HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TO A FULLY PUBLISHED “ETERNITY’S IRYS”!
Printing with Amazon has been a mixed bag. I can’t exactly not use them due to cost effectiveness, but quality can vary wildly. The most common issue was the covers appearing off kilter in some what. The spines would be at an angle, the front would be off center and this was all made so much more obvious with the presence of the frames offering straight lines with which we could easily see the discrepancies.
So a thing happened wherein Rhett and I readdressed some of the obstacles that made the covers difficult to print consistently. Mainly the frame on the spine and, to a lesser extent, the frame on the front and back. My initial approach was to remove the one from the spine so no matter how “off” the printing was, there’d be no straight lines to make it obvious. After that, Rhett entertained the idea of removing the frames entirely to avoid ALL straight edges that might make misaligned printing obvious.
In extending the wing on “Fly Away” to account for the removed frames, we kind of slipped into an aesthetic shift. The darker, gloomier approach I’d hoped for from the start began to manifest. This resulted in a what was essentially a complete overhaul of “Fly Away”‘s cover.
Improved tools and greater experience lead to the masterpiece above. I am so pleased with the result. It hits all the notes I could ever want from a cover for my book.
But it didn’t stop there!
Immediately after, Rhett took on redoing “Two Minutes to Midnight” to match this new aesthetic.
AND I AM SCREAMING!
“Two Minutes to Midnight” now embodies EVERYTHING I could have ever wanted from it. Rhett’s absolutely STUNNING work absolutely gives my stories the gorgeous covers they deserve.
Anyway, this is now the trend for all covers going forward and I’m so excited.
Other News
The epilog for “Fly Away” has been somewhat extended and is at about the half way point of line art. We still don’t have a definitive release date, but I’m certain it’ll be sometime early next year.
First pass of edits are complete and now I have to sync the manuscript with Atticus to upload to Amazon for a fresh author copy featuring the new cover!
Time for the quarterly update where I remember I have a website I can post things on!
First, the site has received a lot of content in the Lore section. The Religion section has been updated with 4 out of the 6 sects of Sion’Dri, more Character Bios have been added, and a new section, Spheres, has been added to explain different groups within the Void.
“Places” is waiting on me to create some kind of map and “Languages” is waiting for me to figure out the two main Voidal languages and that is probably going to take some time.
More images have been added to the gallery and another “Comic” has been added to that section.
Second, the first draft of “Flyaway” is now complete! Once the cover is finished, the next step will be to work with Rhett on illustrating the epilog.
Flyaway Cover Progress!
It’s coming along amazingly!
The manuscript for “Flyaway” is markedly shorter than that of “Two Minutes to Midnight”, however, we will be more than making up for it with the graphic-novel style epilog.
Third, the Amazon retail edition of “Two Minutes to Midnight” has received some updates. Upon a recent read, I found some formatting and grammatical issues all of which have been fixed. Additionally, Rhett and I realized we did not publish “Two Minutes” with the correct cover. This has also been rectified. I was also uncertain if the QR code at the beginning was in violation of Amazon’s ToU so it has since been removed. The one at the end still works and is not in violation of any terms.
Fourth, we’re still looking into a new printer for bulk copies. I may give Amazon another try, but when 16 out of 20 copies come out like trash, it’s hard to trust them again, but the price point for bulk remains superior to alternatives. This obviously comes at the cost of quality.
Fifth, some stickers have been added to the Etsy page for merch. They are all made by myself with Rhett’s art and my Cricut.
That’s about it for now. It may not seem like much, but it is all HUGE in the progress of working on the story. “Flyaway” took a remarkable seven months to complete which is incredible to me considering “Two Minutes” took six YEARS.
As of right now, we are aiming for an early 2026 release. Please stay tuned as we continue making this series the best it can be!
To start off the year, we’ve gone back and remastered Sylus’ and Jeron’s designs to better match their lore-accurate descriptions!
The “original” designs were something of a test for the illustrator as well as myself to see how my descriptions translated. Since then, they’ve become much more familiar with these characters in both personality and appearance. The result was a revisiting of their designs.
As always, all artwork is done by Rhett Cameron Morris (@firelocket on Instagram)
Jeron
BeforeAfter
I knew from the start we already had a very good grasp on Jeron. He does have quite a bit more going on and looks absolutely fantastic fully rendered. Left was definitely a good place to start and it’s very clear that it lead to the final result. Jeron now features his guitar in melee mode and his bat familiar as well as his Sion’Dri cross. He’s wearing his very functional and minimalist casual attire featuring his mother’s old boots she handed down to him at some point.
He is exactly how I envisioned him.
Sylus
BerforeAfter
Well, this was a bit more of a complicated process. Sylus has long been a design nightmare for me. Back when we were working on the illustrations for “Two Minutes to Midnight” he proved to be my biggest point of issue (Rhett was very patient but I know I was reaching critical pest levels at times) Mostly because of his origins as a vessel and less a truly independent character. As a personal note, I did go through some stages of grief realizing how far he’d escaped my control. I struggled to accept what I was looking at. I struggled to accept that he wasn’t just in my head anymore as an amorphous representation of my own struggle with representation. Granted, he always looked a certain way, but unlike Jeron, he was more a collection of concepts than a fully put-together design. I think my beta-readers started forcing me to really think about his appearance in a more solid way.
Anyway…
Sylus features finned ears, shark-tooth underbite, a reverse angler light, and, of course, one of his many signature tentacles. He’s sporting his “casual” attire. The only thing he’s missing to be “formal” is his jacket. He’s holding a glob of the inky acid he uses in combat.
Final Thoughts
Rhett did an amazing job and I couldn’t be happier. They had to listen to me cry about Sylus and have a minor mental break when I realized I had to separate myself from him after 7 years.
Now that their “Two Minutes to Midnight” designs are complete, we have the groundwork to build on with future designs. As of the end of “Two Minutes” and the beginning of “Flyaway”, Jeron is already markedly changed. Sylus will be receiving an overhaul in “The Devil Wears Violet” (working title for book 3).
Remaining designs I’d like to get to down the line: -Secondary Characters -Void Spawns / Bestiary -Other Critical Voidal Entities -Sylus’ “Lord Form” -Sylus’ “Final Form” -Jeron’s “Final Form” -Jeron’s Familiar’s True Form (she’s a bit more than just a little bat)
The next immediate project is the cover for “Flyaway”.
After that, there’s a massive project that will be undertaken in lieu of illustrations for “Flyaway”.
