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A writing update on The Shadow Sisters
It's been a busy last month or so around here, and it's all been a lot of pretty good things. My mental health has taken a turn for the better with new meds, so I can actually think clearly again. I've had the new cover and formatting rerelease of The Stairs in the Woods to celebrate. And I've also been busy with other writerly things of late as well. Specifically, the writing.
That's right, I'm writing again.
It had been a pretty rough last year and a half. in that time I barely touched my writing at all, and when I did it was in fits and starts. I detailed my issues with depression and anxiety in my blog last July. I had hoped to have things cleared up by now. Unfortunately, getting my meds right took longer than I had hoped. But I'm seeing a different doctor now and getting much better results than before. The brain fog is mostly gone. It's noisy in my head still, but I can fight through it for the most part.
At the time of the aforementioned blog, I promised more writing updates on The Shadow Sisters which I did not deliver on. And well, to be fair, there wasn't much progress to report. I wrote about five chapters over that last year, and in a lot of respects, the writing was not up to my standards. When I went back and reread everything I had up to this point, three of those five chapters were very weak. One of the chapters I completely rewrote and two of them I ended up scrapping completely.
But that's the thing. I was able to rewrite and make it better. And I've since added more words, moving the story along in a way that feels more coherent that what my brain was able to accomplish in the short bursts it was willing to work. I know the path forward now, and it's definitely a lot darker than my other books. I'm really looking forward to pushing my own limits and seeing where this story goes.
But my brain having a bit of a year and a half holiday certainly wasn't good for my self imposed deadlines once again. So we're probably looking at a late 2025 release, assuming everything stays on it's current track.
The Shadow Sisters is the story of a young woman named Anjia who has been raised for her entire life that she is in training to join the Temple of Kyrsma, the Goddess of Life & Light. But when she reaches her final trial, she learns a terrible truth. She and the other women of the temple are bound to Krysma's enemy, a shadow demon called The Khimital. Since it can use their shadows to puppet them to do whatever it wants, the women of the temple have no choice other than to decide to let the shadow do it's work through them, or to do it themselves so they can retain some modicum of control.
I recommend taking a look back a previous blog post for a more detailed primer on this tale. Much remains the same, except I'm a lot closer to 90K words now. I'm hoping to hit that milestone later this week. I'm hoping to have a finished manuscript sometime this year, giving me most of next year to worry about editing & formatting with the wonderful Vanessa Redmon, and hopefully working with the extremely talented Fay Lane once again on the cover. Both of their work on the latest edition of The Stairs in the Woods was top notch. But in order to work with these fabulous women again, I need to finish this book. So I'd better get back to it.
Besides, I can't wait to see where the story takes me.
In the meantime, here's a look at the latest book trailer for The Shadow Sisters: