Hello everyone! Thanks so much for reading my book Shift. This chapter is full of fun facts about earlier versions of the book and includes a little bit of description about the biology of the magic system. Read on if you're curious about some of that stuff. Or, if you're looking for a little more story, click over to the next chapter where I have a three-part short story called "Blaze's Birthday" which takes place a few months after the end of Shift.

Without further ado, here are your fun facts!

1.    Lexi's original name was Skye.

I actually really liked the name Skye and I think it works well for Lexi's character. The problem was, halfway through writing, I realized that there was a bit of a celestial theme going on with the names: Skye, Blaze, Helio (translates to "sun"), and Apollo (the sun god). And out of all those celestial names, "Skye" was the only character who was a non-er, so it didn't make sense to keep it. Eventually, I decided to change it to Lexi which I thought was a good compromise!

2.    When I first started writing the book, I only outlined up to chapter 7, when Helio finds Kayden lying on the floor in Blaze's bedroom.

When I write, I usually like to plan things out. The problem is, since a novel is so large, I find it hard to plot out the whole thing at once. So I usually plot out a bit and hope that I figure out the rest later on. But by the time I reached chapter 7, I still had no clue what was going to happen in the story. I remember brainstorming a scene where Kayden, Blaze, and Helio decided to go poke around in the building where the explosion took place, but it didn't lead to anything and I didn't write it. In the end, I decided that I wanted the characters to go to Los Angeles, and I figured out the rest of the plot along the way.

3.    In the early drafts, Helio wasn't under Naven's spell, Blaze's childhood spell book was just a crappy book, and Lexi wasn't a psychic.

Since I didn't plan out the whole book in advance, at some point, when I decided on crucial plot points, I had to go back to earlier scenes and tweak things so the story made sense. That's when I added in the stuff about Helio getting an internship with the Congregation and made Blaze's childhood spell book a more important piece of the plot. I actually wrote the scene where Lexi appeared in the NYC and found them before I had decided she was psychic. As I continued writing the book, I realized how unrealistic it was for her to just appear out of nowhere (considering NYC is so big), and as I thought more about it, I thought making her psychic would be an interesting through line.

4.    There were originally five members of the Congregation.

The fifth member of the Congregation was a man named Rye. I liked the idea of there being five members of the Congregation, but as I wrote the story, only three were important (Naven, Carsten, and Lira). Since Wheeler and Rye got so little screen time, I just got rid of Rye and added a few lines here and there for Wheeler.

5. I made Punnet squares for this book. Lots and lots of Punnet squares.

Since I find medicine, genetics, and biology super interesting, I wanted my magical system to be inherited in a way that made scientific sense, so I spent a lot of time making Punnet squares. For those of you who don't know, a Punnet square is a type of graph that helps you figure out inheritance. [I have a lot of examples below so be prepared!] I knew I wanted my magic system to be primarily male, so I decided on sex-linked genes (XY in males and XX in females). But due to the fact I wanted it to easily be passed down male lines (aka Silas Merg is a wizard AND his son is a wizard), I had to come up with two separate magic genes, one on the Y chromosome and one rare one on the X chromosome. If you are a male wizard, that means you have either one magic X, one magic Y, or both. To be a psychic female, you need one magic X, and to be a magical female, you need two magic Xs. I drew out some Punnet squares below to show you how the inheritance works with some characters. 

Note: For all these examples, a * means that the magic gene is on that chromosome!

Example 1: XY* (magical male) and XX (non-er female)

This example mirrors Blaze's parents: Silas is a magical male (XY*) and his wife was a non-er female (XX). When you do the Punnet square, it shows you that any boy this couple has will be magical and any girl they have will be a non-er. So if Blaze had a sister, she'd be a non-er, but if he had a brother, he would have magic.

Example 2: XX* (psychic female) and XY (non-er male)

This example mirrors Lexi's parents. Lexi is a psychic (XX*), and her father is non-magical, which means that the only way she could have gotten a magic gene is from her mother. This means that her mother is a psychic too! The interesting thing about this scenario is that Lexi's parents only had a 50/50 chance of having a psychic daughter. They also have a 50/50 chance of having a magical son. So there is some cool variation there!

Example 3: XX* (psychic mom) and X*Y (magic dad)

I put this example in just to show how to get a magical daughter (and how rare it is!) There are actually only two times you can get a magical daughter: if the mom is magical and the husband has a magic X gene, or if the mom is psychic and the dad has a magic X gene. It gets a little complicated because guys can be a wizard with either a magic X or a magic Y. But if they have a magic Y only, they CAN'T have a magical daughter. This means Blaze, no matter whom he marries, can't have a magical daughter. Anyway, in the example above, 50% of the time the daughter is psychic and 50% of the time she's magical. As for sons, 50% of the time you get a magical son and 50% of the time you get a non-er!

There are 12 different Punnet Squares that can be made with these genetic parameters, so I won't go through them all. But I thought you might be interested in some of the strange biology I came up with! It was a lot of fun for me to create!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these fun facts!

The next chapter begins a 3-part short story staring Blaze, Kayden, and Helio called "Blaze's Birthday," so be sure to check that out if you want to read a little more about their adventures post-Shift.

Thanks for all the support! <3 Hope you are all having fantastic days!