Dear Dragon

So, I keep meaning to come back here and edit some of my writing advice posts, ones like: “Writing Reference: Life After a Long Term Relationship Ends”, “Write What You Need, but Also What You Can”, “How to miscommunication”, and another 15 posts. 

Why haven’t I been active? 

Well, for a while I’ve just been too depressed to create anything anywhere. 

But I stopped Tumblr first, why? 

Well, today I was reminded when I logged into TikTok which is a powerful marketing tool which as an author I can’t ignore, and found one of my tumblr posts copies and pasted, no credit, nothing to indicate the posters wasn’t the original author. 

So, I sat in bed at 3 in the morning crying for an hour. 

I don’t care when posts don’t do well, that’s to be expected. 

I don’t expect to profit from these posts. 

But, to have another author (because this user has books for sale in the link their bio), just copy and paste something I put time and effort into, and receive 400k views, more than I’ve ever received on a video, when I used to post his same advice to my account. 

It made me realize that, each post I create is another post that will profit other people who just don’t care about the original creator and will steal that work. (Because copying and pasting my post is stealing)

That hit me hard. 

Right now, I don’t want to share my posts; I want to keep to myself because I don’t want to be crying at 3 am while other people profit off of my work. 

I’m now 25 years old. 

Time just doesn’t want to take a break? Keeps on going. But, that’s okay. 

To celebrate 25 years of life I decided to choose the 14th-18th of December to make both my first and second book downloadable for free! 

I mean writing is my favourite thing to do and when people read my writing it fulls me with a warm feeling. So, I can’t afford to do anything on my birthday but this is free, for me and you! 

So, if you enjoy YA Fantasy, Dragons, just free books in general, check them out! 

Book 1: Dear Dragon by Hannah Russell

When I was a teen, there were far too many books featuring characters that were hundreds of year old and dating teens. 

It still happens. But we’ve come to a point where many people agree this isn’t great. There’s a huge debate when it comes to age differences in media, but teenagers are generally too young to be dating immortals. 

A lot of these stories justify the age difference with the immortal having the body of a teen. Now, if they have the mind of a teen I can kind of see it, however then there’s the problem of, why even bother having them be hundreds of years old if that’s not going to play a role at all in their character? 

Personally I avoid them, kind of. 

Here’s the thing, in my own books there is a variety of species with very different life expectancy-s, some are immortal, others live for hundreds of years, some have the normal average human lifespan. 

So how do relationships work? Scratch that, how do healthy relationships work? 

Because we are allowed to write problematic relationships as long as we don’t fantasize them. 

Well, I use the life-long method of, it depends. 

Because a five year age different is not the same when talking 15 to 20 and 30 to 35. The same goes for immortality, a two hundred year age gap is completely unacceptable for an eighteen-year-old and two-hundred-and-eighteen-year-old. 

But what about a forty-year-old and two-hundred- and-forty-year-old? I allow it. Because the thing is, yes, this a complicated and layered relationship, but these are two consenting and understanding adults. It’s important there be communication about the different experiences and this relationships won’t be simple, but there’s no abuse happening here. 

A forty-year-old is capable of understanding what they’re getting into. 

The immortal character is also capable of understand their human partner won’t be around forever. 

For there me, there isn’t a number of years that makes an age gap acceptable or not. For me the youngest characters needs to be fully developed mentally, and there needs to be healthy communication. 

That isn’t to say I don’t have characters who are seven-hundred years old and refuse to date anybody under the age of five-hundred, but in their case it’s not a matter of morality, it’s about preferences. 

This character has experienced a life very different to that of a human or any other short life span species, and explaining that type of life can be difficult, hard work. They prefer to date people who share similar experiences. 

I have a variety of characters with a variety of relationship preferences and their own personal rules. But this is how I handle age-gaps.

I hope you found this interesting and I would love to hear if you have a different opinion! 

If you want to check out my books, free to read stories or other social medias you can check out my author website. I also have a discord for my book series where I’m open to talk about writing, publishing and books in general so if you’d like to reach out me join my discord!

My third book will be going into beta reading soon so if that something you’re interesting in, stay tuned! 

1.- Losing custody. I love the found-family trope. Usually there isn’t actual custody but sometimes there is. But keeping custody can be very difficult especially where money is involved and when it comes to fantasy worlds, there is sooooo much more that can go wrong. 

You’ve got a group that’s been together for a book or two and suddenly they are forcefully split up. The younger member taken away to worsen the whole thing. It can be heartbreaking with no need for anybody to die. 

2.- Only just failing. Failure is painful. Now picture this: the information they needed to succeed arrived just minutes, hours or the day after the big failure. The person who brings the information is heartbroken knowing if they’d arrived just a little faster... 

3.- Having characters accept they aren’t good for each other after trying very hard. This can be a relationship, a friendship or anything, really. A lot of you have probably already lived this, and it’s painful. We all have distinct personalities and sometimes we aren’t a good match. No amount of hard work can make us happy together and that eventual acceptance is relieving, but also painful. 

4.- Expectation vs Reality. I’m going to give an example some of you have been through and some of you will go through. Publishing a book. Spending four years planning, drafting, re-writing, editing, marketing, getting the perfect cover and finally pressing publish just to see it flop. Watch how sales don’t even come close to covering the cost of the cover and reviews are few and far between. Watch how years of telling yourself. “If I can just finish this book people will read it...” And that wasn’t the case. And this still breaks my heart sometimes. It was a always a possibility I was aware of, but it still hurt. 

Now in books we expect everything to go end well, we expect the character to eventually get that job they wanted or end up with the love interest. So having a character’s dreams end up being... wrong or unaccomplished. It’s hard. But sometimes it’s important to let characters not get what they want, and let them continue despite it. It’s important to fall so we can get up again. 

As usual, I hope this helped! If you want to check out my books, free to read stories or other social medias you can check out my author website. I also just set up a discord for my book series but I’m hoping to talk about writing, publishing and books in general so if you’d like to reach out me join my discord! 

Well, in some months it’ll be time to do a Christmas Sale. So I decided to do my last sale before then to celebrate a month since releasing my second book! 

Because of this you can get Dear Dragon my debut novel for free (only today Wednesday the 14th)

And Rumoured Resurgence will be on sale for a week starting today! 

Piping has existed since long before The Union, a human invention like most practical things. However, hot water is a bit more nuance. It’s been around since Peter’s reign, centuries ago. It appeared in the form of a potion.

People say it was one of the first ever alchemy recipes, and they’re half right. See, it was one of the first written alchemy recipes and one of the few that continues to be used to this day. It was discovered at the very beginning of the so-called alchemy revolution in which there was an influx of scholars interested in these studies and many new recipes arose from it.

The potion is called Califeru, though many refer to it merely as the heating potion. They are most commonly made by brewing jasmine tea over an entire week before adding live philodendron selloum, leaving it for another week and then it is left in the sun for another week.

If this sounds like a lot of work for a hot bath? Well, it is, but fortunately from the moment of invention, there was a business opportunity. Alchemists would get apprentices used to measuring ingredients and controlling temperature by having them make large batches of the stuff. They would then bottle them up and sell them at the markets.

The average potion size was enough for a week’s baths for one person. It was just another thing to add to the grocery list each week.

There hadn’t been much innovation as the potions work pretty perfectly. There have been other methods tested, such as metal water tanks kept on the roof in the sunlight or baths built over candles, but both were far more fiddly and less reliable.

One innovation thought, reserved for large buildings with many rooms, happened in piping. A genius idea to have not one water tank but two. One for the water and another holding the potion. It took some time to get the quantities right but once that was sorted you could open a tap and have hot water directly at your fingertips.

This also allowed for the appearance of showers.

Something fun to know is that when Henry was rebuilding the cottage after Itazu burnt it down by accident, he considered putting in the two tanks despite its high cost in exchange for the convenience of showers. But Itazu insisted she could heat up an entire water tank without help.

So Henry had a normal metal water tank installed which Itazu would place her palms on and heat up with her magic. The first few times Henry found he had to pour a bath and wait for the water to cool down, but eventually Itazu figured out the ideal temperature. Henry still has a small basket of heating potions though, in case Itazu forgets or is not home for a while. 

The best way to learn to write is to read a lot! 

Personal experience tells me that writing with the intent of improving and receiving feedback is also extremely important! But I did read an inhuman amount during my teen years. 

Now I really just a human amount. 

And reading can be expensive! Especially if you’re set on a specific genre. 

So, I thought I’d throw together a post with the free stories that I have to offer and invite other authors to re-blog and add their stories! (Is this just me trying to add to my TBR while not having money for books? Maybe). 

Make sure you add a link and the genre! 

Out of Body Experience. Novella. Genre: Dystopian-Fantasy. Status: Complete.

Oppida Institute for Reformation. Prequel. Genre: Fantasy Adventure. Status: Ongoing (to be complete before next summer).

