A brief writing update, and a look at some new Augment Saga artwork!

If you're following along on social media, you'll probably be aware that I have put a pause on writing Legacy of the Gods for the time being while I work some things out. To put it simply: I burned myself out doing NaNoWriMo in 2023, writing over 30,000 words in just 30 days (yes, I fell short of the 50k goal). Then I had to re-plot the book as I wasn't happy with how it was going. Despite completing that re-plot, I'm still not entirely happy with it and I can't bring myself to write in it. So it needs time to marinate. 

In the meantime, therefore, I have begun work on the as-yet untitled sequel to The Re-Emergence. So far, I've written a prologue and chapter one, but I do need to make some adjustments, as I realised I don't have a clear vision for one particular character's arc. The upside is that the writing of this book has made the process fun again and I am thoroughly enjoying exploring the homeworld of the Maldaccian Empire, P'horesh. And that brings me onto the artwork…

New Augment Saga Artwork

In the process of writing the first chapter of this sequel, I found myself absolutely inspired to pull out my sketchbook and draw one of the scenes: Namely, a scene in which Imperator Da'kora Corasar - one of the main characters from The Re-Emergence - arrives in the grand city of Malan, the Imperial Capital. I recently got myself a new set of alcohol markers for colouring, and I was itching to use them on this piece. After that, I cleaned up the image and adjusted some of the colours in Photoshop (because I made a mistake in some of my marker choices and got stuck with it), before applying some more advanced lighting effects which I didn't know how to achieve traditionally. The biggest challenges overall were re-learning perspective drawing, and learning how to colour iridescent feathers (especially black iridescence).

Naturally, the resulting image represents not only the first time we're seeing the homeworld of this highly advanced interstellar empire which is also steeped in ancient tradition, but also our first look at the maldaccians themselves. Here we see Da'kora at the ground level, on a dirt path towards the Imperial palace, passing an old-looking inn, surrounded by alien flora. 

So without further ado, here's the piece:

I hope you like it! I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. Anyway, I would love to do a deep dive one day into the worldbuilding I've done for the Maldaccian Empire, perhaps in a future blog post as the book comes closer to release.

NaNoWriMo & Generative AI

Also, I won't be participating in NaNoWriMo again this year - not just because it burned me out last year, but mainly because of the parent organisation's horrible conduct, including its latest pro stance on generative AI in writing. I don't believe such a technology has any place in writing or the creative sphere generally, and so you'll never find me using it in my writing, artworks, or marketing materials.

And I certainly don’t want to support writerly organisations that do not give due consideration to the harm this does to actual writers. As such, I’ve deleted my account with them and won’t be going back. This is starting to become a disappointing trend within organisations that are supposed to be looking out for authors. Recently, both the Alliance for Independent Authors (ALLi) and the Author’s Guild have both come out in support of AI in writing. I consider this a horrendous misstep and urge those who are members of either of these organisations to put pressure on them to retract.

Remember, kids: If you didn’t write it, why should we read it?

What’s Next?

As for the artwork, there will be more to come, perhaps in the form of character portraits for my bird people. I’m also working on a couple of other super secret, unannounced writing projects, so watch this space for those!