4 Dec 2021

Welcome to the end of Volume 2.

As you may recall, I started writing Volume 1 to scratch an itch. And I wrote it largely by the seat of my pants. I put together a System, put together some notes on the hidden cosmology of the universe, then started dice-rolling my way through lives and stories. When I finally reached a satisfactory stopping point, I stopped and starting publishing the story, the itch having been sufficiently scratched.

I frankly did not expect much reaction to it. And, indeed, I had very little reaction until weeks after Life 16 had been published. From there, it snowballed beyond my wildest expectations.

So, what to do? It had been a satisfactory stopping point. But you and others enjoyed reading it. I enjoyed writing it. And I had left enough breadcrumbs and notes that I knew that if I were to finish it, I knew where to take it.

Several months of writing later (including a cross-country move), Volume 2 started releasing.

Wow. What a ride.

Life 17: A pair of [Rabbitkin] in an arid civilization, grappling with local politics and the emotional fallout from the end of Volume 1. Life 18: a fun chapter with the birds and an excuse to have a world map in canon. Life 19: Now we really start to move the plot forward. A reincarnation outside the System in a species with access to divine (or true) magic and a decent sense of world history, who did a solid for the dragons and now the dragons guard their home. Life 20: We’re back. As [Otters]. A bit of fun, but a bit of grappling with further revelations. Life 21: An experimental piece for fun. Life 22: Coming to terms with the [Gobberton] situation from Life 10, but doing so by inflicting nuclear apocalypse on them. Possibly not a great move on their part, and the System felt obligated to shunt them into a life of hiding. Life 23: For causing a nuclear apocalypse and failing to act inconspicuously enough for the System, the System incarnates them as non-sentient plants then inflicts a mental apocalypse on them. This may have backfired just a tiny bit as the bleedover into their Skills causes problems for the local populace. Life 24: A fun chapter about a terrifying [Horse] and [Raven]. Life 25: The climax of this volume. A massive threat by the [Eldritch] temporarily contained. But when they’re finally powerful enough to permanently contain it, a lot of plot threads come together to cause some crazy shit.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

And yes, Volume 2 ended in the middle of a life and Volume 3 will pick up still in Life 25.

So, on to Volume 3? I have the big ideas set out, so basically, I just need to outline the story in more detail then start writing. Without spoiling anything, I will say that Volume 3 will almost be like a regular novel, maybe? It’ll likely only be 40-50k words (Volume 2 is about 80k by reference), but it’ll only be 2 or 3 lives at most. Which, yes, I know some of you prefer the one chapter per life from Volume 1. But trying to cram an overarching plot into an anthology is a pain and actually concluding it will require a few very, very active lives. And so, onwards to Volume 3. I don’t have any idea about the timeframe, so keep following Candlelit Lives for updates and, if you’re looking for something to read, check out this thread.

In any event, thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting (some of you have frighteningly good predictions). And thank you for enjoying the story and sharing it with others.

Best,

luda305