Love, Coffee and Dragons. Related short stories. Genre: Cozy Fantasy Romance between two women. Status: Ongoing 

Other fantasy short stories on my website. 

I left synopsis out because there is a synopsis after you click the link. I think the best way to make this list more accesible would be to be brief but obviously do as you see fit! 

TW: Mentions of mild child neglect, EDs, physical and mental health.

Sorry for not posting in a while but I just got back from a family holiday. The fact this is the first post I write probably isn’t a good sign but I think this is an interesting topic. 

First, what do I mean by failing a child? Well, I mean that pain is inflicted, either emotional or physical. But in this case without realizing it, I’m not talking obvious physical or verbal abuse. Most of what I’m going to talk about is more ignorance than anything else. But it’s a great way to make characters more distant with their parents without having to make the parents bad people. 

1.- The assumptions that children exaggerate their pain. I’ve seen this so often it’s painful. When a child complains they’re in pain, when they cry and scream for help, parents often treat this as a tantrum and don’t stop to consider perhaps they are actually in a lot of pain. 

As well as illness another thing to consider is, how many of you have had your parents laugh after you fall down and start crying before stopping to check if you’re okay? This can also be emotionally damaging when a child is actually hurt. 

This kind of ignorance can also cause food intolerances to be ignored and be forced to continue eating foods that cause us harm because they’re healthy. 

2.- Failure to recognize your children are different to you. This can be both physical and metal. I think the fastest way to explain this is through two examples: 

1.- Physical. My mother has straight hair, mine is curly. If you don’t know, curly hair requires a very different treatment to straight hair. As a child I recall my mother putting huge emphasis on brushing my hair every morning, I did as I was told and every morning my hair looked worse than before brushing it. It’d be all fizzy and just not nice to touch. My mother saw this as either me not brushing it, or when she saw me brushing it, that I was somehow doing something wrong. When I realized my hair was much better when I didn’t brush it and just combed it in the shower, she was having none of it. It wasn’t until I moved out I was allowed to do what I wanted with my hair and it looks much better now. 

That bad hair care not only affected my mental image of myself, I suffered bullying at school and constant criticism from my mother. When I never got the tools to properly care for my hair. 

2.- Mental. This one is far more obvious. If you have anxiety or any other mental issue that your parents don’t have, convincing them those feelings are real is extremely difficult, sometimes, near impossible. 

But even more simple than that, I study best with music on, if there’s no music I will listen to conversations on the street and not be able to study. My parents studied best in quiet. They forced me to study in a way that didn’t work for me just because it had worked for them. 

3.- Teaching children to save but not to spend. This one is a bit weird but stick with me. As a child I was given very little in material goods, which is fine, if ever I wanted something the answer was you can get with your own money. Okay, teaches children to spend money responsibly! Except the issue was, at the age of fourteen, I needed a computer for school and stuff. Computers are expensive. My pocket money was 5 euros a week. To earn that pocket money I literally ran the house (my father was ill, I ran the house because I was the oldest, my siblings were only like ten and five or something), to save up for a computer I needed to not spend any money during my childhood. I didn’t have new toys or actual hobbies. I also never went out with friends to eat or have drinks or go to the pool. 

Like I’ve said, my parents didn’t mean to take away my childhood. My father wasn’t at fault for being ill. The issue for me was the fact my parents were well-off. My sister at this same age (and I’m happy for her) gets sixty-five euros. The computer ended up being a family computer. I used it to manage the entire house’s administrative work. I let my sibling use it for school later on. It went to my father for work when I left home and bought a laptop. 

And as an adult who lives alone, the amount of anxiety I feel when spending money is... well, I lived off five euros a week during my first few years. I wasn’t eating enough or healthy. I’ve improved, but even now I’m still the person who finds the cheapest thing on the menu and always has that. 

And that’s a trauma they taught me. 

Had spending money been an option during my childhood, I perhaps would have learnt to spend as well as save. But I was taught to save to an extreme point and still do today. 

This is very specific. But there are many ways parents end up teaching traumas while trying to teach healthy habits. A lot of EDs come from home for example. It’s very difficult to stop and think about the long-term consequences of certain actions. 

4.- Body image. I knew what dieting was at the age of three because my mother struggle with her image. I knew I was chubby at the age of four. My mother still talks about my fat phase when I was pre-teen. I don’t even know if it was real at this point though, because at sixteen I was told by my doctor was I worrying under-weight, and my mother told me I was fat. I believed my mother over my doctor until she told me to not be surprised if my summer clothing didn’t fit because I’d put on weight. When every single item I tried on was baggy, I stopped listening to her. She probably still thinks it stretched out while in storage. But I know I stopped fainting when I started eating. 

