were brought up in a pretty fucked up way. There's nepotism, sabotage, jealousy, betrayal and more!
- I really want to investigate the relationship between religion and politics. This is something I very, very lightly touched upon with the character of Myrina in the Silk and Steel Chronicles, but I never quite had the time in her novel to truly go in-depth with this. Therefore, the Republic of Auranan, where this series will be set, is a theocracy! And the idea of religion will be very heavily involved in the plot.
- I was extremely inspired by the level of academic competition currently existing at my school. I've studied at fairly competitive schools all my life, and I thought this might be something interesting to explore. 
- I really wanted to try my hand in a properly, fully-planned out novel. I sort of did this with The Ballad of Eternal Glory, but that was just really the plot. Nothing else. But with this novel, I have an entire big doc of all my ideas and information for worldbuilding, magic systems and of course, plot. So far the plot for the first book is planned out.

I've basically only just started with this novel. I'm unlikely to start posting until I'm at least finished with the first book-- really, I might even wait until I finish the entire series before doing anything with it. So this is a pretty advanced notice. But hey, I'll tell you guys some other stuff about the novel!

The main character is Blaire Wu. She was brought up in a pretty messed up environment, and will do anything to succeed in the Prokeroi. No matter what it takes.

Then there's Atlas Tan, whose mother is the Chancellor of Aurana. While some people are quick to dismiss him as nothing more than a nepobaby, he is really talented and skilled.

There's Risa Castel, Blaire's roommate and someone hiding a secret. She's also completely unused to the level of stress in the Scholorai, and she is struggling.

There's Caiden Cross, a former child prodigy who's also the golden boy for the Order of Crescent, the rulers of Aurana, who's struggling with his own issues.

And there's Avery Farrick, struggling to live up to her family's expectations. There's Taloric Fresnach, trying to make a future for himself in a world that doesn't want him to succeed. 

I can't wait for you guys to meet these characters. But for now... I actually need to write it.

Until next time!