Oh man.

Some of you have already noticed (and messaged me!) but I have officially updated all of volume 1 to match the now completed rewrite/edit that I submitted today to the publisher!

It has been a crazy journey and I have all of you to thank for that. I started writing Manabound in May of 2022, and as some of you probably noticed, it was rough at the beginning. But, now there is a total of 650K words written in both Manabound and Mana & Mayhem, and I think... yeah nah It's still rough at points. But at least volume 1 is substantially better, I think. Gone from 63k words to 150k, it was a ton of work and effort.

To give you guys an idea of what changed, here are some patch notes:

First big thing: Gwyn starts at age 10. Book 2 still has some incorrections that will get fixed when I edit it.

-Chapters 1-10 mainly got editing for prose, clarity, grammar, and some slight characterization issues.

-Chapters 11-14 is an entire new arc for Gwyn which takes places in the first village she arrives at. Lots of characterization improvements to Raafe and Taenya.

-Chapters 15-18 is also an entirely new arc but for Sloane. It takes place in another village that starts a new subplot of a what they believe is a lead to help them find Gwyn.

-Chapters 19-22 are edited substantially with new scenes and additional characterization.

-Chapter 23 is brand new and expands House Iemes a bit, including introducing Baron Iemes's family

-Chapter 24 has a new scene that introduces Sabina and Theran pre-House Reinhart and a bunch of edits.

-Chapters 25-28 is the Sloane with the Dwarven Siblings arc. There was a ton of changes here, and some of what used to be two or three chapters were reworked into one.

-Chapters 29-32 is Gwyn's introduction to Friedrich and her establishment of House Reinhart. Lots of additions and changes here. Big focus on characterization and setting. A Friedrich introduction.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

-Chapters 33-36 is an entirely new arc that finishes up that subplot I mentioned above where Sloane and the knights are following a lead that they thought led to Gwyn. Hopefully it helps with characterization and setting Sloane up for a long journey.

-Chapter 37 is a new chapter, one to set up future stuff for Gwyn. First look at a few reoccurring book 2 and beyond characters here.

-Chapter 38 is a new epilogue chapter. Includes new first looks at the Crown Prince and Marquess Angwin, Amanda and Countess Racine, Count Kayser, and Giallo. It's mainly a set up for book 2 (which is getting edited next!)

So what's next? Book 1 is with the publisher and has apparently already been updated for their style format, with a real life copyeditor working on it from there (so the Kindle version will be even more polished than what I just uploaded. wooo!). I'm working on stuff for the audiobook, and honestly, I have no idea when it will all be done yet. It's still so early!

I am about to take a long work trip to South Korea starting next week, so I'll be posting from there. While there, I'm going to work on the book 2 edits, which should hopefully be substantially better. Heck, toss suggestions down below for that.

I hope you guys enjoy the edits, and feel free to toss your comments below with your thoughts!

Again, sorry for the follow-list blast, but I wanted you guys the opportunity to read all of this.

We're back to our regular scheduled current content next week! Ah man have I got some fun stuff coming (especially for patrons!)

Lastly, if you actually made it through this entire post, I would love if you guys could toss up a rating or review.

Thanks and stay safe everyone!