To this day, my mother reminds me how I musn’t eat desserts and how much better I’d look if I just lost a bit of weight. 

I know from how she talks about herself that it’s more a reflection of her mental health than mine. But the inability to separate our issues from our children’s issues is dangerous. 

Trauma shouldn’t be hereditary. And for that, we need to take a step back and evaluate our beliefs. 

Anyway... that’s enough of my trauma turned into writing advice for one day! 

I’m sorry if this was a bit heavy, I promise to write something lighter soon! 

It’s been a really weird summer for me. I’m sorry I haven’t been active but just seeing the notification from tumblr and other social medias has given me a lot of comfort these months. 

So, thank you for being here! Remember, everything changes, and if things aren’t going great today, that doesn’t mean two years down the line things can’t be better. Sometimes all we can do is wait things out. Hoping you find something to smile about today. 

Rumoured Resurgence, my second book and the second book in the Dear Dragon series released today. It’s available as a paperback ebook or on kindle unlimited. 

It’s been a busy month leading up to this moment and I’m very excited for the coming month and all that goes into new releases. 

I will talk more about this book in the coming weeks, but today I just wanted to give you the first chapter to preview! 

Chapter I: Rumours

Elizabeth left the local stables with the two large bags, ready to stock up on enough fruit and vegetables to feed the entire castle. The entire castle with it’s four inhabitants. The streets were busy, as was normal for this time of day, but Elizabeth found it wasn’t worth waking up at four in the morning to get here before the crowd. She reached the fruit store. It was the fourth one this month, not content with the previous three. She held a piece of paper with her order between two fingers. As the lady took note and weighed the peppers, the dreaded small talk began. “So, have you heard the rumours?” Elizabeth took a deep breath, her green eyes shut for a moment as she bit her thin lips. “Yes. I believe I have.” “Dragons, alive, can you believe it?” Elizabeth nodded, her skinny fingers made their way through her short black hair. “Yes.” “The rumours are they could be very dangerous, that they’ve infiltrated the palace? Apparently, they plan to kill the king.” “They’ve infiltrated… kill the king?” Elizabeth looked to the ground then back up at the middle aged woman who smiled as she did her job. “These rumours sound awfully dangerous.” “Dangerous?” The woman smiled, it was clear gossip and rumours were the highlight of her day. “Those creatures are dangerous!” “They’re magical creatures, just like any other. Probably terrified.” “Terrified?” The lady handed over a bag of fruit. “Those creatures are huge and strong.” “I heard a rumour, they were just children, the remaining dragons.” “Hm.” The woman was now throwing the numbers into her machine, waiting for the total to come up. “They could be.” “There’s very few of them left, something must have happened.” She handed over the coins. “Well,” she handed her the last of the fruit along with the receipt, “agree to disagree.” Though the woman smiled and waved goodbye. Elizabeth did little more than hold back a glare. Agree to disagree was a nice philosophy, but not when the rumours that spread were causing dangerous mindsets that put innocent people in danger. There was nothing there for Elizabeth to agree with.

Elizabeth left the local stables with the two large bags, ready to stock up on enough fruit and vegetables to feed the entire castle. The entire castle with it’s four inhabitants. The streets were busy, as was normal for this time of day, but Elizabeth found it wasn’t worth waking up at four in the morning to get here before the crowd. She reached the fruit store. It was the fourth one this month, not content with the previous three. She held a piece of paper with her order between two fingers. As the lady took note and weighed the peppers, the dreaded small talk began. “So, have you heard the rumours?” Elizabeth took a deep breath, her green eyes shut for a moment as she bit her thin lips. “Yes. I believe I have.” “Dragons, alive, can you believe it?” Elizabeth nodded, her skinny fingers made their way through her short black hair. “Yes.” “The rumours are they could be very dangerous, that they’ve infiltrated the palace? Apparently, they plan to kill the king.” “They’ve infiltrated… kill the king?” Elizabeth looked to the ground then back up at the middle aged woman who smiled as she did her job. “These rumours sound awfully dangerous.” “Dangerous?” The woman smiled, it was clear gossip and rumours were the highlight of her day. “Those creatures are dangerous!” “They’re magical creatures, just like any other. Probably terrified.” “Terrified?” The lady handed over a bag of fruit. “Those creatures are huge and strong.” “I heard a rumour, they were just children, the remaining dragons.” “Hm.” The woman was now throwing the numbers into her machine, waiting for the total to come up. “They could be.” “There’s very few of them left, something must have happened.” She handed over the coins. “Well,” she handed her the last of the fruit along with the receipt, “agree to disagree.” Though the woman smiled and waved goodbye. Elizabeth did little more than hold back a glare. Agree to disagree was a nice philosophy, but not when the rumours that spread were causing dangerous mindsets that put innocent people in danger. There was nothing there for Elizabeth to agree with.