We had some issues with Sylus’ face, but I think it was all in me not used to seeing him in a pose that offered more than a profile. It still feels a bit strange to see his face fully, but I know we got it right.
As always, thank you to @fire_locket for their artistic prowess and willingness to work with me on my beloved project!
*There may or may not be a small something something in the works… We shall seeeee…
Behold! The second full-page illustration for the print versions of “Eternity’s Irys”!
Apologies for the belated update, but it honestly slipped my mind even though I’ve been plastering it everywhere because just look at it!
@fire_locket strikes again with their crazy skills. I love how in love they look. It just warms my heart every time I stare at it.
Additionally it was with this illustration that we realized I’d given Rhett the wrong page dimensions. The result was just a little more arting on their behalf and NOW we finally have full bleed images!
Since I was so darn late to post this, have a teaser for the third, and final, illustration:
It’s not even done, but I love it. Again with the body language! I always want to say Rhett is talented, but its all hard work, practice, and developing skill. It’s not just talent, it’s effort and understanding the subject matter to an amazing degree.
If all continues apace, the third illustration should be done by this coming Sunday! After that, we have some touching up to do and then we should be all set to get some physical copies for selling come October!
To say I’m excited is an understatement. I know I’ve said it before, but I’m going to say it again. This whole project has become a dream come true and I couldn’t be more grateful to everyone who’s helped me get this far.
Stay tuned for more updates and maybe a way to preorder if you’re so inclined!
Behold! The first of three full-page illustrations that will appear in physical copies only! Taken directly from the pages of the book, it depicts a scene of great importance. No context, though, because spoilers!
It’s an absolutely stunning piece by Rhett that I plan on framing at some point.
Stay tuned for the next two as they are completed!
I have come today to proudly introduce the world to the lead character and voice of Eternity’s Irys. You’ve known him by name for a while now, but now you get to meet him in person.
Jeron Miles in all his full-color glory by @fire_locket
It’s a bit of a leap in plot to call him an Archon, but it sounded good so I went with it.
This rendition comes from the first half of the book as Jeron grows and changes quite a bit by the end, but for spoiler reasons, we’ll keep it simple for now.
He was born with Voidsight allowing him to see things most people cannot. In Qalian, he’s a what the called a Dalafaem or Veil Piercer. This means that he already had an aptitude for voidal magics.
Upon meeting Sylus, he was able to tap into his innate ability and manifest it as offensive and defensive spells in the form of music played from his mother’s guitar. Strangely enough, the guitar doubles as an actual ax when more close quarter combat is unavoidable.
He’s come a long way from being a secondary character and a mere friend of Sylus’ to being the narrator and calling the rotund Voidlord his boyfriend. I firmly believe he was always destined to be the true catalyst of the tale and I’m so glad we finally made it to this point.
For the first time in human history, please allow me to introduce one of my main characters, and brain squatter for six whole years, Sylus Synclaire!
Yes. That’s him. That’s the boi in all his glory. He’s been years in the making and months in the refining, but here he is.
I had him rattling around in my head before I even had a plot. Before Jeron was even a main character. Sylus has been here from the absolute beginning and to finally see him, TRULY see him, is insanely emotional. I laughed, I cried, I had many little moments.
Rhett did an amazing job listening to me make words that I had zero faith in making sense. It took pretty much all night, but here we are! I still scream a little just looking at him.
Might be worth mentioning this is a full color image. We didn’t skimp on skin tone because Sylus HAS no skin tone. That’s 100% an accurate portrayal of mah boi.
I am beyond pleased with everything about it, but there are certain things I REALLY want to highlight.
His ears. I wanna talk about his ears. His little finny ears. For the longest time I wanted to do SOMETHING with his ears because, as we know, ears are pretty much accepted as a reference point for how human a character is. Sylus is not human and though he largely appears as one, he couldn’t make it all work perfectly. The two “troubling” points were always his mouth (shark mouth bru haha) and ears. Keeping his mouth shut eliminates the former problem, but the ears are just part and parcel with being his particular brand of Voidlord. That is, the fishy kind. He wasn’t originally a fish boi, in fact, I had no idea what he was. We just came to this by noodling backwards from “he has tentacles and I really like squids”. Which brings me back to HIS EARS! They have a little finny-ness to them, BUT, and this is hard to see at this angle because his hair obscures it (intentionally) he has mollusk funnels instead of ear canals! This was one of my beta readers’ ideas and I was like “Done. Perfect.”
Also his nose. We spent hours just working out his nose. Is perfect.
And his shirt. Iridescent isn’t exactly an easy concept to illustrate, but I think Rhett did a fantastic job getting the idea down on “paper”. It was probably the most arduous part of the entire process, but they made it happen and I couldn’t be happier.
Jeron’s up next after we finish Sylus’ character sheet so stay tuned for that! There’s some crazy exciting stuff going on right now!
If you wanna read a bit more about Mr. Synclaire (he’d cringe at being called that), he has a character bio page you can find here!
As you may have seen on social media, the official cover for “Eternity’s Irys: Two Minutes to Midnight” is now complete.
But how did we get here? A lot of work and effort between myself and (mostly) my illustrator, Rhett (@firelocket).
But what does the progress look like? How far have we come? That’s what I want to archive with this post.
Let’s start from the very beginning.
1: The Proto-Cover (2018)
Behold! The proto cover I made at the very beginning of the project. Why is the tentacle green? What is the brown thing? (It’s an antler) What am I even looking at? All excellent questions that have since been rendered moot with the current iteration. However, this comes from a time when I wasn’t being fully honest with myself. Still love that background image though! Used to have it plastered everywhere on the original site.
Honestly, I cringe at this version. It comes from a very misguided point of view and the design is just… awful.
2: A Second Attempt (2019-2020)
Another monstrosity by me! Hand drew all that stuff besides the stock silhouette. It still has a soft spot in my heart.
3: The AI (2022)
So, this image was made with midjourney. To me, I saw it as the closest I’d ever come to a relevant cover. Obviously you can see a lot wrong with it, but further toying only made it worse so I clung to this pretty tightly for the longest time. It was the first time I could visualize the concept of a cover for the book I’d worked so long and hard on.
Text was added by myself.
4: The AI: Round 2 (2023)
My brother made this image with some AI program. It’s better than the one I made, but it’s still problematic due to its origin. Still, it became the baseline for the direction I wanted to take a real cover if ever I got the chance to make one.
It was also the first cover to ever be printed.
Text was added in post.
5: The Official First Draft
The first sketch by an actual illustrator! I was skeptical of the gold and purple motif even though it’s canon to the book, but we ended up sticking with it.
After we went over a bunch of book covers and how I felt about them as well as referencing that last AI image, this is where we ended up. This is true beginning of our journey.
As you can see, there’s also a little illustration that didn’t make it to the end. We decided to take additional artwork into the book.
6: Behold: A Frame!
Some more refinement and a more established direction. I’d fallen in love with Rhett’s impromptu spine design and, while it’s unconventional and might not be the best direction, I pushed it.
We were going to put the subtitle on the hour glass, but man did that not end up going well in the end. I like how we resolved it in the final draft.
You can also still see a scroll on the bottom. That’s where my name was going to go, but we ultimately scrapped the scroll idea entirely.
7: Shading!
We spent way too long trying to realize my idea of making the mask look crystalline. The burnishing effect on the screws and frame were actually a happy accident.
Also worth noting is the smoke now has a definitive form. This is very very important.
8: The Final Form!
TADA!
Still needs a blurb, but here it is! The final cover for “Eternity’s Irys: Two Minutes to Midnight”. This is what you’ll find on shelves, should it ever get to them.
I won’t lie, at first I found myself detaching from it. It was so hard for me to accept that this was it. This was the one thing I never thought I’d ever have no matter how much I wrote, no matter how much I edited, I would never have a cover. Especially not one actually created exactly how I wanted it to be.
I remember going on Fiverr. I remember shopping bulk production sites. I remember googling assets and considering doing it all myself to avoid publishing anything with AI. I was about to accept that AI cover, even though I didn’t want to, but in a last ditch attempt to do something I actually wanted to, I made a Facebook post. Rhett reached out and the rest is now history.
The more I look at it, the more I show it to others, the more I love it. The more I can come to accept that this is, in fact, my cover. What a wild concept I thought I could only dream of.
It is currently in the hands of my publisher (brother) and I should have a dummy copy in a few weeks. I can’t wait to hold it all over again.
Other Things of Note
Beta readers are about half way through and are making some fantastic critiques! We’re aiming for their pass to be completed by the end of the month. I’m implementing their suggestions as they pass them along. It’s been an excellent experience and another thing I never thought I’d have. I’m so grateful to them, I was dead set on being the only eyes to look at it before it hit the wild because I was too afraid of it being torn to pieces like a previous version had been. That would have ended me.
But that’s not how it’s gone. Not at all. And I’m crazy grateful for that.
October deadline seems to be holding strong. Once the beta read is done, I’ll finish polishing, see if they’d be willing to check it again. All that would remain is the internal illustrations and then… Well, maybe one more dummy print before it goes live.
Every draft is closer and closer to the final thing and it just blows my mind ever time that this is actually happening.
In this draft we see most of the colors that will be in the final version. We ALSO see a hand-tooled font by my illustrator! Several iterations ago they tossed in a hand-written font as a place-holder and it was so beautiful that I got kind of attached to it. I understood I was asking a lot, but they came out swinging. We are both aware it needs some fine tuning, but damn if it isn’t beautiful.
Overarching Project Progress!
Two chapters of “From the Other Side” are complete and the third is at about half way. They each cover multiple chapters of the book so expect them to be a bit longer than the staggered lengths of their Jeron PoV counterparts. Sylus has firmly placed himself as a, hm, less than market-friendly narrator, but, again, that’s why he’s not hitting the shelves and Jeron is.
Pre-orders will NOT be opening with the cover reveal. I think those will be pushed back into August once I have merch ironed out. There are a lot of great things hanging on the cover’s completion.
Casual readers have been upgraded to Beta Readers, so editing is technically still in progress, but it is now reliant on their feedback. While writing “From the Other Side” I found plenty of typos myself, so I’m sure they’ll find many more plus anything I didn’t write clearly!
I swore I had something else to put here but apparently I forgot…
Real Life Stuff…
Zucca is back in the hospital with Renal Failure. She was puking liquid Saturday night into early Sunday morning. At first it was brown like her food then it turned to bile. I called the hospital and they said to bring her in. She ended up with the same doctor she had with her respiratory issues. They did some x-rays and the doctor was genuinely in awe of how much Zucca had healed. She wasn’t supposed to get this better. Even the swollen bones behind her ears had gotten better and that wasn’t even something they were expecting. Her doctor called her a little warrior.
Anyway, her doctor called me last night to let me know she was doing very well and assured me she’d be in good hands with the new doctor she’ll have today. I’ll know more once they do her bloodwork today and her current vet calls. They anticipate her coming home Tuesday.
I miss my little girl. I keep turning around to look for her, or calling her name to come with me. She’s just not there. I go to bed and turn on a video on my phone and she doesn’t come running to lay in front of my face to block my view… It was hard to sleep last night…
I talked to my family and they all think I should get her a friend. I always saw Zucca as a loner, but… She’s fragile. I’m lucky I could “afford” this round of hospitalization at all. While I hope she comes out of this in as good of a shape as she can be, that doesn’t change that she’s a very fragile little thing. I think a friend to be with her when I can’t is probably the best thing I can do for her right now. And for me…
Final Thoughts
Life just keeps throwing curveballs, but we’re getting through it. The book is still on course for an October release. A two month pre-order window might be a bit tight, but I’m honestly not even expecting any orders. Maybe once its fully in the wild we can start getting them. We shall see!
You’ve all heard this before, but I’m much more certain and confident about saying that, as far as I’m concerned, “Eternity’s Irys” is complete.
“Two Minutes to Midnight” is very clearly a “first book” in more ways than one. But it’s a DONE book. I do intend to get it printed and do one final pass since a lot of my alterations were fairly large. Don’t worry, it’s far from a rewrite, more like a quality of life alterations.
A recurring trope I was struggling with has been reworked and the ending has been reworked as well. These were two points I believed to be the weakest parts of the entire book. I have far more faith in their quality now.
Final stats: Words: 100,838 Pages: 428 not including stuff not story related Chapters: 48 Of course all of this is subject to change, but not by much. The stat most likely to shift is Pages since it’ll likely be affected by illustrations.
Anyway, that’s all for now. It’s not as an exciting of an update as it could be, but I’m looking at this as more of a step than an actual stage completion.
Cover reveal June 26 btw.
