April Updates: New Character Art, Playlists, & Discord Server

*Kronk voice* oh, yeah it's all coming together

If you’re reading this post from Substack, hello and welcome! You can subscribe here and get access to the first chapter of Oblivion’s Hymn, as well as my deepest inner thoughts injected straight to your inbox ❤️

It’s been a busy month for plenty of non-writing reasons, but I’m so excited to start building up all the wonderful things surrounding the release of Oblivion’s Hymn. One of those things is character art (eee!!) that I have been sitting on and can’t contain any longer, hence the slightly early newsletter. So, without further ado, I’d like to introduce the ladies of my romance subplot.

This piece was done by the fabulous zahraah.art!

You may recognize Rhienne on the left, my chronically unattached queen who has never held down a relationship for any reason except material gain. But once she and Echo stow away on an airship to escape their problems, Rhienne finds herself smitten (though she won’t admit it) with Captain Irelia—a sharp, commanding woman who is not afraid to show her soft side (or get a little spicy), with plenty of secrets and enemies of her own.

Aren’t they just the cutest? 🥹

Without giving too much away, I started this book intending to not have any romance, but when Irelia stepped onto the page, she demanded more and more attention in every draft. She’s become a wonderful catalyst for Rhienne’s character, and I can’t wait for their dynamic to develop in book 2. Oblivion’s Hymn is all about friendship, but the sequel is shaping up to explore both Rhienne’s (and Echo’s 🤭) romantic sides.

In other news, if you’re interested in learning more about the ✨vibes✨ of OH, I’ve made some Spotify playlists!

Listen to Rhienne’s Playlist

Listen to Echo’s Playlist

Listen to the Oblivion’s Hymn Playlist. I’m particularly proud of the mix of vocal and instrumental songs in here, 1) because I can’t listen to music with words when I write and 2) I love that I can carry the symbolism of Echo losing her singing voice into other mediums that support the book.

Lastly, if you’d like to come yap with me and other book dragons who will hopefully soon be Oblivion’s Hymn fans, The Cozy Dragon’s Lair now has a Discord server!

In the future (especially once ARCs go out) this will be the best hangout place for my readers and street team, and a spot for more frequent updates than Substack.

Looking Ahead

I hesitate to call what I’m working on for book 2 a second draft, because draft one feels like a bunch of post-it notes taped to a wall with some occasionally good prose thrown in. But whatever draft number it is, it’s well on its way.

Writing a sequel has been a unique challenge so far. Having the foundation laid means I’m not as free to f*ck around and find out as I was in the first book, and there’s the pressure of not hitting the ‘middle book in a trilogy slump’, not to mention looking at my highly polished book 1 and wondering why my writing doesn’t look like that anymore. Very uncool that my stories don’t come out of the box as if they’ve had months and months of editing.

Sometimes I wonder if it’ll ever get easier to start from scratch (this is the 7th book I’ve written for goddess’ sake) but somehow, someway, I’ve managed to stumble to the end every time. And that dopamine hit has yet to fail to convince me to go back and do it all again.

May is looking to be a quiet month for publishing news, as I’ll be visiting my mom and sister, then getting ready to move into a new place, but I hope you’ll stick around. There are lots of exciting things in store.

As Irelia would say, fair winds and clear skies to you. 💕

—AJ