Meanwhile, in another part of the kingdom many hours travel inside, inside a two story building in the royal garden, close to the palace, it was dinner time. A long dining table was laid and covered in food. Along it sat the remaining dragons in their ‘human form’, as most revered to it. Despite the presence of food there was a lack of eating. Sarah, the youngest at ten years old, was braiding her red hair, pretending like she hadn’t seen the plate in front of her. She still had pijamas on, her teachers had made a fuss but what could you expect when classes were held just bellow her bedroom? She had golden skin that according to her teachers did not look good with the yellow pyjamas, just as the pink pyjamas did not match her red hair. They’d soon learn Sarah wore what she wanted when she wanted and they’d be best keeping their comments to themselves, else they encourage her. Her older brother, Danny age fourteen, sat facing her, scrunching his nose up at the vegetables one of the caretakers had thrown on his plate. His tawny coloured hair was always a mess but the past two months has been worse than usual. Soon he’d require an adults help to untangle it or a hair cut. His skin was already paler than most of the kids and it was becoming paler as it lost his tan. Back in Aerradra the sun was everywhere at all times, but here in Oppida, the kingdom’s capital, the sun remained hidden by the tall buildings and was not as warm. Violet, the second youngest, was eating, but at a pace that would lead anybody to believe she planned to be there all night. She stopped after a little while to imitate Sarah, braiding her black hair before stopping and going back to her food for another few minutes. Stop and go. Her tawny skin was also becoming paler at the lack of sun. Kai wondered if they’d need to start taking vitamins soon. Fred, the tallest of the children, was spinning the fork in his lean fingers with disinterest. He had umber coloured skin that made his white almost silver hair pop. Said silver hair reached his shoulders, he’d been growing it out for years now having fallen in love with long hair after seeing a picture in a book. Elizabeth and Emily had been happy to let him grow it out. May had been indifferent. However the new caretakers kept scolding him. He had taken it as a challenge but the older kids could see the comments affecting him at times. Melany was the only one who ate normally, although she was never a great eater, eating was just something she had to do before getting back to her books. She too had umber skin that caused her blonde hair to pop. Her blonde hair contained pink highlights that she’d been criticised for when arriving at the new home. “It is not appropriate to have such colours while one is inhabiting the palace,” they’d said to her. Proving their ignorance as dragons are colourful creature not only in their four legged scaled form but also in their human form. Often their colours showed through their hair and their eyes. Melany had no intention to bleach her hair just to make some boring palace workers with nothing better to do than gossip feel better. Zack, who sat next to his twin brother Kai, was not concentrated on his own plate. Instead he stared at the one across. Zack and Kai shared their brown skin and blond hair, they shared their height and head shape, and their traumatic childhood. However they were easily differentiable, Kai was more muscular where Zack was skinnier. Kai kept his hair short while Zack’s was close to covering his eyes. Kai had bright blue eyes while Zack’s were green, matching their scales when transformed. Their personalities too were different, however their concerns were the same, the way they dealt with said concerns was once again different. Zack stared at Itazu who once had a grand appetite, up until she’d been captured by a hunter along with Kai. She hadn’t been the same since. Kai didn’t know if it was the near-death experience or the fact they found her dead mother’s head mounted on a wall. As though dragons were no more than ornaments with their colourful scales and large horns. Itazu’s purple eyes were half closed and watched the food willing it to disappear. Zack was wishing for the same although with a different intended route. Itazu was only a little shorter than Zack and Kai, but with her back hunched she looked even shorter. Her hair that was usually curled into perfect little locks was looking a bit less curly and a bit more wavy. She had beige skin and dark purple hair. Of all the dragons she stuck out the most, which wasn’t good considering she was one of the best at getting into trouble. She was also the only one of the dragons raised separately. Believing herself the last dragon until Kai found her. Kai elbowed his twin, his own eyes moving towards Zack’s food. Zack bit his lip, but nodded, taking a bite. Itazu pushed the plate away, she whispered something nobody heard, most likely excusing herself before heading up to her room. She was the first, but the others didn’t take long to follow. “It’s been a month,” Zack informed as they walked up the stairs. Kai nodded, it