Edits, Side-Stories, Fun Times

I survived "Hell Week" (aka last week) fully intact, and with a lot of productivity to boot. I wrote 6k on my new short-story-now-novella The Ashen Destroyer, churned out 15 reviews on my video game blog, worked 6+ hours a day except the day I spent the whole time in Salt Lake at my internship, figured out what I was going to do for grad school, started up writing group meetings again, and edited 50% of Death's Aria, which included rewriting/condensing the entire first 1/4 of the novel. So hey, it was a reasonably productive week. Now I'm ready for the lazy one, where I only work two days this entire week and am going to LTUE. Yay!

The Ashen Destroyer was finally what made me buckle down and write an Effulgent Corruption timeline, since the novella takes place eight years before the start of the book and twenty years before the bulk of the novel. Though I'm intentionally placing it in a city that was not visited during the main book, there are still a few cameos planned, as well as a few interesting facts that will be fun to write. I'm writing this thing solely for my own personal pleasure: Rook was my favorite character to write in Effulgent Corruption, and I felt that Minerva never really got enough screen time for being another Corrupter. Following her when she was 14 and explaining how she both got her title (The Ashen Destroyer) as well as how she ended up working for Brutus is explained in this side story, so that'll be a fun warm-down. Even if it might end up being 50-60k.

Death's Aria has had some pretty hefty cuts. I lopped off 4-5 scenes at the start of the story, and have seriously decreased several others further on. I've been just basically tightening the story and fixing consistencies overall, rather than doing a severe word-cut (that can happen later) so I can get it out to writing group this week.

Speaking of writing group, we have a massive amount of dudes (and ladies) in our group now, which is pretty good. We've infused it with some much needed new blood, so hopefully everything will move smoothly from here on out.

That's all on my end. Expect some updates for both The Ashen Destroyer and Death's Aria shortly!

And now, fun times with Lantuna, the dead god in Minerva's head. There will be no spoilers for the main book in this novella.

“You are my daughter now.” Minerva could hear the smile in Lantuna’s voice. “Come now, Corrupt him. You know you like the feeling. It’s the same feeling you have when you see Rook only more…intense.”

“Shut up.” Minerva ordered, opening her eyes and looking down at the man. She bit her lip, then slowly eased off his back.

“What are you doing?” Whatever softness had permeated Lantuna’s voice was gone in an instant. “Corrupt him!”

“I’m going to get that information.” Minerva said slowly, wiping the dirk off on her bloodstained shirt and putting it back in its sheath as she ignored Lantuna. “Then I’m going to go to Reneta. You’d better not be here when I leave the camp.”

“You will kill him!” Lantuna was starting to get hysterical; Minerva hated it when she acted like this. “I command you!”

“I…you are sparing me?” The man sputtered. Minerva frowned.

“If you are out here when I’m done digging, then it’ll probably change my mind.”

“But I…I can’t even walk!”

“Then you’d better start crawling.” Minerva stepped over him, heading into the center of camp.