2025’s Writing Update

It’s that time again! Here’s the post where I remember to write about the thing I actually spend all of my time doing. Plus how it happens to be going so far this year.

Knowing how often to blog about my projects is challenging. I try not to write about writing every week. (Though for obvious reasons, I talk about it a lot.) In truth, I could talk non-stop about the imaginary people who live in my head and the worlds they inhabit. But I assume most people would find that annoying.

Still, I try to talk enough about my projects that regular followers of my blog will know what I’m up to and what stage of the process each of my WIPs inhabits. It feels only fair for the people interested in reading these epics.

It’s funny that I always seem to remember around September or October that I haven’t written an update in awhile. Possibly because I’ve usually squared away my edits by that point. Which opens my brain to a little extra administrative capacity.

In any case, 2025 has been an interesting year. So without further ado, here’s how things have been going!

The Aruvalia Chronicles Finishing Touches

Perhaps my biggest news of this year is that I’ve finally finished the bulk of the work on the Aruvalia Chronicles. I actually finished writing the series back in 2023. But because I let all of my books sit on a shelf for about a year before I tackle edits, 2025 is when I get to celebrate the big milestone of considering the series finished.

The last 3 books are on their way to my beta readers, as we speak. They will still get another pass. (As will all the remaining unpublished books in the series receive a final polish before they go live.) But I expect most of the remaining changes to be minor.

It feels weird, to say the least. I started writing the Aruvalia Chronicles back in 2019, while we were moving into our current house and shortly before the pandemic hit. I remember frantically trying to write chapters in between packing boxes, scrubbing the new house and painting rooms to prep for the big move.

A lot has happened since I started working on this series in earnest. I started streaming around the time I wrote book 9. So there are several VoDs chronicling the second half of the process.

And although I started actually writing the book in 2019, the idea has been kicking around in my head since 2011 in one form or another.

It feels weird to set aside this world and its characters and turn the bulk of my focus to something else. In some ways, it’s a relief that I have one more round of polishing to cycle through. It means I get to hold onto the series for just a little longer. (Even if I’m kind of sick of reading it a billion times.)

What Comes After Aruvalia

As weird as it will feel not to have the Aruvalia Chronicles as part of my everyday life anymore, I know this isn’t the last time I’ll visit this world or its characters. I have at least one Aruvalia spinoff already planned. It will feature Silkfoot Lightvolt and his steadfast first mate, Kestrel. As well as cameos from the rest of the Aruvalia cast. Much as Silkfoot often cameos within the main cast’s stories.

But more than that, Domerin has plenty more stories to tell. I’ve mentioned a few times that there are multiple incarnations of him kicking around in the universe. And it turns out there’s a reason.

One of those reasons is that, shortly before the events of the Aruvalia Chronicles, he was hit by a powerful mage blast that actually split him into two. (Unbeknownst to our fabulous grumpy elf hero.)

That’s right, there’s a second version of Domerin kicking around out there that originated in Aruvalia. And it’s time to tell his story. I’ve been excited to start recording this particular lore for a long time. And since I’ve essentially taken a two year break after penning the Aruvalia Chronicles, it’s time to dig into Beyond the Mirror. Which will be the next tale in the epic adventures of Domerin Lorcasf.

Of course, since he’s fallen into another world, this adventure will be shared with an entirely new cast of characters Domerin has never met before. (Though long-time followers of my blog might still spot some familiar faces sprinkled in.)

My plan is to start outlining and world building for the first trilogy of this project early next year. I’m ultra excited. And that softens some of the blow of bidding the Aruvalia Chronicles farewell.

Side Project Schedules

As previously mentioned, it’s actually been two years since I wrote the final trilogy of the Aruvalia Chronicles. Last year, my writing time was devoted to Sonata of the Satellites. Which was a late addition to the Celestial Serenade that didn’t manage to get written before I moved on. (Mostly because my brain insists on extending a story while I’m editing its last book.)

I greatly enjoyed revisiting the Celestial Serenade setting. But I do think the new installment needs a lot of work to bring it up to par with the rest of the books I’ve already published. I got so caught up in the sweeping nature of the story, I forgot for a little while that space operas are supposed to focus on the characters and their struggles.

That said, there were still a lot of interesting moments that popped up during the writing of the new trilogy. I’m looking forward to going back through and making it shine.

My secondary project focus has continued to be devoted to Everyone’s Child this year. And I’m fairly pleased with how the story turned out. As I mentioned in a recent post, I don’t think it in any way resembles the story I initially set out to tell in college. But that might be for the best.

I’ll be penning the final installment in the series this year. Which means that I’ll hopefully be able to wrap up edits and send the last book to my beta readers by sometime in February.

Somewhat ironically, once I finish Everyone’s Child, my next side project involves a side story for the Celestial Serenade universe. It will focus on an ordinary young woman from Earth trying to make her way in the larger universe after Caltarans ushered humans beyond their isolated world.

This Year’s Big Project

If you’re keeping track of how I manage my schedule (edits starting in January, polishing starting in July and a brand new writing project starting every September), then you will already have noticed a gap in projects. What have I been writing this year, you ask?

My new project this year is Ghost Path. It focuses on a ragtag group of individuals that have fallen through cracks in the universe to end up in what is essentially the garbage heap. This was a place created by the universe to contain anything harmful to its larger functions. A requirement of a system as large and complex as a multiverse.

This cosmic junk yard was never meant to house living things. But unfortunately, since it has to have some form of entrance in order for things to be moved inside it, people have found their way down there. And now they can’t get back out.

Based on my last post, it’s probably easy to guess that the main setting of Ghost Path is a liminal space. In fact it’s the ultimate threshold between realms, never meant to be directly observed or occupied.

Perhaps the most fun thing about Ghost Path so far is that, while it does connect somewhat tangentially to the other settings of my multiverse (as all my books ultimately do), it doesn’t involve any of the main characters I’ve been spending so much time with lately. It’s new and fresh. Which has allowed me to rediscover the simplicity of writing without a large series and many moving parts to keep track of.

And it’s always good to rediscover the love of the craft!

I’ll have a proper intro for Ghost Path ready soon. But for now, that about sums things up!