had. Yet it felt like yesterday. One month ago Kai, Zack and Itazu had left the safety of Aerradra for no good reason. Kai and Itazu had been captured by a hunter, a person who had no problem killing magical creatures to sell for parts. The experience had been the most terrifying thing Kai had ever experienced, being chained up in a cell not knowing whether they’d make it out alive or not. They’d escaped, but a few weeks later Itazu had gone back and ended the life of the man who hurt them. The man who killed her mother. Now they lived in the palace garden under the protection of the king. “I’ll talk to her,” Kai promised. At the top of the stairs, there were banisters from which they could see the dining table with the kids bellow, as well as the sofas, some bookshelves and some fireplaces on either side of the stairs. The building was large, nowhere near as large as the castle from which they came, but it was certainly big enough for the eight of them. Against the wall were identical doors, one after another, they led into mostly identical rooms. There hadn’t been much time to personalise them yet. The building was not meant for a bunch of young dragons. It was meant for the king’s closest friends and family who came to visit from far of lands and needed a place to stay for long visits. But for the past month it had been the home to dragon kind. A secret that was kept only through the threat of losing one’s job if the rumours got out and could be tracked to any specific palace employee. Zack moved over to his own door, while Kai moved past it, knocking on another. “Come in.” He heard the soft tired voice. He entered, closing the door behind him. “Hey Taz.” She looked up from where she was sitting on the window sill. “Hey Kai.” He walked over, sitting down next to her. “Good views?” he asked peering out at the palace gardens. The view wasn’t much different to his own room. Long reaching grass fields, the palace that towered over them. In the distance the flowerbeds that stood before the palace walls, the forest behind the walls and the small train station. Every morning a cargo train came in to deliver supplies for the palace. Once a week they would empty the castle dungeons into a more secure train to head to a secure location, usually one of the many prisons the kingdom had. You usually didn’t get into the palace dungeon for a minor crime after all. Unless you were of political importance. “What do you want?” Kai smiled. Itazu was always to the point, it’s something they had in common. “You’re not eating well.” She nodded. “Zack’s beginning to worry, I can’t keep reassuring him.” “I’ll try.” Kai frowned. “Does your father know?” “The specifics? No,” Itazu rolled her eyes, “he’s already nervous enough about the whole ordeal.” “I’ve barely seen him, I thought he’d be all over you after…” “He’s been busy,” she explained, “with us and all…” “Of course.” Kai nodded. “I will eat more.” She looked at Kai. “I promise.” “I’m… I’m not worried about that,” he admitted, “I’m worried about you. I thought being back in Oppida would help, you seemed so desperate to get back here.” “Not here, not just the city as a whole,” she pointed out. “I wanted to be home, not locked behind stone walls in just another kind of castle,” she opened the window. “This isn’t…” Kai nodded. “I know I messed up, all of this is my fault and—” Kai grabbed her arm. “Hey.” She closed her mouth and took a deep breath, “it’s true.” They argued over this often. Itazu blamed herself for their capture, she wasn’t entirely wrong, it had been her who convinced Zack to leave Aerradra and Kai to follow behind. But unannounced to Itazu, she wasn’t the only one blaming herself, May too had put all the blame on Itazu at the time, going so far as to threaten her life while she was unconscious. Kai had protected her, threatening May so she’d save Itazu. “It’s not that simple, you tried your best. Things were complicated. Nobody who didn’t deserve it got hurt, so, no harm done.” The hunter deserved it as far as Kai was concerned, and although their living situations had changed, they were alive, they were safe and they were together. Itazu smiled. “It’s not that simple.” Kai ignored the argument, pulling her into a hug. “You know you can talk to me, right?” Itazu nodded. “How’s Zack handling all of this anyway?” “Good, we have coffee every evening, you should join.” She nodded, every evening they knocked on her door and invited her down. She was running out of excuses. “Maybe.” “You should join.” She eyed him. “Join us.” “Is that an order? Or a threat?” “Depends, will either of those make you come?” She smiled. “What do you think?” “I think last time you failed to follow my orders we both ended up in trouble so, you should have learnt your lesson.” Itazu laughed. “Okay, so if I go for coffee we’re even?” “An arrow pierced my shoulder and I was locked up in a cage…” he shrugged. “Yeah, a coffee should do.” She laughed. “Fine. I can’t turn down a deal that good or I wouldn’t be my father’s daughter.” Itazu’s father was the right hand man to the king, good with negotiations and other political matters.

