Wow, this story was nowhere near as long as Rune Mage (RM was 200k and this was 83k). Either it means I got better at condensing my scenes or Chaos Mage needs a bit more fleshing out, lol.
I'm afraid life has been super hectic over the past few months so I don't have that many statistics for Chaos Mage. I began it in March, continued it during Camp NaNoWriMo April 2018, and it was completed during late May.
Thank Yous
My thanks to all the readers who followed me through Seiren's second adventure. I had intended to write a sequel for Rune Mage anyway, but it was at a lot of the followers' encouragement did I give it further thought and flesh out where to go from there. I love reading all your comments. Those who were with me from the beginning of Rune Mage would know I do take inspiration and influence from the speculations, questions, and comments people leave, so please do continue to theorise away when I start my next project! I love reading your thoughts.
Specific thanks to the amazing folk who followed me through the making of Book 1 as well as Book 2: VigneshR6, CaptainSarcastic101, Vainel, kevohkish, and thesilentshadow.
And also major thanks to everyone who cheered me through Book 2 as well: LiezelOlao, PineappleLuvz, PrateekGoel, salha33, Sammy0412, angelmlee83, sgd1975, EllaraNithercott, AuthorJMColes, MidnightMist143, Tiana_L, loleini, mayorblaze, temyazriel, CandiceEspinoza9, kamsoneirisms.
Obviously, as usual, thanks to my awesome volunteer editor MarkAshWood and my ever-enthusiastic supporting friend Nadia.
About the Inspiration:
During the writing of this, I played a lot of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, so you may recognise some of the places that were inspired by TZA's sandseas and Rabanastre.
I'd initially intended Hanna to be in everlasting winter, a bit like the long winters of Game of Thrones, which was why the cover I'd created for Chaos Mage was snowy. But TZA just became too big of an inspiration. I'd just finished my stint with Empress of Fire earlier on this year so I was still heavily influenced by the far east, so I'd also amalgamated some Manchurian/Qing dynasty into Hanna's culture.
Because this was done during NaNoWriMo and not updated in real time, unfortunately I didn't get to use much of the readers' suggestions. I was quite saddened by that â it was a lot of fun throwing red herrings in and twisting your speculations before!
About the Characters:
In this book, I wanted to explore the more unconventional ways people can be strong whilst avoiding the typical muscled overpowering trope. We know Seiren can hold her own in a battle most of the time, but after reading Throne of Glass (I hate that book, honestly...), I wanted to explore other areas characters can be strong without putting down others or just kicking ass.
Eleia is the first one that materialised. I wanted to give voice to characters one doesn't often see in fiction and Eleia's perceived weakness due to her deafness and physical handicap, coupled with her quiet determination, made her a great dark horse.
And then we have poor Rowan, who seems to have somehow gotten the brunt of all the misfortune I threw at my characters, grief-stricken and emotional after multiple bereavements. Although we don't see much of him in Chaos Mage, I wanted him to work through his grief, be angry, full of blame and guilt and then coming to terms with what he must do as he still lives.
And, lastly, we have Kommora, who is already a bad-ass. But she also had her losses â the death of her wife and child â which couldn't be solved by being a physical bad-ass. Her losses give her motivation not to let corruption win.
Will there be a sequel?
Yes... at some point. I think this will end up being a trilogy. Maybe. Seiren has to now hunt down Karma's sealed soul, maybe resurrect her, and somehow sort this mess that is the resurrected Hanna, plus or minus destroying the country of Karma and/or getting back Madeleine. I haven't plotted it at all, nor have I given it much thought beyond what I've written above. Don't hold your breath. The third book will be a while yet.
About the daemons:
So we see a lot more daemons in Book 2. There is a sort of pattern to what kind of daemons is summoned by a summoner. The Tophalis of Hanna summon snakes, typically venomous. The five great families that make up the Daemonium summon the same five species of reptiles. See below for example photos of the daemons mentioned.
