Hello Hello royalroad fam. I am, as I'm sure you noticed by my posting of a chapter, ending my haitus a bit early. Originally I had wanted to create a backlog of chapters so I wouldn't be so stressed or worried about missing a week.

However, I have, in a much shorter time than expected, completed a decent number of chapters and exceeded my goal for my backlog. I'm still working on editing around half of them but that means I have a bunch still to share.

I'm excited to show you all the next segment of Lios's life as an adventurer, the aftermath of the battle of Linden and to introduce some new characters to the fold.

Alongside this note I will post the prologue for book two today and intend to post chapter one on sunday.

I debated on doing multiple shorter chapters per week as that seems to create the best engagement but I don't really like splitting up my chapters all that much so, unless I get a ton of feedback requesting it, I have decided to continue one chapter a week for the time being.

I also wanted to take a moment to gush about some real life stuff, unrelated to the book. When I first started writing Bladedancer I did so as an outletn for a lot of budding stress starting in november of 2023. I had been laid off from my job unexpectedly and was really struggling to stay positive as I fought to pay my bills with unemployment. In high school I tended to write a lot of poetry, and that largely extended into my adult life as well, but Ive always imagined myself as a novelist. Needing a way to occupy my time I started writing without much of a plot in mind aside from an end goal for the character in the first book. Then, in december about a month after I started working on Bladedancer, I got a job offer for the company I currently work at. It was a huge weight off my shoulders.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

With the added stress gone I almost stopped writing, but didn't let myself put down the pen. Honestly, it was a very stressful month before I got the offer, and even the month after was a bit rough as I was starting a new step in my career. Once I settled in I started posting. First to wattpad, but I quickly realized they werent the audience I was looking for so I moved the story here.

I'm still blown away that after nearly a decade of thinking about and wanting to write a novel or fantasy series, I've made so much progress in just under eight months. I've found such enjoyment out of writing this past year and working on this story, with ideas being tabled or idly worked on for other books, and I truly couldn't have done so without some of the positive feedback from my audience.

Alongside a new job, though, I also got engaged in August and my wife and I eloped on halloween this year. This has been, honestly, the most life changing year of my life. I got a new job that I really enjoy and that gives me far more freedom than my previous few. Previously I would be sent out to customer sites on a weekly basis for around six years. I didn't fully understand just how big of a toll that was taking out on me, my social relationships, or my family and at the time girlfriend. Since being home I feel like I've been able to accomplish so much. I got engaged, and married. And even wrote a full six hundred page book in my frreetime.

This year has been one of the best in my life, and a heavy part of that has been reconnecting with my love for writing. Thank you to everyone who has helpted to support me all of this year with your words, follows, ratings, etc.