Oh and “From the Other Side” will be starting June 5 wherein I’ll be rewriting certain chapters from Sylus’ PoV. Its not gonna be an every day thing, more like weekly give or take some inspiration. There’ll be at least one entry per week until the cover reveal. After that, I’ll post as things come to me. I don’t intend to rewrite the entire book, but there could be a good chunk of additional lore coming with Sylus’ perspective.
I love it so much. I’m so happy to see all the line work coming together. Rhett’s doing an amazing job and I can’t thank him enough.
With the bulk of the outlines done, that really just leaves details, colors and shading. I shouldn’t say “just” because that’s still an awful lot of work. In fact, I think that’s the hardest part of any project so let me just rescind that “just”.
We’ll also be ironing out text closer to reveal time.
But yeah. There it is. The bones of my book cover!
In other news!
I swore this was going to be my last editing pass, but something happened. I reworked a major plot point to remove some clunk I was struggling with. Which resulted in an entire rework of the ending, but that’s a good thing! I was really afraid of end being the weakest point of the entire book and, as it was, I sincerely think it was. It’s been messing me up for a while, but I finally have a clear path forward.
Things to look forward to!
Full cover reveal coming next month! I don’t know how much of an event it’s going to be, but I hope to make something of it for Pride Month.
Speaking of Pride, I don’t think I’ll be doing daily shorts again. A lot of my focus is currently on getting the book out the door by October. I might get a handful of shorts if any, but no promises.
All in all, it’s going well.
Here’s an updated timeline of events:
I’m still in a bit of shock that this is all actually happening. That I’m actually going to publish a book and its going to have an awesome cover AND there’s gonna be illustrations. I’m just floored by the thought of how amazing this whole thing is gonna be.
If you’re maybe a little excited, too, stay tuned for more!
Until next time! \o 🦑💜🦇 ^This is finally gonna make a whole lot more sense
Update! (5/10)
There’s been some developments and rather than make a whole new post I’m just gonna put it here!
I’ve been sitting on a Cricut Explore 3 for about 2 years now. With the book happening, I decided I wanted to start making use of it for in-house merch. Which resulted in trading my laserjet (for printing manuscripts) for an inkjet and learning how to print images.
Anyway, here’s my process, which I’m putting here for my own info as well as just sharing:
It was all pretty straightforward, to be honest. I uploaded one of Rhett’s pieces, it offered to remove the background, but he’d already done that for me, resized it and then created the offset. Now, my options looked a little different from her’s, but she helped me get my bearings. It took SEVERAL passes to realize I had to make the offset AND the outline white so it wouldn’t print.
The Cricut did a great job, but I was running into a quality issue that after finally eating something and thinking with a clear head I realized was coming from my printer. You see, the stickers weren’t pealing cleanly from the back. At first I thought the vinyl was old or something, but then my big ol’ pea brain turned on and I realized the printer was probably oversaturating the material. Sure enough, I came to a more solid realization when I smudged one of the stickers.
SO! As Kayla suggested, I opened the system dialog and made a few alterations. One being telling the machine I was printing on glossy paper and the second being changing the quality to “Draft”. Still not sure that second one mattered, but it was on a forum post about images smudging after being left to dry. My piece had been sitting for about an hour and still smudged.
ETA: I left a sheet out overnight and it still smudged. So, believe it or not, I consulted the FAQ that came with the vinyl sheets. Lo and behold, I was reminded DPI was a thing. Lowered that and printed a new sheet. Zero smudging. Additionally, the vinyl suggested I use the Cardstock setting and AGAIN, I got the results I wanted:
A stack of waterproof, free cut, smudgeless stickers! (end of edit)
Anyway, with those changes, we ran it again and here’s the result!
Please ignore the crease as I apparently don’t know how to handle stickers.
You can look forward to this and some other designs going on sale AND/OR be included in pre-order bundles! More to come on that soon!
As always, stay tuned! 🦑💜🦇
An additional edit:
Encountered a weird issue with this one during the cut phase, but it was probably because I put the sheet in crooked. Most of them came out just fine!
Rhett’s been hard at work ironing out some of the more iconic details of the cover. The results are fantastic!
He started with the spine. I requested this as out of everything we discussed the spine was the most eye-catching and honestly surprising part of the whole rough design we put together. This is the artwork put together with the intention of maybe being a bookmark (? 👀) down the line. Color to come later.
Here’s another piece he worked out for the frame on the front cover:
This will be a cover/anchor piece for a corner. Not sure which corner yet, but it’ll be up in one of them!
Additionally, we’ll be having our third touch-base on Saturday and I am so excited! Can’t wait to see his progress!
Hello again, Voidlings! How’s that sound? Been meaning to give it a test drive, let me know what you think!
I come today with another fairly large update! I have obtained paperback copies for editing from my publisher (brother)! They’re honestly so gorgeous. I’m in love. Something in my mind always told me that paperbacks were inferior to hardcovers, but I gotta say, I really love how this looks and feels!
This SHOULD be my last editing pass barring any major issues of which there really should be none.
While you’re here, there’s some other news worth mentioning!
Behold! The Spine! Rhett’s art just captivates me every time. I’m beyond happy with how this is turning out. We decided after one of our touch-bases that the spine was the place to start for reasons you’ll hopefully find out soon!
Also!
A timeline/style guide! I’m so happy to have some semi-firm deadlines to meet. Rhett agrees that they’re doable, so now it falls to both of us to make it happen!
Honestly, there’s some very exciting stuff going on so I hope you can stay tuned for the next big (or small) step in this indie publishing adventure!
Since I’ve begun actively posting anti-AI content, I think it’s time I made this statement.
Eternity’s Irys is 0% written by AI. For better or worse, I wrote every word of it.
I did use the assistance of ProWritingAid for some editing. I mostly took it’s marks under advisement and did what I wanted with it’s feedback. Very rarely did I accept its solutions at face value. I am uncertain of my future use of this tool.
The stand-in cover was AI generated, but it now only exists on my personal copies. The homepage has been updated with the rough draft of the retail cover. The site icon has also been updated using art of my own.
I have replaced the AI generated character portraits with old designs I drew up back in “The Q’taxians” era. They’re not the best representations, but they’re something.
All ancillary imagery on the site has been removed or replaced with art I can link back to a human creator. I may still dip into stock imagery from time to time, but I’m up in the air about that for reasons completely unrelated to this topic.
As of September of 2024, all art is now professionally created by Rhett (@fire_locket). Thanks to them, the cover is now completely original, character art has been updated, and all accent pieces including the site icon, have been replaced with high quality human-made art. The only thing that remains NOT made by Rhett is the little flower gif on the home page. That was made with stock images via Canva.
