Kiss of the Shadow Queen

KotSQ: Second Revision #23

It’s crunch season at my soulless corporate writing gig, so personal revision is proceeding at a creep. Since the last update, the revision has reached the point at which I’d left myself a note that Heroine didn’t have to participate so much in Hero spilling his guts. He wants to tell her. He’s not lying. […]

WordWeavers October 2023

I’m not officially on social media, but I do peek at non-civilization-destroying venues from time to time. I see a lot of writer games, of which WordWeavers seems the most fun. Per the official Google Doc: WordWeavers is a writing game on Mastodon created by Branwen OShea and Alina Leonova. The hosts post daily questions

KotSQ: Second Revision #22

I still imagine that when I get to 75% of this revision pass, I’ll feel like the end is in sight. *plugs latest numbers into progress bar* I’m never going to see 75%, am I?

WordWeavers September 2023

I’m not officially on social media, but I do peek at non-civilization-destroying venues from time to time. I see a lot of writer games, of which WordWeavers seems the most fun. Per the official Google Doc: WordWeavers is a writing game on Mastodon created by Branwen OShea and Alina Leonova. The hosts post daily questions

KotSQ: Second Revision #21

In this round of revision, I unraveled the mystery of my repeated notes to “mention a train.” Trains are technologically appropriate for the worldbuilding, but no one rides one in this story, and Past Me harped on it an awful lot for it to be only a handy size comparison for one creature.

KotSQ: Second Revision #20

I’m at the point of revision where I’m unconfident any word means what I think it means. Cue looking up big, snooty words¹ like “rife” and “meander.” Spellcheck randomly putting a red squiggly under “extent” didn’t help. And spellcheck approves “troublemaker” but not “troublemaking,” so does or does not the latter need a space? A

KotSQ: Second Revision #19

In this bout of revision, I added some physical actions in the form of “exercises.” Heroine went through a lengthy convalescence followed by months of relative peace in the marsh and isn’t in her peak physical form. As soon as she admits she won’t be able to fade into the background and evade what’s coming,

KotSQ: Second Revision #18

Every time I mentioned Hero’s age at the time of his traumatic childhood event in previous drafts, I wrote “ten (or twelve?).” Unable to remember if I decided one or the other earlier in this revision pass, I wasted a fair amount of time searching for that answer and debating the pros and cons of

KotSQ: Second Revision #17

Since last time, I added a dark mode toggle to the site for folks who find a black background easier to read. The button floats at the lower right of the screen, and you can click back and forth to your heart’s content. Please be aware dark mode removes at least one accessibility feature (underlined

KotSQ: Second Revision #16

We’re now past the halfway point (as measured by how much of the previous draft has been eaten). Present working draft is around 95,000 words, which is 100% of many other books, so it doesn’t feel much like a celebratory milestone. I know I love this book because no matter how tired and defeated I

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