Eleia Tophalis's Castiel, a saw-scaled viper.
Fautos Tophalis's Kagori, a Burmese Python.
Magus Tophalis's Durah, a king rattlesnake
Martel Solidor's Aphriel, a red iguana.
The Daemonium:
Leviat Havris's Iramiah, a Cuban crocodile.
Oerse Gulmore's Baerekiel, a snapping turtle.
Cazadia Delnargin's Hanilla, an iguana. Cazadia is Martel Solidor's first cousin.
Soleus Luddas's Maroni, a monitor lizard.
Ravin Bunarsa's Saraphes, a chameleon.
Apollinon is a Chinese dragon. They look like this:
Questions from readers:
From PrateekGoel:
"Who exactly activated those runes in execution. Hannans can't for all we know..... Btw, how did she even activate that one rune to bring back Hannan without magic??"
It's clear in my head but I'm not sure if I showed it clearly in the story! So when the old generation of King's Mages (Karis, Domic etc.) attempted the mass genocide to revive celestial magic, it half-awoken the sealed soul of Hanna. Hanna then reached out to the Daemonium as that 'mysterious voice' Magus Tophalis talked about and provided tiny amounts of celestial magic (which can manifest into rune because it's the origin of all magic) for a group of Hannan insurgents to rescue/kidnap Kristen at her execution.
After Kristen arrived in the country of Hanna, the soul of Hanna was able to communicate better with her and, after realising this was the wrong 'celestial mage' but still could be useful, restored some of Kristen's magic to gain her trust in return for reviving Hanna's body and soul. This was why Kristen was able to revive Hanna enough for Hanna to then continue her regeneration.
Other works:
So, although I did say in the author's note of March City: Rebellion of the Gifted that I've pledged a new story for NaNoWriMo, at the time of writing, I've done less than 1000 words so I doubt I'll make much progress during this month thanks to my new job. This means I'm going to be either working, eating, or sleeping, and doing no writing at all for the next few months. I'm currently on day 10 of a 12 day stretch and am working 30 hours straight tomorrow so my brain is a tad fried, along with my imagination.
In the mean time, though, please do join me and a bunch of other great authors at KellyAnneBlount's WATTPAD BLOCK PARTY, where I'll be doing a giveaway of a 2018 Fantasy YA release, open internationally as long as The Book Depository ships to your country!
I didn't initially plan to write a sequel for this, but I did so love Seiren and her sass. It was great fun writing her again and living vicariously through her bad decisions and talent at magic.
Other full-length novels:
For a coming-of-age wind magic fantasy in a war-afflicted world, check out THE WINDCASTER.
For dragons and magic, check out DRAGON RISING.
For fast-packed action with flying demon guts and betrayals, check out SEEKER: DEMON KILLERS.
For a dystopian fantasy-scifi with magic abilities and a perfect world in an oligarchy, check out MARCH CITY: LAND OF THE GIFTED and its sequel MARCH CITY: REBELLION OF THE GIFTED.
Other novellas:
For Asian fantasy and a vengeful fire spirit, check out EMPRESS OF FIRE.
For Asian Scifi with robotics and what makes a human human? check out TECHNO FEVER.
For Regency fantasy with memory weaving gone wrong, check out WEAVE OF SILVER.
Other short stories:
For fantasy, check out ROSES AND DREAMS.
For general fiction, check out TEAR DROPS AND INK.
For horror, check out STUFF OF NIGHTMARES.
Oh, but if you like some non-fiction and see what my job entails, check out The Doctor Diaries. That will have more frequent but sporadic updates, depending on what life stories come to my mind.
Thank you again for yet another exhilarating journey. If you've any questions, post them below and I'll do my best to answer.
RUNE MAGE is entered for #Wattys2018 so if you want to support me, go and vote on all the chapters, give shout-outs about this book on your profile, encourage your friends to read, and comment, comment, comment!
(Also March City: Rebellion of the Gifted and Empress of Fire are entered too, so you should totally support them <3)