That evening, when they walked down the stairs for coffee, they were all three surprised to find Henry, Itazu’s father, standing in the living area. “Father.” Itazu jumped down the stairs and hugged him. “Hello Precious.” He smiled, hugging her back, before pulling away. He had papers in his hands. Henry had dark brown hair that needed a bit of a cut, his suit was a little creased, yet he still looked mostly put together. He wasn’t very tall, taller than Itazu but shorter than Kai or Elizabeth. However the way he held himself most of the time, his expression and his way of dressing made him look taller. “I was just seeking you out. I require we… um…” the smile was gone, he glanced at Kai and Zack, “could we talk in private?” Itazu looked back at her friends, Kai nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you two later.” Zack looked a little disappointed. “Yeah. Sure. Later.”

As of today, 31st of July. It’s been one full year since my debut novel Dear Dragon came out. 

The thing people don’t tell you about going from writing a story behind closed doors to publishing it is sitting at the computer with the mouse hovering over the send button questioning every word you put down on paper up until that moment. 

People tell you about how there is always more to be done, you can always do just one more draft, but eventually, you have to say “enough”, and move onto the next step. Deciding its time to put that story into the world is far more difficult than just editing one more draft. 

I don’t know how many times you expect to read that story before publishing. I read mine well over twenty times. The amount of scenes that got lost or changed along the way. 

Characters got left behind. 

Whole plotlines got cut out. 

The world grew ever bigger. 

What once was going to be a standalone became a series and with the second book release just around the corner and third book already in its second draft, I struggle to remember how I got here. 

Things get easier. That I can say. My first book took four years of polishing, my second book took a year and a half, perhaps one? I forgot to write down the starting date... and I prefer my second book to my first. I think it’s different, less actions, more characters moment, but I think it’s better. I think I’m a better writer. I think I’m more confident in my ability and I have better access to the tools I need. 

I also haven’t seen anybody talk about all the things you’re going to need to learn to be an author, other than writing! And no, I don’t mean researching random topics. I mean, marketing, you need to market your book and that means understanding social media, that means being confident in front of a camera a lot of the time, it means speaking clearly; it means writing posts like these; it means being okay with rejection from people making fun of your appearance on YouTube to working for hours on a video that gets seven views... you also might want to learn how to manage your author website, how to make promotional material, how to take appealing photos of your book... 

Or you might be able to afford to pay other people for all of that, in which case, good on you for creating work for others! 

That’s a lot of things I’ve had to learn this past year and I like to think each book I publish is going to be better than the last and I’m going to be better and more prepared to deal with publishing and marketing. 

Every year I learn more. 

Being an author has been really difficult at times: when nobody bought a book or downloaded any of my freely available stories in like three months, it was demotivating and it felt like nobody was giving me a chance. 

But I also had so many small moments that felt like I was on top of the world: 

First books I sold. 

First reviews. 

My first five star review on Amazon which to this day I go back and read because it makes me feel more confident in my writing than anything else. Strangers pointing out everything I did right is just amazing. 

The first time somebody commenting on one of my social media posts, had clearly read the book, and they reminded me, there are people in the world who have read this. This isn’t just my story anymore, other people get to experience it. 

Looking for ARC readers for my second book and people actually signing up! 

Someone messaging me to say they read and enjoyed my book. 

Finding time to write between school and work and keeping my home clean and taking care of my health, it’s hard work. 

Saving up every day of the year so I can afford the cover and the proof copies I need to be able to publish and market the next book in the series is exhausting. 

But I don’t think there’s anything in my day to day life that make’s me happier than these stories, than the knowledge that they’re out there for others to read and all of those small moments I’ve listed above. 

I’ve come to accept the industry is not lucrative for most indie-authors. It’s trend based and if what you write isn’t what the market is looking for at any given time, you’re writing mostly for yourself. It’s a difficult pill to swallow, but I love my stories enough to deal with that. 

I’m not going to stop writing even if nobody is reading it. I think that’s what being passionate about something is about. 

Anyway, to celebrate one full year since Dear Dragon’s release, you can actually get the ebook for free today (July 31st) or tomorrow (August 1st). 

Get your free copy here. 

I wanted to do more than talk about my feelings and give people the chance to read the book for free, but I couldn’t actually think of anything cool to do. 

Especially with this summer, the heat is unbearable here in Spain and a lot of days I’m just fighting for breath. 

Hopefully next year or sometime soon I’ll be able to find cool ways to celebrate this book and my passion for writing. 

If there’s one thing I’ve realised over the years, most people don’t see themselves as poor or rich. 

Most people assume they are just normal. No matter how much money they make or how they live. 

