What is this all about, really?

It's not easy to support someone if you don't know what the hell they're actually doing, working on, or creating, right?

I get it, don't worry! You want to know more about this book I've been talking about non-stop for the past six months. I got you.

Where did this whole thing start anyway?

During the pandemic, I had been going back and forth with starting a few scripts, clearly trying to scratch the hitch I felt for writing again after years of not doing it. But I would start writing the project and then stop and move on to something else. 

A conversation with my late mentor/close friend kept running through my mind. Once, when I introduced my then-boyfriend (now husband) to Anneli right before I left Toronto, we spent a long time talking about projects that we would like to do together and what I would really like to be doing. I think she always knew I was bound to write, even though I was producing with her at the time and we were always finding excuses to produce anything together. But she kept gently pushing me to write more and more, and it was her who turned to me and said "Why does it have to be a script? Write a novel!"

Those words stayed with me for a long time, and even after I moved back home, we kept in touch regularly. Our zoom calls were long, happy and full of ideas. She kept pushing me to write, she knew I wasn't happy where I currently was in life and she knew that's what would make me happy (even before I knew so myself). 

The last conversation we had, I asked her how I would go about actually starting off a career in writing and she had all kinds of advice ready for me. I still have the note I wrote with some specific things she had told me to pursue. 

Less than a month later, Anneli died suddenly. It was a shock to me and fucked me up more than I was willing to admit at the time or even today. 

I quit everything, literally. I quit my job and the possibility of working in the Portuguese film industry (which I had been working on for over a year and a half at that point and it was finally becoming true). I quit filmmaking, in general. I never wanted to produce a single project ever again in my life. There is a small part of me that still believes that. 

But sometimes, when I was lost in the middle of the grief of losing one of my closest friends and partners, I would hear those words she had said to me so casually. 

It was in 2022, after coming back to my marketing job and starting to feel "normal" again, that a flourish of an idea came together, something new. I wanted to write a love story that was complicated, dark, and clouded in magic. I wanted to create a fantasy world where, in a way, Anneli could still live in. Where she could still give me advice, in a weird and twisted way. 

And then a magic system started to take place: the whole idea for the world came from Minecraft Dungeons, like I joked in my previous post, but it is true! They have a soul dagger that absorbs the souls of the enemies you kill and then transforms it into power. And I liked that, I wanted to do something inspired by that, and so I created a magic system around it.

One dagger, and suddenly there were Light Mages and Void Mages and the blade was a magic artifact that could hold souls inside, to whom the wielder could talk to, gather information from. An assassin that was also a spy, burdened with the weight of having to negotiate with the very people she kills. 

I was so intrigued by that concept, my wheels started turning and out of nowhere, I had a Princess who had a tragic secret that she had to keep from her paranoid father, or threaten to destroy her kingdom, which was a place that did not accept magic in any way. 

I had two strong main characters who intrigued me, a world perfect for chaos that lends itself to betrayals, lies, and hidden monsters. Then I started thinking about how to bring these two very different characters together, what would motivate them, and how the unlikely heroes would be fought down again and again and again. 

I'm not interested in easy wins. I want my characters to suffer and find out who they are and have to fight to get to the finish line. I can't relate to anything else more.

I spent a year coming up with the characters, writing the outline, and writing plot points and character arcs that could be interesting over a whole trilogy.

And then, in July of 2023, I just started writing. And I haven't stopped.

As a fun little exercise, I tried writing a blurb for my book (the little summary that goes at the back of the book) so I could workshop it with my beta-readers (and see if I could get them excited to read the book). After much honest feedback, I know it's not an ideal blurb and all of it will change, but I thought it could be fun to share that first draft of the blurb with you.

The final one will be much better, but at least you get a taste ;)

An Assassin with a dark power. A Princess with a forbidden secret. A Mage with a dying magic. 

The King of Atjas has outlawed magic for twenty years to ensure his kingdom prospered without the influence of Void Mages.

When Mara, the Princess who is heir to the Shielded Throne, discovers a dark truth about who she is, she threatens to break apart a Kingdom held together by lies and to send her father over the edge of paranoia.

Ashe, the greatest assassin of Ufhind, hides a big secret: she’s been bending the rules of magic and wielding a dagger of great power to do her boss’s bidding. But when her power leads to the revelation of the Princess’s secret, the fallout is bigger than anything she could have prepared for.

Once their world falls apart around them, both young women must carve new alliances, embrace the magic they have been taught to despise, and try to save themselves and those who dare help them.

But what should Ashe do now that it’s harder than ever to find her kidnapped sister? How can she trust the righteous Mage who reluctantly fights alongside her? How can Mara face the reality of what her father represents? And how do they save a Kingdom bent on killing anyone who dares be different?

Thank you for being here. I truly appreciate it and I can't wait to share more with you,
Iolo