I’m struggling with my questions because everything book related is a spoiler, or potential spoiler (I really want to know more about the People) 
The nosy and anxious part of me would like to know more about your health, but that’s pretty intrusive.
I suppose I’ll ask about your background and culture and how that influences your writing.
If you don’t feel like answering that, I will take any stories of your feline companion 
I often add in enriching flavor, character work, internal monologue, etc when it feels “right” when writing, rather than planning it in detail ahead of time. So I could plausibly see some exploration of this happening.
However, I don’t have dysphoria planned as a significant character struggle for Siobhan. It’s totally true that I don’t have enough direct experience to feel sure I could portray gender dysphoria, which as you mentioned has so much nuance and range, in a way that wouldn’t hurt any of my readers. I have done some research on it and listened to some trans writers talk about their tips, but I feel I’m still far from a deep level of understanding.
(This is slightly off topic, but I think I’ve hurt people in the past, especially when I was younger, out of ignorance and obliviousness rather than any malice. I regret that and it makes me conscious that I want to avoid repeating my mistakes in new ways.)
You’ve seen some moments in the story where the body housing her has become significant regardless of external plot (discomfort with the teeth in her mouth, her being comforted that her eyes are the same, her Will is the same, etc.) But it’s never really been about gender or sex, and this is actually on purpose.
If anything, Siobhan is only becoming more detached from her physical form(s) as time goes on. They are clothes for her mind. While some may rightfully feel it is important that their body represents their mind so that they can feel comfortable in it, Siobhan shows very little of that. She can become attached to certain physical traits or have preferences, but there is a distinct difference between her conception of self and her body and I’ve wanted that to be highlighted.
I’m not really sure if gender-fluid is the right term for her. Perhaps gender-neutral or gender-undefined would be more accurate.
But to explore this as a character growth arc (which is not always about growth in the traditional sense, but sometimes about understanding) and give it more plot significance, there needs to be some reason for it to become impactful, either through her own impetus or from the involvement of other characters.
I would secondly like to point out that Siobhan has also taken Sebastien to be her true name, as well as the Raven Queen. She is identity-fluid.
We’ve only had hints at how large-scale warfare works in the setting, and I want to know: Do normal non-Mages still have a place in war? Mages are expensive and limited, so I can see some possibilities, but I’m curious to know if there’s anything worked out about that yet. I’m a terrible worldbuilding nerd like that.
I want to ask about the origin of the Gesturan spells, whether they are from before the cataclysm or not? and if the light refinement is the third sequence what are the other sequences?
My back up question, I want to know when are we going to get a chapter from Ana’s POV?
On average how many thaums does it take to become a freecaster, or how many thaums do freecasters usually have?
#1. Hooking other people into the story through word of mouth/recommendations. 
That’s literally the most valuable thing my readers can do for me. If each person were to get 3 more people hooked on the story, my audience would grow exponentially.
#2. But other than that, of course supporting me on Patreon is wonderful. This helps a lot because it makes my income a lot more steady than the jagged rise and fall of book sales that depend quite a lot on a retail platform’s algorithm. I also get paid within 30 days, rather than net-60 or even net-90 from places like Amazon.
#3. Purchasing copies of my work. Buying on a major retail platform helps boost the algorithms a pinch in addition to the percentage of income that comes to me. Buying on my little online bookshop gives me significantly a greater percentage of the income, but gives no algorithm boost to grab other potential readers. I do not have a strong preference here; I want readers to get my books wherever is most convenient for them.
#4. Reviews. Leaving reviews anywhere and everywhere is a great way to improve my chances of a new reader deciding to give me a chance. This is a form of recommendation/social proof.
#5. Requesting my ebooks from your local library. Yes, I get paid for this. And it means new people can read my books for free. I’m hoping to add audio to library catalogues soon, too.
As a fellow storyteller (though via tabletop, not book), I’m very interested in your process for mentally handling your soft magic system!
When presented with the question either from a reader, or from the narrative itself (i.e. Could X char solve Y problem using magic?), what is your mental process for answering the question and coming up with the exact details of how?
I know thats a broad question and might be difficult to answer. The system obviously has a lot of rules and boundaries, but is a soft enough system that I suspect this is a question you have to frequently answer if something is possible within the rules of magic you’ve set. If you don’t mind, I’m curious as well to how this answer differs if esoteric magic is allowed or not.
If that ends up spoilery, my back up is: How much of the story has diverted from your intentions at the outset? How has actually putting pen to pad and writing the interactions shaped and changed your ideas of characters and the world vs what you thought they would be?
Hi - is there more you can tell us about the motivations behind Aberrants - are they independently motivated, if motivated at all, or is there perhaps any uniform agenda that new, sentient aberrants might join? And are they all necessarily ‘evil’ or are osme of them more cemplex in their motivations? Apologies if I missed some reveal in a previous forum post someplace, and thank you so much for the stories and the world to read about.
Oh, gods, this has been an ordeal recently. It has been frightening and frustrating both. At points when the brain fog was at its worst, I was re-reading Book 5 during the editing process and realizing that I had forgotten writing entire chunks of chapters.
I can’t necessarily give advice because I’m not an expert; I can only talk about my own experience and conclusions.
First, I realized that if the brain fog is really bad, then that means I need to stop trying to do the complicated mental work and either do some easier admin work, or simply just rest. Yes, this means that I can’t set deadlines that don’t allow me that leeway. (Though I still have deadlines–for Book 6–that I set up before my diagnosis and at this point cannot push out any more due to Amazon’s rules.)
Secondly, I have to start taking better notes. This is part of what I’m doing a re-read of the series from the beginning for. I’ve naturally forgotten details since it’s been years since I wrote the earlier books, and I’ve been dealing with brain-fog more recently making me unnaturally forget details. While I read through, I make a note of everything that sparks a feeling of “I could make a call-back to this/I could repeat this for character consistency/this could be a relevant conversation point or plot point later.”
