I go out of my way to keep my books under a certain length, and this time, that was also a publisher mandate.

There’s a very real difference between being forced to be alone, which is where she was in Book One, and choosing to be alone when there’s a clear option to not be.

Ruby was such a complete accident of a character, born out of a mix of story economy and my own inability to not give my characters super powers to beat people up with.

The Phoenix we meet in They Split the Party is a very different man from the one we were introduced to at the start of They Met in a Tavern.

And really, once you put that much thought into a character that’s as fun to write for as Ink, you kind of have to bump her up to a bigger role in the sequel.

On the surface, Angel is an Aasimar Zealot Barbarian who would like you to all shut up and leave her alone. But that anger comes from somewhere, and as we get to see in They Split the Party, being left alone might not actually be what she wants, or needs.

To anyone who’s wanted to listen to the audiobook of They Met in a Tavern but hasn’t yet, I’ve got some great news.

I’m kind of a sucker for ensemble, team stories, and my new web serial, The Outsiders of Xykesh, is the latest symptom in that chronic bug.

I was, quite simply, completely addicted to this series.

This isn’t something I broadcast on the regular, but I have actually watched a lot of Grey’s Anatomy. None of it was by choice, which makes it all the weirder to me that I’m as invested in the show as I am.

More and more, I’ve been feeling drawn to long form, serialized storytelling. To stories about falling in love, becoming more powerful, and growing into adulthood. And I want to do all that. I want to make a story that is that.

So, here’s the pitch:

When I first came up with this idea, I wanted to call it the gameplay loops of writing, which made complete sense to me and probably only me, because books and whatnot don’t actually have gameplay.

Some of the stuff I wrote that got cut, I think is still kind of fun or interesting.

There is something absolutely mesmerizing about seeing characters I created visually brought to life by exceptionally talented artists.

For everybody who hadn’t already pieced it together from the fact that we share a nickname: Phoenix is arguably the Starbreaker most personal to me.

Church is the character who changed the most from his initial conception to the final version on the page.

Angel began as an idea I had for a D&D character that I never got to really try out.

I don’t think anyone’s stopped and realized that there are basically no actual Avengers in the MCU right now.

Holy cow, I did not expect this to be such an endeavor.