As amazing as it was to put AI to some use, it still left me feeling “dirty”. Almost all of my AI imagery was generated before I understood what was actually going on, how it really worked. As I’ve learned, I’ve begun distancing myself from any AI applications.
I was one of those “I can’t draw, but at least now I can have some art!” types. I had no plans to sell it besides the cover as a part of my book. Then it came for authors. AI “written” books started flooding the market. I’m sorry it took this and not the contentions of artists for me to see the light of day. When I realized how against AI “writing” I was, I knew I had to be anti AI art too. I also became increasingly aware of the poor/uncanny quality of all AI generated creative content. I went from “it looks good enough!” to “wow could it get any more lifeless?”
I used to be among the crowd that argued human artists had nothing to fear and if they were good enough, they’d shine well above the AI stuff. I was wrong, and for that, I am sorry. All art, no matter the quality, deserves a place of higher appreciation than anything generated by AI.
Somehow this revelation gave me some confidence in my own rudimentary drawings as well.
Since making the connection with my illustrator, Rhett, I’ve felt more and more comfortable with this decision. I understand this does put me in somewhat of a place of privilege, but it’s with this privilege that I can try to make a difference in the creative industry, even if it’s microscopic and goes unnoticed. My conscience and my project will be truly human made. And that’s what matters the most to me.
When I first generated Sylus with AI, it made me so damn happy. But it wasn’t truly him. It was an approximation and I assumed that was the best I’d ever get. Rhett has proved me wrong and I couldn’t be happier. A sketch from them has more heart and soul than anything AI could create.
Going forward, I have sworn off knowingly using any AI in any of my content.
Art plays a huge part in Eternity’s Irys. It’s the human element that makes it magical. The mortal experience. If I’m going to write about it, I have to live it fully. There is no art without a human’s involvement. Images and text blocks, sure. But art? No. Never.
I am well aware that AI is here to stay and its getting more and more accurate and life-like. I, personally, find this more disturbing than hopeful. I’m not here to fight the future, but I am here to preserve the present for as long as I can.
This is a personal choice I have no intention of forcing onto anyone else. I understand it may result in yet more shooting of myself in the foot down the line, but I’m willing to accept that.
Humans first, in all things.
Thank you all for your understanding.
**** September 2024 UPDATE: All art is now the product of Rhett (@fire_locket). The cover has been fully replaced, character art has been updated, and all accents including the site icon have been entirely sourced from the same human being. There is ZERO AI content left on this site! ****
🦑💜🦇
PS: I’m not here to argue the concept of developing “sentience”. That’s an entirely different topic.
After two meetings with my illustrator, Rhett (@fire_locket on Instagram), we concocted a rough draft of the cover!
Behold!
The beginnings of an original cover! Zero AI! All hard work and collaboration between humans!
So, were did all this come from considering the only element from the original AI design that carried over is the hourglass?
Well I’m so glad you asked!
For our first meeting, I gave some samples of covers I liked and didn’t like. Rhett was very receptive even though I didn’t think I was saying anything even remotely intelligent.
They took whatever I’d blathered on about and came up with two very strong designs. We ended up doing some mixing and matching as well as a bit of color theory.
For the longest time, I was dead set on just replicating the ai with a human hand, but Rhett pulled out all the stops and made me see the light of details. Every element serves a purpose and I am delighted.
SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT ON THE SPINE! I NEVER thought about doing anything interesting with the spine. Title goes there and that’s it. Rhett just made that happen and it’s staying.
The back is also pretty special. We’d discussed doing a little something something on there from the beginning. That rough outline is a hint as to what it will be. No further elaboration will be given.
Overall, the cover has gone from something stark to a more grimoire aesthetic and I couldn’t be happier.
Rhett’s done an amazing job thus far and I can’t wait to see the final result!
Speaking of, cover reveal (and maybe pre-orders 👀) will be coming in June! Huzzah! Finally doing something for Pride Month!
Stay tuned for an exact date if you’re interested!
If you want something to read in the meantime, the site is FULL of shorts that can give you a good idea of the world and characters of Eternity’s Irys. Especially the main boys, Jeron and Sylus.
On an additional note, the paperbacks for editing are finally under way. Something got held up with the printer and we didn’t realize until kinda late on. Should have those by the end of the month!
Bonus BERK for getting this far:
A spoiler literally no one will understand, but I love him all the same.
That’ll be all for this very tangible update! Progress is being made!
“Final” Stats: 48 Chapters 99,591 Words 426 Pages (with two extra reserved for special features)
As of today, my first physical pass of Eternity’s Irys is now complete. I intend to do one more with a softcover copy before calling it 100% complete. I would say we are at the 80% mark.
Things still in the works: -Mandala artist’s credit -Cover art -Super Secret Extra Project -Illustrator credit
I’m still aiming for an official release in June, but with all the work I’m putting on my illustrator, that might be changing. I’m willing to push it all back to make it perfect and I think between the two of us, it will be.
I may have mentioned a Valentines Day project. As of right now that’s been scrapped in favor of the Super Secret Extra Project. I’m very excited about it and I believe it’s the lux treatment Eternity’s Irys deserves.
I truly believe that Eternity’s Irys is nearing the end of its journey to be the best version of itself it can be.
After the paperback pass, it’ll probably be shelved until my illustrator can tackle their work and boy do they have a lot of it. In the meantime, I plan on trying to source some fun little merch things like pins and stickers! Might be a good time to learn how to use my Cricut 🤔
After his amazing work with the holiday piece, Rhett Cameron Morris has officially been hired as both cover artist and illustrator. He has a lot on his plate, but I know he’ll pull it all off.
With all that said, I believe that concludes this little update. Consider the publish date malleable, but everyone will be kept updated on that situation as I’m lowkey considering planning a party around it.
Did I say party? Yes. Yes I did. I would really like to do a release party sometime this year. How I’ll do it, or even afford it, I have absolutely no idea, but there has to be a way to do something like this on a budget. To the drawing board!
Earlier today I finished reading the entire physical copy of my book and it went so much better than I expected. I really thought it still needed a lot of work, but besides some small things, minor formatting issues, and a retooling of the literal last chapter, I think it’s damn near finished.
As you can see, the book’s been through some stuff. The dust jacket is in my commuting backpack and the hardcover has definitely seen better days, but it’s been places. It’s been to work, cafes, bus rides, home…
Every time I open its pages I find myself enamored with it all over again. I flip through the pages to remind myself that this is very real.
