AMA (Ask Me Anything) May 1st 12:00-3:00pm MT/UTC-6

General Discussion
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Ah, I see. Well, Amazon gives no ability to mention the total number of books planned, and I’m not totally sure either. Amazon lets you put up a preorder book up to 12 months in advance, but that’s all.

I do have an idea of what needs to happen before the ending, but there are several different major conflicts I can hit before that point, or not write and end the series faster. But this series is unlikely to be less than 12 books long, unless something unexpected happens to me. It will be several years before the series is completed.

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Is it okay to ask another question? I iguess you’ll either get to it or you won’t.

Can you give an example from Seeds of Chaos of something you added early on that had unexpected ripples? I’d ask about PGTS but it somehow feels like a spoiler

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Grabs the bubble wrap.

There will be no unexpected things happening to this author - or else!

Azalea, why are you running? Come back, you might fall!

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Just think how many more never-ending cliffs we have to survive to get to book 12!

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I’m relieved, even before end of book 5, I was worried how you would tie it all together, even if book 6 hadn’t been a prequel. On reflection, I realize LitRPG etc, other modern genres, are constantly extending, and would be listed similarly on amazon, I guess I projected my hopes.

Good luck, I really think you should be having much more success and readers. Your books are far stronger that most newly released fantasy. I would have thought the two identities would be the most fascinating aspect, but I find the raven queen’s reputation vs reality and people’ s projections, intriguing, and I can’t think of any other books that have used that concept so effectively.

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I bought myself some climbing gear, I’m prepared.

(Not really)

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I see, bought the gear but no idea how to use it? Maybe Azalea can teach you - decent chance it is one of the things she’s learnt before starting Korean :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’m still here and my brain has not melted yet, so sure!

Okay, so Gods of Blood and Bone was the first book I ever completed. I had been writing before that, but always got about 50k words in and ran out of steam. Getting through the middle of a book is hard, and especially hard for people who haven’t done it before.

I worked really, incredibly hard to make that book as good as possible. (And BTW, if anyone is trying to become a better writer, I highly recommend Holly Lisle’s How to Revise Your Novel course. It’s the best money and time I’ve ever spent on my writing career. Her teaching style and my learning style mesh almost perfectly. I’m even considering going through it again the next time I write a non PGTS book.) I spent over 1000 focused hours on that book before publication.

But I didn’t know where the overall story was going. I wasn’t planning ahead coherently. I dropped some hints in for the future, but I didn’t have what I would now consider a real plan. Just…more of the same, but different, right? That’s how you write books? I didn’t have a coherent greater story arc planned, and I didn’t have the experience to make it happen from instinct alone.

But perhaps the bigger problem was that I was evolving so quickly as a writer while continuing the series. I had started off with something very action-heavy, and while we had important character moments and I tried to make the feeling very feeling-full, the series wasn’t really about deep thinking in the way that PGTS is. But I, as a person, am really a deep thinker, and I discovered that I wanted to write more to that.

But then when I tried to add more of that to Seeds of Chaos, my readership tanked from one book to the next. I think I just lost the people who were interested in the more “shounen” style. Or I went too dark and hopeless. Or I just made the book too long and people got bored. I’ve never been 100% sure.

I discovered some good writing advice online about how important meeting reader expectation is, and the many ways you can fail to do so.

So, this isn’t exactly answering your question, but I feel like it fits the theme.

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Yes, you are so correct that it would be almost impossible to tie things together in only one more book. Even if I wanted to end the series right now for some reason, I would probably need at least 3 more books to do so in a satisfying manner.

But on the bright side, when I finally do finish the series, any people who like to re-read can have 2-3 million words of content to get through!

IMO, as long as the story is still good, the longer the better. I read too fast and am always disappointed when a good story ends.

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Okay, well it looks like I’ve reached the end of the list!

I am off for the day, and I’m going to go read this Brazilian-language fanfiction of a Chinese TV show that I’ve been enjoying lately!

I love that the internet lets me explore eclectic interests that I would otherwise never have access to.

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Oh, also.

Thank you guys for showing up. I enjoyed answering your questions and I hope you enjoyed reading my answers. :slight_smile:

Let’s do this again sometime.

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Always :smiley: Enjoy the rest of your day!

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It was an amazing AMA! Thank you again and have a great day!

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Thanks again. Wishing you less brain fog and more success

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Thank you for doing this! One day I hope your fan base will be so large you won’t be able to answer all the questions in an AMA, but until that day comes I’ll enjoy all this quality time :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

(I keep recommending your books everywhere, I gave away the first book in the series to two friends of mine, I genuinely believe your books have that star quality that can hook people.)

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Yes that was a great answer! Seeds of Chaos did always feel like it had a very distinct parts, so I can see why that would lose people, but for what it’s worth I liked the whole thing! (Though I agree your writing has improved. Even between books, let alone between series. There’s a reason PGTS is one of my all time favourites)

Thank you for answering so many questions! Enjoy your reading :slightly_smiling_face:

P.s

Saaame!

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Hey, I’m almost certain of it, but have you read the Rigel Black Chronicles? Considering the HP fanfic and Tamora Pierce I’d think so, but it could get overlooked! I love that series deeply and kinda recognize the similar influences. I love your books too of course, I am so happy to follow along wherever you take Siobhan. :)))

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Yes! It was recommended to me several times, and it’s now on my list of “recommended and similar” books page on my main website.

I have not caught up with the latest book or 2, though.

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Funny enough, this was my 50th love, and I couldn’t emote to anything else!

But turned out it was done, so I had just enough