As a school worker, I’ve been helping to proctor the high-stakes tests we have every spring. It is simultaneously stressful and tedious. Stressful because the computers don’t always work and we have to help them log in to the test. Tedious because, after the stressful logins, there is nothing to do but sit in a silent room, watching students stare at their screens and occasionally type something.

It does allow me time to think about stories, though. In my case, I’ve been thinking about The Warlock’s Army. I did complete the first draft, weekend before last. Later than I’d hoped, but it got done. The annoying thing is, as I worked through the final chapter, I kept coming up with new story complications. Things that should have been introduced in the second or third chapter, if they were going to be part of the story. Which is now concluding.

I do often find, as I’m tying everything up, that I find myself giving a lot of hints toward what the future may hold. I try not to wallow in this too much; those thoughts are for the reader, if they cared enough about the characters. If they didn’t care, that kind of ending must be annoying.

Today, while proctoring, I started listing out some of the things that I need to address in the second draft. The title will be one of them; I can’t really call it The Warlock’s Army if the warlocks don’t form any sort of army! However, the revision ideas sort of mixed with the future-hints from the ending. I hadn’t planned a second book about Jeniana, Cassander and their big family, but possibly there may be one. I’m saving all my notes, just in case.

As a reminder, I’m still recruiting more authors for Queen Titania’s Court. Feel free to pass along the invitation to any fantasy writers you know.

As another reminder, my latest opus is live today. Tell all your friends about Standing Stones & Eldritch Tomes!

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Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my blog, Wyrmflight, or follow me on Bluesky.