Writing Update
First and foremost, the epilogue of The Infinite Sadness dropped just over a week ago, so if you took the time to read it from start to finish, thank you! As I’ve mentioned while I was editing and scheduling it, not only is it a piece I’m very fond of (even if it’s technically an AU fanfiction of my own work), but working on it helped me in so many wonderful, unexpected ways. Going back over something I’d written nearly two years ago really forced me to sit down and assess my writing own writing style and how I write my characters, and it was a pleasure to see how far I’ve come in such a short amount of time. I was, in short, so much better armed going into the latest draft of The Nameless Song than I was beforehand.
For those of you who have yet to tackle the whole thing, rest assured that all chapters will be available on Beehiiv for as long as this newsletter exists. (I may also offer it on my author’s website, if I ever get around to finishing that.) There is also now a handy table of contents that will also be a permanent part of the Beehiiv. Just click here to access all of The Infinite Sadness whenever you’d like!
This also means that we’re ready to delete the original AO3 posting of The Infinite Sadness. I just need to work up the courage to do it. But as I’ve mentioned when I first started editing TIS, there was never a question that was going to happen. For those of you who don’t know, the long and short of it is AO3 had been open to data scraping by AI bots—all of AO3, including stories that were restricted to users only. While this was fixed in 2022 (TIS was originally posted in 2023), the news of this didn’t come out until mid 2023, and literally everything I’d ever posted to AO3 except TIS became AI fodder. Needless to say, even with AO3’s fix, I don’t really trust them enough to keep work there.
With that said, it’s hard to say when that will happen, but you’ll probably hear about it in our next newsletter.
As for The Nameless Song, progress has been going, albeit not at as rapid a pace as I was expecting. As in, we don’t quite have bee people yet, though we do have dragons. Really, I can’t say what the hold-up was this month, except for the fact that that good ol’ two-month-into-drafting second-guessing hit, and it hit hard. A lot of Act I had been rough, to say the least, and I already have notes to rearrange chapters and shorten the front half by about 3k words, but frankly, the front couple of chapters are going to be meaty and slow either way. I admit I’m constantly thinking about the critique I’d gotten from the last round of betas, particularly the talk that resulted in a full gutting and rewriting of the draft from the ground up (i.e., that the pacing was too slow, and consequently, more than half of the story didn’t work). I’ll be real in saying I hadn’t noticed how much I needed to work on getting my confidence back, but it’s something I’m working on as I dig further into this draft.
Now, I know that sounds super negative, but weirdly, all that second-guessing was also a blessing in disguise. For one, having a night where I just couldn’t shake the feeling that everything about this story was wrong forced me to go back through the first three chapters and think about what I could cut to make it stronger. For another, it’s also making me think hard about the shape of the rest of the story. I can’t say specifically what the plans for the rest of this book will be, but I know where it’s going. Where it’s going finally makes sense, not only as its own story but also as a piece of a larger whole. The whole makes more sense, and I’m not even going to confine it to a specific number of books. There will be more until we’re done (assuming whichever way we’re publishing this will let me), but there will be at least two.
But let the chickens hatch before you count them and so on.
In any case, the point is, progress was slow, but it was very introspective, and though I can’t say I’m super confident or as excited as I probably should be the night before NaNoWriMo, I’m actually glad it happened. I’m going into the rest of the story far more careful, and hopefully, TNS will come out better for it.
Snippet
(To avoid awkwardly shoehorning in a snippet for the newsletter like I did the last few times, I’ve brought back this section.)
One thing that’s improved as a result of all this mulling over TNS was Mick’s relationship with the Dead God. I’ve decided that this time around, good ol’ DG’s role will be more active and more willing when it comes to working with Mick, and as such, he’s actually blossomed into a fun character to write. He still doesn’t have much more of a role than commentary in Mick’s head (though he does function as a sort of second conscience, somebody to nudge Mick into certain directions and force him to think about his decisions in new ways), but I’m working on that.
Here, though, is a snip from a dream sequence in which he formally introduces himself to Mick, one of what I hope will be many fun dreams and hallucinations I’ll be inflicting on the poor soul. This snip, though? I just love this because it perfectly describes their relationship:
“The Dawnlit Gods certainly are dramatic, aren’t they?” the Dead God said—with his own mouth, to Mick’s relief. “Then again, perhaps I should be one to talk. I could have simply told you that I had to leave you alone for a while to bait Faelen into attacking me instead of you.”
Mick sat up and stared at the Dead God. In return, the Dead God cocked his head, his face still neutral.
“But then again, that would hardly be fun,” he said.
“That. That was all true, wasn’t it?” Mick murmured. “You’re using me.”
At last, a shred of expression crossed the Dead God’s face: sympathy.
“In your culture, as a follower of the Dawnlit Gods, you believe in ‘saints,’ yes?” the Dead God asked.
Saints. Holy champions of the Dawnlit Gods, called to service by one of the Dawnlit Gods, to carry out their will among the people of Lumina. They were champions. Leaders. Muses to new ages.
“Pawns,” the Dead God said. “Every last one of them is a pawn to the god who chose them. What do you think ‘carrying out their will’ means? By extent, you are my saint. That is what it means to be the conductor. To me, anyway.”
Looking Forward
We’re doing it, lads (gender neutral). We’re doing NaNoWriMo. I’ll be posting my progress as often as I can on Bluesky, but full transparency, I’d abandoned the accountability thread. Instead, I’ll be cooking up a new tag that’ll be easier to use and track with (near-)daily progress and very short snippets. Keep an eye on Bsky for both of these things.
Given that my ultimate goal will be an additional 50k words to TNS, and given that we’re at 50k now with a good chunk of Act II behind us, that all means that by the end of NaNo, I should be approaching the last 25% of the book. My aim is to get to at least Act IV (preferably deep into it), with just the lead-up to the climax, the climax itself, and the denouement left.
Which means that by Christmas, I’d like to be either close to or actually wrapping up this draft. From there, I might take at most a week break, but I’d like to dive into rewrites and edits as quickly as possible.
With all of that in mind, we may be looking at another public read by spring 2026. I’m not even sure what I’ll be calling it. Alpha of the rewrite? Beta? I’ll figure out what I need later. Anyway, yes, I will be sending out requests via this newsletter, so stay subscribed if you’re interested in seeing another book completely for free.
I’m still taking a break from pitch events, as well as from month-long, daily-post events (which I’ve been doing these past three months). The only exception is #HopePit, which I might’ve been roped into but is something that I kinda want to get behind anyway. If you’ve been around me long enough, then you know that a lot of TNS is about the value of art in defiance and being defiantly optimistic in a world that gives you every reason to just give up. That’s what hopepunk is all about, and if I’m frank, we need more hopepunk in the world. HopePit is a brand-new pitch event dedicated solely to supporting and encouraging stories in this specific subgenre, so I’m really excited to see what else is out there and to help make the very first run of it successful. That will be happening November 8, but after that, no pitch events until December.
Pic of the Month
In other news, I relearned how to knit and finished a project for the first time ever. Why? Totally no reason. Definitely not to make a scarf for a plush bee.
ID: A plush bee wears a gold, red, and gray knitted scarf.
But also, it’s autumn, yet the weather has been incredibly weird—too warm, honestly. Still, the leaves are turning, and the bees are gathering from the last flowers, and you know exactly where this is going.
ID: A plush bee engaging in leaf-peeping. (The leaves above him are turning from green to red. In the background, the leaves are gold.)
ID: A carpenter bee gathers pollen in a sunflower, which stands against a bright, blue sky.
As always, thanks for reading! Don’t forget to keep an eye on Bluesky for minor updates between the hefty monthly ones.