Hi everyone, So this is a bit of a special edition where I dive into a little of the 'behind the scenes' of how Luminaires get made, and some of my more mad hat ideas came into being. So, a little background for you. If you've read the comments on some of the chapters, some of this may sound familiar.
Before The Dark Times. Before The Talons...
Luminaires originally started back in...sheesh, high school. I had the concept when I was jotting down ideas in a dream diary I was keeping at the time. It was about...two nights worth, and then that idea just died out. Fortunately, the dream I had of people transforming into dragons a la second puberty was the idea that stuck, after a few iterations. Work started around April of 2002, and it was all handwritten.
In spiral-bound notebooks. My writing hand was screaming in agony.
I was also in the 'not good enough' phase for a long time, being a teen who read a lot, but hadn't exactly written a lot. I didn't feel like I hit my stride in story narration and author voice until much later. That iteration was unbelievably bad, and Crosomer was a real dick. Straight-up evil. That went on for a few years, on and off. This was the era of Nokia cell phones that had almost no capacity to do anything other than call people. Imagine that. Eventually, I typed it up, most of it over the summer of 2004 when I was working retail on Cape Cod.
...and then it was an on and off again thing as life continued, I wrote various snippets for it, ideas rose and fell, and I fell into editing purgatory. I wasn't very disciplined at the time, and had plenty of other focuses (college, gaming), plus I kept tinkering with one-off ideas that were experiments in story direction, characters, and so on. Some of it survived. A lot of it didn't, which led to one of the most fundamental changes.
A Change in Perspective
Literally, a change in perspective. The story was originally written in first-person. That writing style...kinda broke my ability to story tell.
Yep, it was all originally told from Drenar's perspective, first person, with a few breaks to a third person perspective of a few others. You might have noticed a lot of the POV started with him very heavily in the first volume, and then expanded to most of the rest of the Luminaires--plus a few extras. Some traces of the old version remain. It wasn't until about June of 2023 that I realized I was trying to tell a story of a team, and what I'd been doing for so long, was just not working. Plus I found the style just didn't work to capture the scenes--especially the action shots.
This was about when I had stalled on the second major rewrite that had started from the ground up after many years a second major rewrite started around mid-2019 that was much closer structurally to the current version you've all read, but still from the first person perspective. There were months at a time when I didn't write a single page. The summer of 2023 was when I tackled the third-person, rotating POV. And it started with Joey, of all the characters! I ran an experiment back in July of 2023, plus a few prior ones, when I tried to write from her perspective on future events in the series. I liked it so much, I ended up making three massive decisions based on it.
1. Rotating POV, third person present
2. Converted what was the first portion of the story to third person, with all the updates
3. Joey was added as a main character.
What's that, Joey was a secondary character?!
Yeah, that part's true. I wasn't sure for a long time about what direction to take her character. Her psionics were there since the beginning, but then I started to detail out world building, Kitsune history, and her job and skills, and it added these deep layers of complexity. Being in a bright spotlight, but still having to keep secrets about herself? Sounds like a great idea to build off of!
My only regret is that I could only sneak in a couple of references to her in the first volume, after I had already dove deep into reworking Volume I. Eagle-eyed readers might have picked up on it, as I typically hint at major things well in advance, even if it might not play out the way people think.
So, along with these changes and a lot...and I mean, A LOT of writing out advanced scenes well beyond the current release, I could chart out to about the 60% point of the whole series. After I heard about Writathon on RoyalRoad, I decided I needed to do this now or never. I'd stalled for an eternity ever letting this go to public, so I would learn as I went. So with minimal research, I started posting around early November. The rest, as they say, is history.
It was a little disconcerting how little I knew back then. I had the luck of running into several fellow authors in those early days, who helped me realize that several tweaks were needed, so Volume I got a massive facelift to improve the quality. That was about the point I was also working on Volume II and trying to set a start date, and get chapters churned out that met my new standards.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
And a Patreon? I was amazed at the support I received from my peers in getting all this ready.
