Void Domain Author’s Note 02

All of the following is completely optional to read. This is no narrative. It in no way affects the story. I’m mostly going to ramble for a few words.

Hello, thanks for reading.

We’ve reached the end of the second book. Onward to the third.

Book three will continue as scheduled. No intermissions, no interludes. Tune in next time for 003.001.

One thing I think I struggled with the most in book two was deciding how much information to give the reader about various topics. Should there have been a chapter there explaining something or can that be inferred?

There are several things, mostly around Zagan, that I deliberately kept hidden. Some of those things were skipped over or ignored for the sole reason of keeping his identity somewhat obscured. All that despite the fact that anyone with a working internet connection can simply google the word Zagan and make the connection. Incidentally, rex is Latin for king. Zagan is not a subtle guy.

A couple of the comments had me thinking that leaving some information out is not that great of an idea.

It will be a lesson for me as I move forwards with book three.

The weakest chapter, I believe, was 002.013. I think it felt disjointed between Eva and Juliana’s scenes. Eva’s scene went through a few different versions and I don’t think I liked any of them. One had Arachne doing something other than getting tossed halfway across the infinite courtyard, another had Eva getting injured and not fixed, one had Zagan saying a lot more about his goals and motivations that I left out in the interest of keeping his name out of it.

My personal favorite chapter was 002.010. The chapter in which Wayne met up with Devon and Ylva. I like Wayne. He’s probably the most level-headed character.

We got to see Zoe Baxter outside of the classroom and away from Eva. She’s an avid researcher of all things magical, even things the rest of the magical world might frown upon. And she plays the piano.

Some other characters got a chapter or two in the limelight, detailing their daily lives. Irene notably.

My main goal for book three is tightening up my storytelling. I do not wish to repeat the above issues. POV distribution will be tightened. Primary focus will be on Eva. Zoe and Juliana will also be given some screentime, though not as much as book two. That isn’t to say that we won’t see other POVs.

I am quite excited for book three and have been having great fun writing it so far. I do hope you will enjoy reading.

I have a few side notes before we get on with things.

First, I only have one planned extra for book three. It will be a classroom discussion about order and chaos magic. I’m sure I can think up another one or two, but I was curious to know if anyone had any requests. Extras are simply an in-character method of delivering more expository information. Nothing required for reading or enjoying the main story. Examples of existing extras include classroom discussions about magic and an exploration through Ylva’s domain. We could do more of those, or perhaps a ‘day in the life of ___’ style segment.

Second, I launched a patreon! Yay! Patreon told me to be excited when I announced it and what says excitement more than an exclamation mark or two. On a more serious note: I have a job and I make ends meet. I’m not going to go into my financial details, but acquiring more money would not go unappreciated. Writing takes up almost all of my spare time, as such, I can’t promise any kind of extra chapter rewards. Not unless I make enough through patreon to quit my job. I’m not counting on or hoping for anything like that. Whether or not you choose to donate, thanks for reading.

Third, I just said that writing takes up almost all of my spare time. I decided to do something silly and write more. I’m starting a new project tentatively titled Hide and Seek. It is set in the same world as Void Domain, but shares no characters. Probably. Basic idea is stolen from inspired by a music video of the same name. Watching that video might give away spoilers, but I figured I’d go full disclosure on that. I’ll link it again after I finish the story, so if you want to wait on watching it, you’ll be reminded then.

It is not replacing Void Domain. Void Domain comes first. Some chapters are easier to write than others and I finish them early. When that happens, I’ll be tossing the extra words into Hide and Seek. There could be weeks or longer between updates. The total length is likely to be around half of Void Domain book one, so it isn’t a major project or anything. It probably won’t launch until sometime in 2016 as I like to be a couple chapters ahead, but I thought I’d mention it now while there’s a handy author’s note page to write on.

Note from later on: Project mentioned in the previous paragraphs is frozen due to lack of time and a need to focus on this story.

Lastly, I made a twitter. I’ve never used twitter in my personal life, but someone PMed me on reddit (again, I’m towercurator over there) and asked if I had one. I didn’t, now I do. It’s just set up to post links to new chapters, but maybe someone will find that useful. Incidentally, I rarely check reddit. I think that PM was there for a week or two before I logged in and then it was a while longer before even noticed the little red mail icon.

Trivia section:

• Sisters Goose, Horner, Piper, Botter, Hubbard, Cole, Peep, Griggs, Lamb. I’m sorry. I have no excuse. I mentioned a dislike of obvious references in the author’s note for book one. Then I go do a silly thing like this. I meant to only name one or two, but Lynn Cross knows the names and faces of every member of Charon Chapter. It felt wrong for her to say “hey, you two,” instead of their names.

• The song Zoe Baxter played on a piano was, in my head at least, a mix of the Diva’s songs from The Fifth Element [There used to be a link to it but YouTube keeps taking it down] and the track “Run Down” from The Big O. For those that don’t know, The Big O is basically anime Batman with giant mechs. The Fifth Element is… just really good. I’m not sure how else to describe it.

• Ylva enjoys daytime soap operas. She also likes puffy cheetos. She gets really into her soaps. It always fills her with despair whenever she, through the black skull, sees Eva say something like, “let’s go visit Ylva!” She has to wipe her fingers off on her tee-shirt, take it off, slip into her fancy and low-cut dress, and rush out to her throne room. She settles into her slouch of contempt mere seconds before Eva pulls open the door.

• Not so much a trivia, but in author’s notes 001, I recommended the Discworld series on the basis that Death is a pretty cool guy. I figured I might as well recommend something in this author’s notes as well. I don’t read a lot of fanfiction, probably less than ten works total. The very first fanfiction I ever read is titled Dungeon Keeper Ami. If you even mildly enjoy Void Domain, you’ll likely love DKA. I must warn about the site, as it can be confusing to new people. Every episode ends with a series of choices that anyone can add to. As such, some chapters have several chapters linked to them. Only the entries by Pusakuronu are considered part of DKA. So keep an eye on the author and enjoy! Edit from the future: Link updated to Sufficient Velocity as the old site died. As such, none of that old text is relevant anymore.

Stats:
Chapters: 21 (+two Extras)
Wordcount: 100,160 (according to WordPress’ built in word counter (including Extras))
POV counts (max of one count per chapter (including Extras)):
Eva: 10
Zoe: 6
Nel: 4
Juliana: 4
Shalise: 3
Irene: 3
Martina: 2
Lynn: 2
Arachne: 1
Wayne: 1
Catherine: 1
Devon: 1
Des: 1

That’s all, thanks for reading book two. I hope you enjoy book three. Click the tile below to return to the story.