Hey everyone. RoyalRoad doesn't really have a good way to do status updates, so I will be using this chapter here to keep you all informed from now on. Check back every month or so for news.

Aug 26, 2022

Clutching the covers I shot upright. The light of not-quite-dawn-but-not-quite-night-either filtered in through the window. The first sounds of a city waking up came with it. Besides me, that strange woman stirred, her own gradual waking making her brush against me. But there were no nightmares creeping up on me. No fangs seeking out my blood.

Despite my misgivings, it had been like any old night at home. My ...daughter had not snuck up on us. She still sat in the same spot as last evening, perfectly motionlessly still, as if no time had passed at all. Watching and waiting always held this unnervingly casual ease for her.

But this time, when my shallow breathing was somewhat more under control, and my eyes darted towards her corner a second time, there was that little twist to her lips, that hint of wry humor that had never been there before. I wasn't certain I had seen it right at all, there and gone before I had even properly noticed.

I had almost dismissed the thought, passed it off as nothing but a figment of my imagination, when I spotted her own, furtive, worried glimpse my way. It made my stomach flip, and even though I was only barely awake, I already knew I'd be struggling to get any food in when the time for breakfast came.

I'm not the kind of writer who can simply pour out all the right words straight from the first time. I try. I fail. I meander and stray. I write and rewrite and polish until a sickening goop of word-vomit is finally polished into something resembling a chapter. The above segment is one of those tangents of mine. It is a small part of a throwaway side POV chapter and thus will not be a part of volume two proper. I'm sharing it here because it is a unique outside perspective on Vale.

I'm also sharing it because writing it was critical to the development of the second volume. The moment described here is the beginning of the pivotal point halfway through the story. It was essential that I got it right. When writing the scene didn't quite work out the first time, I took a step back and looked at it from a different point of view. It deepened my understanding of the characters, and the emotional journey they are going through immensely.

Talking about midway points, this particular scene happens approximately 70k words in. That's a concept I'm still trying to wrap my head around. I knew, after the extensive restructuring of my plans for volume 2, that it was going to turn out a little bit bigger than the 90k words I had initially expected it to be.

Only now is the true scope becoming clear. Going by my original estimate of 90k word length, I should be creeping up on the final scenes now. I am not. Not by far. This is going to be a beast of a volume. My new length estimate sits at somewhere between 140k and 160k words.

I'm going to be brutally honest. Obviously, this scope creep is going to result in even further delays. I can not magically write twice as many words in an hour, and finding extra time to write is a near impossibility as well. Right now it's too early still to provide estimates, but I hope to give you a more accurate prediction of the additional delays in a future update.

That's it for now. See you again at the end of September.

Oh, and if you really can't wait for more, go check out Sovereign of Wrath. It's a brilliant character-driven story with a lot of the same soft and fluffy goodness and intricate plotting as Vale. I've been a little obsessed with it lately, and if you haven't checked it out yet, it is definitely worth a read.

Jul 21, 2022

Her eyes flicked towards the corpse of the dead guard. She did not say anything but the offer was there. Then, as if that offhand suggestion was insignificant, she turned her back to me and started rummaging around in her pack.

I didn’t care what she was looking for. After all my efforts not to linger on it, she had irrevocably drawn my attention to the corpse. I could not look away any more. It was there. I needed it. The Honey-blood had offered it to me. She had offered me another human being as food, without thinking twice about it, simply because I had asked.

And I had asked.

Yes, that is a snippet from volume two. Yes, volume two is still happening.

Yes, unfortunately, there are some delays. There are obviously excuses. The lifting of covid restrictions claimed a lot of my evenings and thus ravaged the time I have available for writing. Parts of the plot weren't as solid as I thought they were. Rewrites happened. So many rewrites. 70k words down the drain, easily.

But mostly, what is making me take longer is the complexity. Volume two is a fiendishly, hellishly complex beast to write. It is fun though. There is nothing more satisfying than finally, after weeks of struggling, managing to condense a whole chapter's worth of shitty narration into half a page of beautiful, gut-wrenching prose.

The consequences of the delays are obvious. Volume two is not coming out this fall as I had initially hoped. It is absolutely going to be winter at the earliest. But when it finally gets here, it will be glorious.

Meanwhile, to tide you over, have a cover. Keep in mind that the title is still a working title, and thus subject to change. Yes, it is fancier than the volume one cover. Yes, I will be doing a visual update of the volume one cover to match this one.