Other interesting things that you might all be surprised at. Ah, the power of radical redrafts. Possible spoilers here, but I think it's reasonable to assume most of you have seen this by now.
1. Crosomer was the main antagonist, Val was a secondary. King also did not play the massive role he does in Volume II, being the literal Kingmaker. Val was just a warlord looking to get power. Her current...aims, as have been hinted at, are a little more complicated this time around.
2. Drenar and Julia had a much closer relationship in the old versions. It's become much more nuanced and evolved since then.
3. The A team, B team setup of Volume II was added in to show the intersection between Joey and Kyle's events way sooner. In the earliest drafts they never even knew about Drenar and the others, until they were at the doorstep of Asqualia. It also contributed to the massive page count increase over volume I. It was always fun to telegraph when the paths were about to intersect. Of course, I didn't want them sitting idle, so the intersecting paths of Curtis/Lavernius were added.
The Wrap-up, Post Volume II
So, regrets/thoughts of mine? There are a few, after having read hundreds of comments...and I do want to thank everyone who does comment, because while I can't respond to all of them, or incorporate all the changes, I do read all of them. There's some structural stuff that, had I started with a completely clean sheet of paper, I might have done differently. I may come back and give Volume I and a good portion of Volume II a major facelift based on that feedback, and tighten up the narrative.
1. Drenar and company would have hit their Awakening way sooner, heck even the first chapter. The dream would have abruptly ended, Drenar would wake up and realize he's now a half-ton dragon, crushed his bed, and probably be very uncomfortably positioned in his room. Evan would roll in, walk out with a resigned sigh, and say 'Hey yeah, Diane, that thing happened. We have a mess to clean up.' This would have led to some details about the Veil Protocol, the Conclave, and some other miniature reveals way sooner without head scratching. And maybe some people they could trust in this weird world they got thrust into.
It would also have completely disrupted the back half of the volume with their initial run-in with the Talons, and much of the other discoveries. Would I rewrite it for a proper publishing release? I think I would. Even if it would be challenging to re-align events and still capture the same magic as before.
2. The Talons/Conclave--both organizations make mistakes when it comes to secrecy. Or with law enforcement being inept/corrupt. I'd probably go back in tighten those up.
3. Exposition--looking back, there are some info dumps in the form of dialogue I'd tighten up, or leave more to trial/error for the MCs to figure out. A good chunk of Volume I is that. While some people love it, and I do personally, it can slow down the story a bit. Show, not tell, has been mentioned a lot
4. Characters--probably one of the stronger points. Not much I would change here, except to clarify Drenar/Julia's personal relationship as close friends rather than anything romantic. One major revisit I'd want to do would be to get more screen time for Angela in Volume I, and add Joey in very early with a cameo or two, or start threading their paths together sooner. Maybe I'd cut out a little drama and some of the banter they throw at each other. Each scene really only should have two or three driving characters, after that it kind of bogs down the pacing unless well managed.
Going Forward
After having given some thought to the first two volumes and how they went, Volume III sort of represents a blank slate to tighten up on what did work, and what didn't work for the prior two volumes. Chief among them, pacing, tightening up dialogue, and less exposition/more intuitive mystery solving. I do have most of the major events mapped out, but because I have plenty of writing left to fill out, I'm curious to see what people want to hear more about! A few topics that will come up in the next volume, though this is not even close to the full list.
* The Conclave - history, organization, and how it really gets run.
* The Valkyries - history, philosophy, training, and more
* The Dragon Empire and the Schism War--history plays a role
* Dragon science!
* The Followers of Gaia
Now, to hear from YOU GUYS!
Yes, I'd like to hear from you, the audience! I know many of you guys have been regular commentors, if you have any burning questions, leave them in the comments, or if you prefer anonymity, send me a DM, and I'll include it in another unnumbered chapter as a Q & A session. I think I've answered most of the questions presented thus far (also as a sanity check to make sure *I'm* not goofing and contradicting magic rules or other stuff), so if there's more history/lore you'd like about a particular topic, I'd love to expand on it! Or the characters, too!