I wasn’t sure what to do with myself now that I was done combing through the physical book so I decided to just get to work transposing everything into the master file. Of course, after ignoring me all day, Zucca decided now was the time to get in the way.
I think once this pass is done, I’m going to see about obtaining some cheaper paperbacks and going through it one last time.
Other things going on in the background:
I’m trying to obtain permission to use the mandala artwork in the official publication. It’s up to the artist if they’ll allow it. If not, I’m going to see if I can commission something custom from the same artist. If not again, then I’ll have to go back to the drawing board with page artwork.
The cover art is on a bit of a backburner at the moment. Valentines Day, a holiday I don’t really care for, but its an excellent excuse for cute artwork of the boys, is approaching and said artwork is already underway.
I’m still aiming for a June 2024 release and at this rate that should still be very possible. I keep saying it as a kind of affirmation to remind myself that I’m not insane by setting a deadline like this.
Still feels incredibly surreal that I’ve gotten this far after all these years. I might finally be able to call myself a real deal author someday soon!
After five years of drafting this thing and over twenty years of writing in general, I ended 2023 with a copy of my book.
Written in Google Docs with the aforementioned Royal Kludge keyboard, formatted in Atticus, “edited” with ProWritingAid, and print-formatted by my brother Paul, my unofficial “publisher”.
He had four of these pre-production copies printed and they are BEAUTIFUL!
I knew he’d been working on it as it was somewhat of a collaboration, but I was under the impression it’d be a while before I’d ever get to see it. Well, on the night of December 30th, sitting in his car the cold, dark, wet of Pittsburgh, he handed me a copy. Just out of the blue.
It took me a minute to process what it was I now held.
My book.
Eternity’s Irys.
I was holding it.
I never gave any thought to how this moment would play out as I had it locked away as a work of fiction in and of itself.
I broke down and cried. Sobbed, even. Ugly, happy, proud tears.
I’ve been in a state of awe ever since. The copy pictured, 1 of 4, is my editing copy as in the excitement a page got a bit torn. Three more still sit on the shelf beside my desk. One will go home with my brother. The other two will remain with me. I would offer them to some special people, but I’ve found some crazy typos just in the first chapter!
On that note, editing in the book has been AMAZING. I was struggling so hard with doing yet another pass on my screen, but putting pen to actual paper, BOUND paper, not just printed out on a laserjet, adds a level of realism to the process I’ve never felt before.
The copies themselves are hardcover with a dustcover, lined with purple paper, printed on satin pages, and includes a beautiful little purple bookmark. They’re perfect.
I intend to design a limited “Release Edition” once it’s all ironed out. As of right now, I’m editing the physical copy and the cover artist has a June 2024 deadline which we will be strongly targeting in the coming months. I have to work on obtaining rights for the embellishment image I’ve been using. As of right now it’s for personal use only and these are only personal copies. I’d like to clear it for printing. Finally, I’ll have to obtain IBNs for it and get it officially listed as a real book for real people to buy.
A mid-2024 release is VERY possible. Scarilly possible.
I am both nervous and excited, but mostly determined.
Happy New Years to everyone and I hope its everything we all need and deserve!
2024 is going to be a BIG year for Eternity’s Irys! Stay tuned!
Happy 5th Anniversary to the completion of the first draft of “The Q’taxians”! How far we’ve come and what a crazy adventure it’s been! Rollercoaster of highs and lows, character growth, real life growth, tons of drafts and discarded novels, all to get us here: Eternity’s Irys. Not once did I want to give up, but boy was it tempting at times. Certainly glad I never did!
I think I’m going to commemorate it by making December 11th Jeron’s birthday. From side character to primary MC, he’s come a long way
(If anyone’s curious, Sylus’ is July 13. No reason, just ended up that way)
Thank you again to everyone who’s been following me on this journey. It’s been a lot and I appreciate every bit of support.
“Eternity’s Irys: Two Minutes to Midnight” is looking at a very realistic 2024 release so please stay tuned for more news and updates!
Much love, and until next time,
Tav
(remember when it was ? Even the emoji’s have evolved )
As of yesterday, the first entry to the “Eternity’s Irys” series, “Two Minutes to Midnight”, is finally complete.
Dust Jacket of the Author Proof Copy
I am finally happy with the outcome of five years of writing.
Currently, my brother and I are putting together some proof copies. He’s doing most of the technical work I can’t handle as well as redesigning the cover. He expects to have them before Christmas.
It feels unreal and I can’t even say I’m 100% happy. I just… am. I think it’ll be different when I finally hold it.
I spent so long trying to manually format and edit the whole thing that I ended up using Atticus for formatting and ProWritingAid for some editing assistance. We didn’t agree on everything, but it helped me reword some stuff and reduce repetition and excessive verbosity.
Page Layout via Atticus
I have a cover artist in the wings with a June of 2024 deadline, however I may publish my first edition sooner. I’m not counting this proof copy as a formal edition, but it will come in a limited batch of 4.
Hard Cover of the Author Proof Copy
I still feel largely nothing for some reason. Maybe it hasn’t set in that I’m actually finished.
For now.
I ended on such a severe cliff hanger with so many open threads I almost feel bad. However, addressing even ONE of those threads tacked on 100 more pages and like 30k more words. It became tedious. So… I let all the threads hang flapping in the wind. Don’t worry, I have them all plotted out into the second book so nothing will go unanswered or unaddressed. It just couldn’t be done now.
I think the process for the next book will be much more streamlined. I have a much better idea of what I’m doing. It’ll hopefully move at a better pace. I always thought this one tracked a bit on the slow side, but far from unreadable.
The first book was, from the start, intended to lay groundwork and that’s about it. I think it does that and moves the story into a position where I can take it wherever I need to.
I decided on “Two Minutes to Midnight” as an homage to the Doomsday Clock. The Doomsday Clock tracks how close we are to the end of the world as we know it. In case you were curious, we’re currently, in real life, at 90 seconds to midnight. Midnight being “the end”. Not necessarily rapture or hellfire, but a dire change in the way our world functions. The clock moves forward and back depending on what plays out on the world stage. Negative events, like war, move it forward. Progressive events, like reducing CO2 emissions, moves it back. it’s far easier to move it ahead than back.
The book starts at 120 seconds to that world’s apocalypse.
It still needs some work, but I think having an actual physical representation of the final product will help me get through fixing the last of it up. We’re at the polishing stage now. Maybe after this, I’ll open it up to beta readers and… maybe even an actual editor… Who knows. I sure don’t.
