This is the author speaking.

I never expected people to like this story as much as everyone did. I uploaded the first couple of chapters purely to see how the interface worked and then got a bunch of people spamming me for updates. It is truly one of the most exhilerating experiences of my author career. It's surreal to have fans. It's also incredible. To characters that have only existed in my head through other people's eyes? To experience the adventure alongside others who are just as excited for the next chapter as me?

You guys have meant the world to me. Thank you, seriously, for being part of my reader family. I couldn't do this writing thing without you.

That said, this is the end, at least for now, of our journey with Marroo. He was only meant to be an experiment in all honesty. I have some big ideas for where he could go, but some of the more experimental stuff I did in telling his story, the "non-linear" nature of his timeline, and the second POV in "The Venom Icon" sort of shot the story's reader retention in the foot. While I still love how they were written and wouldn't do it any other way, I think that sort of artsy fartsy BS translates a lot better into a novel than it does into serialized fiction where every chapter has to move the story forward instead of dragging us back to examine his psyche or the world he grew up in in such detail. I learned a lot publishing it serially, not least, how much fun it is to get feedback so quickly from ravenous readers like yourselves. I may come back to Marroo someday, but for now I'm taking the lessons I learned telling his story and applying them to a new LINEAR storyline with some of the same themes and worldbuilding.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

If you'd like to come join us, it would be my honor to share with you the story of "The Young Master". It's cultivation fantasy, but with a big big serving of multiple worlds our protagonist (protagonists) will get to explore. My goal with this project? 1200 chapters. (over a million words). Something like three years of writing at my current rate.

I hope you'll join me.

If not, I want to thank you again for reading "The Icon of the Sword" and leaving so many positive reviews. It's been an honor sharing it with you.

Thank you for being part of my reader family.

I look forward to sharing our next adventure together.

- Sincerely-

Emerson Fortier

The Author