Currently Working On:
World-building the lands of Eresith
Formatting Guardians Ascending for Kindle

Yep, the Spiral City world has a name. The world is Saveer, the continent is Eresith, though it’s a bit like Europe since there’s another part of the continent that I haven’t touched yet, and I know for a fact it has a land-bridge to yet another continent. I may even have a map after this week. ^_^

In other news, the second part of The Last Guardians is up on Kindle! And this one has a much more impressive cover page, thanks to the amazing artist on deviantart, the user noblestallion. I love commissioning her for work, she does amazing pictures. This is the first time she’s done a city scape, but I wouldn’t have known it. (If ANYONE cripes about it being “too perfect,” please remember that this is the Upper Circle, the place that prides itself on being near-perfect.)

For the second story, I knew it had to focus on Liv. But like I said in the first book, she is so passive, it was hard to get her to take the step forward. Which gave me the idea that maybe something needed to happen to give her the initiative to do things herself. So I knew she needed a crime or criminal to deal with that required logical thought and examination of evidence, what she brings to hers and Mai’s partnership, which is how I came to an arsonist.

A character I unexpectedly brought back in was Sul. He was name-dropped in the first story, but I honestly didn’t expect him to reappear…I didn’t even know he was a him to begin with! But he was a fun character to flesh out, especially his different relationships between Mai and Liv respectively. Liv’s grandmother was also a piece of work. Liv herself though was the biggest surprise. She had so much going on, and how she felt about her partnership with Mai and being a guard surprised me. I don’t know if some of it was her getting a couple of years under her belt between this one and the previous story, or if it was just learning more about her, but I became just as attached to her as I am to Mai and Ava.

The Last Guardians: Guardian Proving on Kindle

Currently working on:
Getting the world-building for the Spiral City and surrounding areas organized
Getting Guardian Proving formatted for Kindle

Thought I’d start sticking that *points up* in here so you all know what I’m up to. But yes, the first of the Last Guardians trilogy is up on Kindle! *happy dance* Okay, the cover art is temporary, I’m still waiting on the “official” stuff I paid for. I’m still excited for the story to be up. It’s the first in this world, but there’s a LOT that’s going to happen in it.

The story really started with the idea of the city. I loved the idea of a city being so isolated, and so physically divided that it became socioeconomic as well. (See my world building post for more about this process.) From there, the idea came around for the main character, and with the help of my short story professor, Mel Odom, her motivation for going after the serial killer. Mai was such a strong personality, I knew I had to have someone to balance her, which is where Liv came from. A rookie, awkward in her role, I didn’t know a lot about her in this story, but I knew there was a story to her, but I’d have to dig for it and I didn’t have the time for it at the moment. But she helped pull Mai back from being a complete maniac, and slowed her down, as well as showcasing elements of the culture that Mai tends to disregard…Mai is not a polite person.

Writing Mai’s story didn’t feel like any kind of work–and it is definitely Mai’s story. It literally poured out, and I had to force myself to take breaks for important things like food and water. The only thing that kept biting me in the butt for a couple of drafts was the ending. I had a hard time not setting the story up for the trilogy or changing character point of views. Thank God for Mel, who helped straighten me out and get an ending that worked. He also was instrumental in pointing out other slight problems that I didn’t notice while writing it, but would throw a reader off.

Overall, I’m very proud of this story, and that it’s the beginning of my introduction to this world. Mai is the kind of protagonist I like to put out there, strong but flawed, human but willing to go to extraordinary measures for what she believes in. The fact she’s female is just a bonus. 😛 A really, really big bonus.

The Last Guardian: Guardian Seeking on Kindle