Anyway, there’s a small holiday “gift” in the works, but for now, that’s all I have to really say. Hopefully there’ll be some kind of meltdown once I have the books in my hands. We shall see.
This is the RK Royal Kludge RK61. Got it on Amazon for $50.
I was using one of those cool type-writer keyboards for a while and for a while it worked okay, but typos and missing simple keys like “Enter” started getting out of hand. So I Googled “Best keyboards for typing” and this was one of the more affordable options that repeatedly came up.
As you can see, it’s tiny and certain functions that one may take for granted now require the additional press of a Function key. Now as someone who’s primarily typed on laptops, this wasn’t a problem for me. What WAS a problem, and almost ended up in an Amazon review, was that it was NOT plug and play. Oh sure you could plug it in and your PC would automatically install it and in theory you could start typing immediately, HOWEVER! However however however! It basically comes out of the box with some kind of “Function Lock” engaged. Half the keyboard is locked into Function Key mode until you find the key combo to unlock it. Guess what this keyboard doesn’t come with? A manual explaining any of this. I had to Google to find the answer.
Once I freed up the letters, I then had to figure out how to free up the numbers as they were now locked into F-key mode. This required more Googling to find yet another set of inputs to return them to their primary numerical function.
It also comes out of the box with the left shift key being useless. Only the right one did anything and I’m not sure about you, but that’s not how I type. Well, you guessed it, more Googling and another set of inputs to swap the function over to the left shift key.
So basically it comes needing some setting up which I’m not going to say is necessarily a problem. It’s a small keyboard so one has to accept there’s going to be some compromises. What almost killed me was that I had to Google and read Reddit posts to find out how to make it function like a regular keyboard. I wish it either came with primary functions engaged and let you toggle the Function key as necessary or it had a manual explaining the input controls. A manual would have been nice either way actually and I don’t say that often.
How does it type, though? It’s awesome, actually. The keys feel perfectly spaced and the caps are definitely finger-tip appropriate. The brown switches feel and sound pretty good. I’m not one to really rate a keyboard based on clack but this one isn’t too bad compared to what I’ve used in the past. I can also type pretty quickly with few flaws on this bad boy.
If you have the patience to set it up, I highly recommend. If you just want a keyboard that works as expected out of the box, I’d skip it. Even though I got incredibly frustrated, I think it was worth the effort.
Full transparency some of this may have been hidden in the title of the product as I didn’t understand what “Triple Mode” meant. Still don’t, but if it tells someone more educated than myself all they need to know then that’s good I suppose. I bought it just assuming it’d come like any abbreviated keyboard that needs a Function key to do certain things. Instead it came backwards.
Do I recommend it? Well, like I said above, that’s really up to you. After going through the insanity of getting it working, it really has increased my productivity, but I still had to Google three separate inputs just to get it to act like a normal keyboard.
Of course, this could have been an isolated experience and other people just get it working fine out of the box. Can’t be sure as most of the Amazon reviews are positive and none of them mention the need for any kind of set up. Also, I use it wired so I can’t weigh in on the complaints about Bluetooth functions and battery life.
Ah well. I almost returned it, but after a few days of just straight typing with it, I’m glad I didn’t.
“I wrote a character this way. Should I have written them this other way?”
Short answer: No.
Long answer:
Characters tend to grow and evolve with the author and the draft. Your first iteration is highly unlikely to be identical to the final version. The key is to write write write and accept that the first draft is far from your best work in every possible way. It’s groundwork and just the beginning of a long and sometimes arduous journey.
How you write your characters is very personal to you. Unless you’re fishing for some kind of approval, you just write them however they feel at the moment. Don’t worry if they’re not perfect at first. There’s no such thing as a perfect person, but I can assure you characters just need time and space to breathe and grow. Your first version may be cringe when that’s not the intention, but give them time and thought and they’ll meander their way to being the best version of themselves they can be.
I’ll use Sylus as an example since he’s been my primary focus and has done the most evolving.
Sylus started as a personal trauma response. He was 100% a self insert and started out very much “not right”. He was on a journey to become himself. He was supposed to grow and change throughout the story, but I realized that made him incredibly fragmented and not himself. In fact, he would only be a shadow of himself until the very end of the story. That didn’t feel right to me. I’d hampered him with my own self doubt and it showed. He was so insecure and afraid, but I always loved him and even at his weakest I didn’t give up.
The more I wrote him, the more he told me what he wanted for himself. He even made a few executive decisions about his personality and appearance that I had no choice but to accept. It almost felt like I’d somehow offended this fictional character by portraying them any other way, but all those other versions needed to exist for us to get to where we are. There was never any reason for him to exist as anyone or anything but himself and with every draft, every iteration, he came closer to his truth.
In the process, I realized that making him whole meant working on myself. I said a while ago that if you’re not putting part of your soul into every character, they’ll struggle to come across as sincere. Maybe they don’t “talk” to you like they do for me, but that doesn’t mean they still aren’t connected to you. Which is why as you grow, your characters grow, too.
In the end, you must write how you feel. If your characters appear rough at first glance, that’s perfectly okay! But it’s up to you to get them to where you want them. It’s your job to worth with them on their growth. A group of anonymous know-it-alls won’t help you get there. Sure they might be able to say what is or isn’t believable, but that would become apparent to you as the author the more you work on your characters.
Give them room to grow and breathe and I promise you they will. In fact, they might even trash your plot and demand an entirely new one. I know mine did and I firmly believe it was worth listening to them.
Again, I’m no grand success story. Hell I’m not even published yet. I’m eternally in the WIP phase, but I’m getting there and I like to think I’ve learned a lot along the way. It’s hard for me to imagine writing a book and not loving every single one of your characters including the villains.
You have to write YOUR story and stop pining for the approval of others. No one can tell you how to write your tale. I mean they can, but then it’s not exactly yours anymore, is it? It will never be for everyone and if it is, you’ve done something very, very wrong.
Love your characters and grow along side them. You’ll all be better for the experience.
Wow the character hate in writing support groups is bizarre. Why wouldn’t you want to know what the characters look like? I get excruciating detail is too much (and I may be guilty of this), but knowing hair and eye color? That’s… That’s amateur? Help?
I know exactly what my characters look like and it’s strange for me to think any author has zero idea about their character’s appearance. Is this a character vs plot driven thing?
Am I wrong for describing my characters? I couldn’t dream of telling my story without readers knowing who’s lives their following as that’s the kind of thing I like reading myself.
