This was supposed to be at the end of the first volume, not to take space as if it’s a chapter, but since there won’t be any chapter posted for the rest of the week, I figured I’d lengthen it a bit and post it as its own entity.

Also, this is for those that had already read the novel. If you haven’t, you can leave now, not that I want you to. In fact, scratch that, go read chapter 1 and let me know if you liked it or not. What I’m trying to say is that if you haven’t read the first volume, this post doesn’t have any worth to you, and you can continue your day with all the better things you can do (which is literally anything else. Reading chapter 1 for example!)

With all that being said, I can finally start this post.

First and foremost, thank you for sticking till the end of the volume! As I stated in the front page, this is my very first attempt at writing pretty much anything, so it truly means the world to me to have even a few people reading my story (and for some to even ping it as their favorite)! I’m truly thankful for every single one of you. I know this, by no means, is the best story you’ve ever read, hell it isn’t mine either, and there were a few parts that were especially bad (looking at 2 children going in the mountains for 3 days, a very logical and rational decision, that didn’t need much more explanation, nor was ever questioned), but I am delusional enough to believe that the second half of the volume (especially the finale with the raw emotions from all the characters) was much better than the first. For you to be reading this, it means that it wasn’t so badly written to the point it was impossible to read, right? Right...?

Moving forward, these problems will be avoided (to the best of my ability), and as I became better at this, they will diminish (hopefully completely).

To put out my sob story, this isn’t only the first written work I’ve ever done, but in general. Yeah, seriously, I’ve never worked anywhere else. As for the reason, one is because I’m still a college student and the second is family related matters that I won’t be disposing publically for obvious reasons. Not much of a sob story, I know, but I wanted this to be out there.

Which brings me to the bad news.

For the foreseeable future, the schedule will change...

“Oh, no!”

No, it’s not that dramatic.

Is what I want to say but most of you probably just rolled your eyes and closed the page saying something like:

“Who gives a sht about this trash anyway?”

I do!

I’ve stalled long enough, for those that are still reading—by the way, did I thank you for reading? Just checking—The schedule will be four chapters a week, Wednesday through Saturday.

The reason is quite simply: that I don’t have enough time to write and sustain the five chapter release. Hell, even right now I don’t! I just had enough of a backlog in order to write comfortably, but it’s been reduced to alarming numbers. (I’ve already started writing the second volume and still have enough for a few months, so no need to worry about any breaks anytime soon.)

With a four chapter weekly release, I can ensure that I can provide enough content within the time period and won’t have to add another thing to feed my anxiety.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I believe it’s not that big of a change, and I hope you can forgive me. Hopefully, by the time volume two is over and my life is a bit more stable, the original schedule will be back to normal.

Now, lastly, I have a few questions for you guys, and please don’t be mad at me.

What do you think of the story so far? Did you like it? Dislike it? And what’s something you would like to see a change in the future?

I’m asking because quite literally no one has commented. There are moments where I am afraid you are not even reading and just open and close the tab.

I’m not asking for a review, or anything. All I’m asking is conformation that you exist!

That’s for my ‘rant segment,’ and I have now official checked all the boxes for the topics I wanted to address in my post, but that’s not really the ‘author notes’ but more of the ‘author is here to waste your time and be a bitch towards his few readers.’

To me, author notes are important. It’s a window to the thought process the author took and what notes they had used to write their work. So, let’s change that.

It all began the day I was born....

No, okay, won’t be doing that here. Actually, all of this began with the pandemic. I was reading tbate and ever since then, the idea of writing for myself stuck with me, and that’s how we ended up here today. It was quite the journey for me, but again, I am averting away the point.

So where do I start… well, I can’t start. I haven’t revealed anything yet, so I can’t talk about it. Damn mysteries!

When I sat down with my friend to begin this, we only had one idea in our heads.

A cool mc.

No world building, no characters, no magic system, no nothing. Even these terms were alien to me back then.

The entire idea for the first volume came from a video I watched to learn more about plot, setting and characters, and they gave a volcano as an example.

“Hey, a volcano is a cool idea I haven’t come across yet used at the beginning of a story.”

And that’s how the first volume came to be. With a volcano in mind, and slowly building up to the ‘epic finale.’

In the process, however, things evolved beyond just writing a ‘cool mc.’

I realized that I wanted to write something bigger, and thus, by the time I was done writing volume one, a good 90% of the story was figured out (or more accurately, the lore of the story). At first I was practically copy-pasting materials for my favorite books. A few examples of said books being: The Beginning After the End, Shadow Slave and Lord of the Mysteries. “Elemancy” for example, is almost an exact copy from Tbate, or at least was at first. Now I have deviated from it, and although there are and will be a few similarities, when you learn how they work, you’ll realize it’s not the same. As I came to explore more stuff, the gears on my brain started to spin to find something a tiny bit more original, and I believe I have quite the unique world built.

But don’t take my word for it. The second volume will be more focused on the world building, so I guess you’ll have to see for yourselves.

And last mark, checked.

Okay, I’ve I covered everything I wanted to say (even those that weren’t planned to.)

Normally I would talk a bit more about the first volume itself, but I’ve already done so on the front page. I guess I could add that its entire purpose was to set up the stage? Would that suffice? We’re already fourish pages in (closing fifth based on word count, of course), and I think I’ve said more than enough.

Do you know how I can know if I said more than enough or not? Try commenting! It’s this feature down below where you can talk with me and express your thoughts! It’s a really amazing feature!

If I am being honest, I think I should have delved a bit deeper into the problems of the volume and do some more explaining, or maybe I should have pointed out what mistakes I noticed for myself so that you also know and be part of my journey as a writer, rather than joking around. I guess I’ll try in the next or maybe my dear followers will be kind enough to ask in the comments.

Well, this is it.

You can leave now.

Come on, click off the page.

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Did you leave yet?

Just leave already! There’s nothing more to it, that’s it!

Okay, okay, the jokes (if they can even be called that) end here.

Thank you for reading the first volume. Thank you for reading this long ass “Author’s notes.” And thank you for giving me a chance. Writing is a passion I didn’t know I had, and I couldn’t wish for anything better in the world. This is my first goodbye, and I’ll be seeing you next Wednesday with the first chapter of Volume 2: Crimson Moon.

Have a beautiful day,

by LoneQuack