In the course of my rambling prose, three books turned into five, and more recently, those goalposts were moved to seven, so now I can’t predict how many more books are left in the series. However, what I can say is there’s a LOT more story planned for what comes after.

I’d originally planned for this series to be a trilogy, but once I dove into the characters and their different backgrounds that revolved around Eli’s adventures on Lurra, I found myself wanting to fill this magical world with all manner of details that inevitably led to a much grander tale to tell.

On a related note, as I work on Book 6, I’ve come to realize there's no way I'll be able to finish this series with one more book, not in a way that'll leave me satisfied. There's simply too much story left to tell for me to rush certain aspects along, just to fit some arbitrary goal of mine.

Finally, it feels like a lot of things are going to hell in a handbasket, so writing about a guy in a magical world, doing his best to make a positive difference for everyone around him, has certainly proven to be an interesting coping mechanism for me. Regardless, there's a lot more story to tell!

Obviously, such self-discovery has impacted my other personal relationships, with some growing stronger as a result of my improved communication skills. On the other hand, I've also learned to better recognize certain toxic people and worked to remove them from my life.

All that being said, some of the more painful moments in my life served as inspiration for certain written scenes, and by delving into memories often left unexamined for decades, I actually found a surprising sense of clarity and catharsis with events that once fueled too many of my nightmares.

Now, when I compare my writing style from today with four years ago, I have made clear strides in expressing myself more effectively. But then, my professional background is in corporate accounting, so keeping my prose from sounding too dry or unemotional is an ongoing challenge.

Along the same lines, I have big plans for where this series eventually goes, and some of my problems stem from spending so much time imagining a story that's multiple books away instead of devoting my hours to writing the current installment. Yeah, this issue is still a work in progress...

Obviously, I'm still a new author and have a lot to learn, but I've become much more comfortable with my particular writing process. That's not to say I don't have days when I'm staring at the blank page in frustration, yet I know such moments are temporary and often fixed by some focused planning.

Earlier today, I reread my first draft from July 2021 and was stunned by how bad some of the passages were, including a lot of awkward phrasing that destroyed the pacing. I was also clearly struggling with unintended word repetition, which made my lack of competent editing readily apparent.

First of all, I should have taken advantage of certain free online resources, rather than trying to figure everything out myself, which led to some truly stupid mistakes. For example, just checking out the selfpublish Subreddit for their extensive self-publishing checklist makes it worth the effort.

Huu Ha — I found him on Artstation back when I was looking for someone with a background in LitRPG, but who also draws a mix of fantasy and science fiction, since my series has both. He's redone Book 1's cover for me so far, and the next two are in production.

www.artstation.com/hahahuhi

I get the appeal since folks have their preferences, some being pretty particular. Heck, I've got a thing for epic fantasies and LitRPGs, while plenty of others want to read some slice of life, so making it easier to put the right story in a reader's hands seems worth the extra categorization.

Finally, I've been working with a professional to create new artwork for the Lurran Chronicles. Here's one of their rough sketches to give folks an idea of what they might soon be seeing on my website and future covers.

#LitRPG #ProgressionFantasy

For those interested in the audiobooks, the talented Jimmy Moreland finished production for Ruins of Fortune (TLC #5), which is now going through Audible's approval process. Assuming no issues, that should be published in the next couple of weeks, bringing the current series runtime to 70 hours.