I’ve already, since the beginning, taken extensive notes about worldbuilding, character stuff, etc. But I need to do a better and more thorough job of it, and make sure that everything is organized in a way that’s really easy to retrieve information. I’ve also got synopses of everything that happens in every chapter, which I think maybe could be expanded a bit. Again, all this takes extra time.
The other part of taking better notes is making sure I have a list of the things I need to do. When I make a plot or character decision/revision, instead of imagining that I will remember all 5 of the spinoff ramifications of this, I need to note each one of those ramifications down. Then I need to check each of them off as I actually write or revise them. (I have found myself thinking I wrote things that I didn’t write as well as forgetting what I did write.)
But the first point is still the most important. The healthier I am, overall, the less brain fog I have. The more I rest, the less brain fog I have. Getting rid of the stress of trying to do more also seems to help.
And RobotNerd, if you (or anyone experiencing brain fog or other unusual symptoms that aren’t exactly sickness) haven’t been to the doctor, consider getting some testing done. I don’t know your situation, but there may be some simple thing causing your brain fog that you could treat.
Discovered the series and read it all in 10 days. Loved it. My question is, was there any other books/series that were inspiration for large parts of APGTS? Also since I’m now out of books, do you have any books/series you would recommend? Thank you for your time, hope you feel better soon.
No, not exactly.
I have made choices that led to unexpected ramifications, and while that has been inconvenient at times, I don’t regret it. Overall, I feel very satisfied with the progression of both plot and characters. Partially, this is because I have experienced regret from not planning ahead far enough in the past, and so now it’s always on my mind to consider the far-reaching ramifications of my story choices. I don’t always realize everything right away, but I’ve managed to avoid several big pitfalls.
However, I do think that I could have done a better job with the beginning of the story if I were to write it now.
And I think that one of my biggest ongoing “problems” is pacing, not with the overarching story, but from book to book in installments. A lot of this is because I write too long, and it’s not financially reasonable to publish a 500 thousand word book. I’m still improving my workarounds for this issue, but I think pacing is probably going to be my biggest problem for years to come, because I’m not willing to sacrifice the overall story I want to tell for the individual story of each book, and I’m not skilled enough yet to balance it properly when things that I thought would take 1 chapter turn into 3 chapters or more.
This is hard to answer outside of channeling capacity, because S isn’t exactly directly comparable to the majority of the other students. A lot of her energy is put toward extracurricular projects, and her avenues of research and accumulating areas of knowledge are unusual.
She’s caught up in a lot of basic knowledge that she was missing from the lack of formal education, and is beginning to amass a breadth and depth of understanding (beyond the secret, restricted, and esoteric stuff) that outstrips the other students, because learning in so many different fields is all connected in the end.
Her capacity would make her comparable to a somewhat lazy, recently graduated Specialized Journeyman. And if she were able to sell her services or get a job using the specific knowledge areas that she’s dug deeper into, she could certainly compete with that level of student. But she’s smart, creative, and driven so likely to very quickly outperform that Specialized Journeyman within any particular area of interest.
She has very specific areas in which she has special capability, but others in which she struggles. To compare her properly, I would need more context about the grading criteria or method of competition.
To know this, I would have needed to sit down and work through all of the rippling ramifications of such a revelation, as well as the context of how/why Sebastien revealed this.
There would have been drama, to be sure.
This is the kind of question that fanfictions are born from. Change one thing, and what else changes?
Really enjoyed all 5 books so far. Thanks a lot. For “A Builder of Dreams” (Book 6), the Amazon page says " prequel novel set seven years before the events of the main story".
Will it be entirely set 7 years ago. I feel like there’s a lot of unresolved threads at the end of “A Cauldron of Bitterness”, and really hoped the series would be self-contained.
Yes!
I appreciate you, AriethNinja. Thank you for caring.
Please don’t worry. I am incredibly resilient. It’s probably one of my defining character traits. I can always find hope for the future, and I am very good at finding small moments of happiness in the present.
I’m also stubborn, and tenacious, and driven. I’ve only ever had one problem that there was nothing I could do about. Most I can handle, given time to think and time to act. The remaining may not be able to be solved outright, but there are ways to attack them, even so.
Hi Azalea!
As a writer myself, I’m very curious about your workflow and daily operations. What does every chapter go through before being put online? How many people do you have editing or helping you out?
Thanks again for this awesome story!
@BlueNinja
I’ve skipped your question. If you’re around right now, post a backup.
It’s a good day, though as always I wish time would pass more slowly. Or, alternatively, that I could live to be 300+ years old.
(I am saving up to either buy a house or age rejuvenation therapy, when they invent it. I imagine it will be expensive to live an extra 200 years.)
If she was more active in her cult maintenance could she manufacture powerful antics thru belief? (This was inspired by another question and the story BSFW
No, it wasn’t, though I can totally see where you’re coming from.
The Light Refinement came about because I had certain criteria I wanted to hit. I wanted a spell that wasn’t standard sorcery, that could be cast anywhere, like the shadow-familiar. I wanted something light based. And I wanted something that would provide a completely new utility not being served elsewhere.
And as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, gesturan casting is actually a little easter-egg-nod to Avatar: TLA.
I have, however, read plenty of cultivation novels, so I’m not saying that my creative process wasn’t unintentionally inspired by them.
Spent most of the week musing over what questions to ask and ended up with a super serious one:
If Diedre dreams of a raven that was dreaming of a raven, would Siobhan get a headache?
A more genuine backup question that someone might have asked already:
Do you have an idea of how many books that Siobhan/Raven Queen's story will be and are you willing to tell us the number?