That goes back to my Setting rant. Why is detail amateurish? There’s setting the mood and ruining it with too much info but I keep reading these posts and people just want words on a page and to form their own details. So… Write your own story? They want a plot and nothing else. No character descriptions, no setting details, nothing. Is that normal? Because if so I’m failing as a writer.
Here’s the “Simple Plot” to Eternity’s Irys:
Small town man Jeron Miles believes there’s nothing more to life than toiling it away to atone for a childhood tragedy until he meets an alien being named Sylus Synclaire who accidentally embroils him in an ancient conflict between the ominous Void and mortal kind.
That’s it. That’s the book. That’s all you get. No details. Enjoy!
Ah crap I used an adjective. Better burn me at the stake.
Adendum:
Bring up Chekhov’s Gun and suddenly these writing groups are all “details are important and don’t necessarily have to be plot devices!”
Yes. Exactly. Not every detail has to serve a purpose. I’m so glad you realized that.
I joined writing groups to be inspired. Instead I’m reading so much ignorant shit that it’s driving me nuts. One of the best books I ever read used details and descriptors to set the location and tone. It’s emersive as far as I’m concerned. It’s not “weak story telling” or “amateur”. You can paint a picture and still tell a story. Saying “the sky was alight with a scarred, silvery moon surrounded by swirling galaxies drawn in across space and time” hardly takes away from the battle scene of the plot. To me, at least, it strengthens it. I want the environment. If I was watching a movie and saw a starry sky back dropping desperate conflict I’d be hooked. I get books aren’t movies, but I feel like adding description to the setting puts you IN the action. And before anyone is like “Well I don’t like that” that’s fine! Preference is preference. But calling that style of story telling weak and amateur just sets me off. It’s not.
Writing forums are so dense. Someone shows concern about people using ChatGPT to write entire manuscripts and these people are like “well grammarly is AI too. Where do we draw the line?” You’re being intentionally obtuse. There’s a huge difference between using something to write your entire story and using aids. Then they revert to “Then ghost writing isn’t real writing” and honestly? I have weird feelings about ghost writing, but you’re still engaging with a human being. You are a human communicating with another human to create something you might not be otherwise able to create. I suppose you could liken ghost writing to commissioning artwork. At some point you stop attributing the artist and the work becomes yours because it was your idea that they executed.
Yes ai writing isn’t great right now, but have you seen how far ai art has come? (I got 5 finger hands the other day watch out y’all) It will get better. The more it’s used and exposed to content, it will improve. There may always be something off about it, but if you think in five years the average reader will be able to tell the difference, I have a plot of land to sell you.
Am I worried? No. Should I be? Dunno. I know I’m not happy about ai replacing art before simplifying work. It was supposed to make life easier not replace our creativity. And maybe it never fully will, but the market is already inundated with swill. Ai will only make it harder for actual writers to stand out. You could have the story of the century and it’ll get buried. Happens today and it’ll just get worse with normalized ai usage.
Anyway I could say more on this and I probably will in the future but that’s it for today’s soap box.
Have Jeron and Sylus being idiots in a snippet from “The Arboreal Land Octopus”, today’s Pride entry:
While I’m on my writing soap box, abandon word count fixations. Write the whole damn thing. If you CAN break it up to relieve reader fatigue, go for it. If you feel like that would compromise the story, don’t.
HOWEVER, and this is something I struggle with, if you DO want to write a long book, consider shorter chapters or sections! I feel like it should be one or the other just to keep readers from tapping out over 2k word chapters.
In fact, thus far, my most common criticism is that it “looks intimidating”. When I press the issue, I come to the above conclusions. Either the book itself must be shorter, or the chapters have to be shorter. I feel like these are both reasonable approaches. You don’t want your readers getting lost in a sea of text!
Saw this take on a writing group post and I sincerely disagree. The market is a fickle beast. Readers aren’t always in it with the best of intentions especially for indie authors. I firmly believe you must write what makes YOU happy. Barring major plot or story structure issues, your story must suit you. Would YOU read what you wrote? Or does it read like another lowest common denominator KDP cash grab? Believe me, if you love it, others will, too. Will it be the next greatest hit spawning TV shows and movies? Who knows and as guilty of this as I am, this shouldn’t be the point.
Anyway, every voice is valuable and the market is cold and heartless. If you can hit some market trends without compromising your work, awesome. If you’re writing just to get people to “plunk down their credit cards”, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Also before anyone says “Where’s your best selling book?” I’ll tell you. It went into 5 years of rewrite hell to be palatable to the general market. I went for what would sell over what would make me happy. The result? I started to resent it. It’s only since I threw that mindset away that I finally finished my “difinitive” draft.
So maybe I’m full of shit and blowing hot air, but consider this: to appease the “market” you must be formulaic and be able to sell your version of the formula over everyone else’s. You’re writing what people supposedly want to read, but you’re fighting saturation. Conversely, to be truly creative, you shouldn’t necessarily ignore a formula that works, but you SHOULD 100% twist it to suit your own needs. Even if that means alienation of some potential readers.
tl;dr: write for you first and foremost. If you love it, the market is there. It may not be to big fat general market, but there will be others looking to read what you wrote. Hang in there
Just like with the story itself, the site has gone through countless reworks and overhauls. I’ve decided to keep it simple and clean this time. I can’t afford to upgrade for anything fancy at the moment, but at minimum I’d like to get a domain set up properly sooner than later.
For now, this is 100% free and I’m very happy with it.
So what’s the point of this?
Well they say it helps an author to have a site, but I don’t care much for advertising myself, as much as that might help me sell content. I care so much more for selling the story, world, and characters. I may, at some point, add a personal blog, but for now, again, it’s going to be 100% focused on “Eternity’s Irys”.
I love my story and my characters. I know it’s not a tale for everyone. Heck I’m not sure if anyone but me will every really like it, but that doesn’t matter anymore. Once upon a time I was writing to sell. Now I’m writing to be happy.
I have no timeline for a book release, but it’s coming soon. I don’t intend to use Amazon at all. I want to be the one to make or break my life’s work success. I can’t stand the idea of entrusting it to anyone or anything else. So outside small, local bookstores, I’ll be selling every copy myself.
Once again, I hope you find something of interest to you here in the universe I’ve created. If anything here piques your interest, stay tuned for the novel!
How far we’ve come and what a crazy adventure it’s been! Rollercoaster of 
? Even the emoji’s have evolved 
)
to Eternity’s Irys:
Eternity's Irys 