Hello, hello, hello!

This is my second update for you all. The third will be the last, announcing an official return of my story to the lovely world of webnovels here on RoyalRoad.

Short version? I'm shooting for a return in the March 2025.

I have 15 chapters out now, plus a Side Story (they're chapters from other character's perspectives that are linear and canon, but could be skipped if people hate character perspective shifts). I did a lot of planning over December. Lots of ideas I'm moving full-steam ahead with. I want to get another 15-20 done before returning so I have a good buffer for you all, and for me to make planning easier.

If you want to read any of the chapters now, they're on my Patreon for free. Join up and become a free member. No strings attached.

That's all the important stuff out of the way! Just gonna give a few additional perspective details so that you all know about the writing process I've been through the past year since we're now in 2025.

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The novel stopped on a pretty good point. Besides a few lingering story beats, it could be a stand-alone novel. I liked the draft, but reading it now and reflecting on everyone's comments, feedback, and my shift in perspective as a writer on a schedule, there were a lot of issues that obviously come from someone writing their first novel. I don't need to rehash anything, but I wanted to use the first-version of the story to teach me some things so I could make the vision in my head the best version I could.

Fast forward to July of 2024, and I'd written about 30 chapters of the new story starring Felix and Scarlet. But it felt empty. Fixing all the stuff I needed to fix made me end up writing an entirely different story that ruined what made the Felix/Scarlet dynamic so entertaining. They were basically different characters. And even though there were 50+ chapters out of this version, I honestly only saw what you guys read as an introduction, kind of, to the main series. The story is supposed to be about Eden, not Felix/Scarlet. They were always meant to "fade" as Eden became their resolute form. Eden was the first character, even before Felix and Scarlet. It was the "what an interesting way to make Eden a Voiced" that helped me come up with her background.

The fact that I saw things that way was a major problem, in retrospect, because no other books work like that.

In the upcoming re-release, Felix/Scarlet is not the main character. "Eden" is the entire time. It was a hard decision to come to, honestly, and I spent a month this year just debating this over and over again. I almost just scrapped my story entirely, which really made me decide to just take what I loved about "Terrestrial Paradise" and rebrand it the way I knew I needed to.

All the world-building elements and characters of "Terrestrial Paradise" will appear in the revamped version of the series entitled "Lost in Paradise." The MC is "Eden" but not...you'll see. It's different. And I'm bringing in a lot of refreshed or future story elements into the beginning to make the story feel very new when you first crack it open.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

As an introduction, the story takes place, right off the bat, in the cage we're all familiar with out protagonist. Death has caused them to lose most of their memories before they were saved by a Goddess made of energy with white hair. The MC then awakens in a new world filled with Devils and Humans populated with Monsters and Demons. Our protagonist is a devil, a humanoid species, that has washed ashore on the human continent as a baby.

Many of the terms will seem familiar. The Human Continent contains Zalevet, Agias, Viorna, and Brosnock. There's even a map I made of the world on my Patreon (which I'll edit as the story progresses). There was always going to be more countries outside of the one the MC was on, but I decided to integrate that fact earlier because the reason I had for not doing so in the earlier version was admittedly extremely stupid.

Additionally, I've revamped the magic/fighting system to be more complex and grounded. There are new fighting styles, titles, and concepts within the story, as well as different species (which was always going to be a thing, just much, much later in the story). Actions, training, and strategy will be more common in this story. There won't be a lot of whining in a room, some banter, then it's suddenly the next chapter and very little has changed. I've learned from my mistakes, lol.

While gender bending is not at the forefront of this story any more, it wasn't going to be in the rest of the story after Eden came into being regardless, so don't feel like you're missing out. However, story is still going to tackle social issues like this, though, throughout, as I find complex societal issues to be narratively interesting and compelling to write. Similar and adjacent issues will crop up throughout the story.

The plot is still going to be roughly what I intended post-Eden once we hit a certain point in this new version of the story. You'll know it when you read it. The only changes are the beginning. I took a lot of concepts I planned for later in the story, moved them to the beginning, revamped the magical/fighting systems, and made things a lot more fast-paced. The story's not as dramatic and drawn-out as the original either.

For those of you that love the original draft and the characters of Felix/Scarlet, that version will always be on here. It is the precursor to this story that taught me so much, especially about pacing, reader preferences, and character building.

Though it's not to say they're not in the new version...just...well...anyways!'

I was worried about all this when I started posting "Lost in Paradise" on Patreon for feedback, but the reception to the chapters has let me know I made the right decision with what I'm doing. I'm sure there will be problems with the new version, and people will complain, but I'm much more excited about the direction of the universe I created now than I was before.

Mostly because I'm excited to write, and I really wasn't with all the issues in the original draft holding me back from moving ahead with the story.

If you read "Lost in Paradise" and don't like it, you probably wouldn't have liked the story after this point anyways. So at least take that to heart. I had a few friends who do professional writing review my early draft of the series (the one that you all read and up to Chapter 124), and the conclusion was that it seemed like I basically wrote two separate novels, slapped the shorter one at the beginning, and called it a series. Basically, I needed to choose one. So I chose one.

Anyways, thanks for reading my ramble. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them here! I monitor this page once every few days, so I'll get back to you quickly.

The next time you hear from me, you'll be getting a release date for "Lost in Paradise"! Art work is already finished, it looks great, and I'm so very, very excited to move forward again!