Even if they live in a large home with a large garden and have no trouble paying their bills, they see billionaires on the news and think, “they’re rich, I am not.”

Even if they struggle to pay their bills and don’t always know where their next meal comes from, they see people who are homeless and think, “I’m not poor, they are.” 

You’re probably no exception to this rule. I certainly am not. I remember a year ago explaining to my boyfriend that I was middle class. He laughed and looked it up... apparently my definition of rich is middle class. I was just refusing to admit I was poor. Still a bit upset by that, ignorance truly is bliss. 

Anyways, why is this relevant when writing? 

Well, if we’re writing a character we perceive as rich or poor, we may automatically assume they know this. 

But unless they are extremely rich or poor, or they’ve researched at some point, they probably won’t be that knowledgeable about their financial status, just seeing themselves as normal. 

And I know this might not seem like a big deal, but it actually is, it’s a huge part of the issues we face in society nowadays, the inability to distinguish class, causing us to assume everybody is capable of the same things when realistically, we aren’t. 

So if their class, their financial situation, is relevant to your writing, then the perception of such should also be relevant. 

Hey, this Sunday (31st of July) it will have been a full year since I published my debut novel Dear Dragon. And in just a few weeks, the second book in the series is releasing. 

To celebrate, I’ve made the ebook version of my novel available for free on Amazon from Today until Monday! (29th of July until the 1st of August 2022).

If you enjoy my writing tips, I’d hugely appreciate if you’d check it out, it’s YA fantasy, you can find the synopsis on the amazon page. 

Also, if you have followers who enjoy YA fantasy, I’d hugely appreciate if you could re-blog. Here on Tumblr the amount of re-blogs is the different between ten people seeing my post and thousands of people! 

This has been my passion project for a long time now. And the most difficult part in today’s online atmosphere is just getting people to know it exists. I’ve made hundreds of videos, posts on Instagram, this tumblr was created for this book even if now I mainly talk about writing tips... it’s a lot of work, I love it and I culd really use the support! And now while the book is free I feel like there’s no better to ask for that support! 

You can get Dear Dragon for free here. 

Never heard of it? Good, because I just made it up. 

It’s what I call the way I do world building. I’m sure I’m not the only one who does it this way I’ve just no read about it before. The name explains it pretty well once you know what I’m talking about. 

I basically know nothing about my world when I start writing. I’ll know the details that inspired me to start, so for example in a book I’m writing at the moment the only thing I knew at the start of writing was there were two kingdoms, at war, with different magical abilities. 

Do I know the culture of each kingdom? Do I know the technology level? Do I know what animals they keep as pets? Do I know their history? Their geography? The weather patterns? 

No. 

And I don’t need to know them to START. 

I think a lot of new authors feel overwhelmed by all they need to figure out. And because of that people just never start. Or worse, you work out a super complex world, you start... and then you realize the story would be far better in a completely different world (unfortunately I say this from experience). 

I think I mentioned this in a post about maps once upon a time, that my method of map making included adding things as they appeared in the story. That gave me complete freedom while writing because I wasn’t limited to what a pre-made map said, but it also meant I could keep track of the world as I made it. 

I do this with every single detail in my book. 

Timeline? I have a timeline, but I add to it as things come up, and only once something is published do I use a grey highlighter to mark is as “unmoveable”. 

I don’t know how my fantasy creatures work until I work with them, inside a story.

When a question comes up during writing, I answer it. 

That’s how I worldbuild. 

A couple of things to note here: 

1.- I do keep track of things using timelines and maps, I don’t just write without reference. This means I don’t tend to make many continuity errors and things still make sense. 

2.- This works very well for me because I do a VERY rough first draft. My first draft is not meant for the eyes of a reader. It’s meant to bring the story into existence after which it becomes my outline and I do a complete re-write starting from zero cleaner second draft. 

3.- I don’t only write main series content. A lot of the details come from journals, prequels and other bits of writing that help the world be flashed within my mind. If I only had the main books to work with this method would lead to a rather bland and empty world. 

I hope this helped! 

So, two quick things before we start : 

ONE: Spoilers for Lightyear, Pixar’s newest film, an animated film within an animated film. 

TWO: I still really enjoyed this film. If you were a huge toy story fan and you saw the animated series and stuff, you’re going to enjoy this just because of the visuals alone, so don’t read this post and be spoilt just because some people are saying it’s not that good. With that said... I think the film can be enjoyed with these spoilers, perhaps even more because there’s slightly less frustration which I’ll explain in a moment so... it’s your call!