The underworld needs a king.

Another one.

Seph's family is kind of messed up. His grandfather ate his parents. His father has scores of illegitimate children. His mother grows into a giant when she gets angry—right into the skies!

And all Seph wants to do is get away and be on his own for once. He wants to grow up, which is such a simple thing for mortal men and all the other creatures to do. But when you're the child of Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest, and Zeus, Ruler of Mount Olympus?

Seph is tired of being treated like a child. It's time to leave.

But due to the sparring of his cousins over him, Zeus has decided to marry him off. ‘Disagreements amongst gods cause chaos for mortals,’ he says. All of this because Seph was caught kissing a boy.

Well, nothing will happen at Demeter’s villa.

Literally, nothing. It's run by a bunch of nymphs, who are all women.

All Seph wants to do is find a man like himself so they can explore the world together. But with his mother guarding him and his cousins causing trouble, Seph will have to go on being the 'baby boy' unless he wants his father to marry him to someone awful.

From a chasm in the earth, a dark figure emerges…

Well, I've actually been finished for a little over a week now. I'm over halfway through my second draft! I have a lot to fix because I actually didn't see this ending coming until I was right there writing the chapters. That's why story outlining always confounds me. How the heck am I supposed to follow an outline when I have no idea wtf I'm doing?

Seph surprised me at every turn in the last act, right up to the ending chapters when he returns to his mother. Now I have some rewriting and fixing to do, but no enormous scene changes. If you've been reading on Patreon, the draft is really rough and contradicts itself, but the story there is mostly complete.

So! I'm working really hard to get my self-editing improved. I bought a printer so I can proofread on paper. I also have an editor who's going to help me after my draft is done, but I'll be publishing before that and then updating the e-book later. If you're offended by misplaced commas, you might want to wait until January. In my draft, the words at least should be correct.

And of course, I'm doing it this way because otherwise the book would be another month or two until release.

What I'm up to next:

I'll be starting on Pykh 4 right away, but chapters won't appear on Patreon until November. That's because I need some time to brainstorm and let the ideas fill up in my head again. I need to write out a few chapters also, because with the Pykh books I usually don't even find my story and until I'm about 6 chapters in. I usually just start out with scenes that I think are really cute which may or may not have a purpose once I get going.

The scene where Pykh takes the spying scope from Auk was one of those. I think that was the third thing I wrote for the book. Chapter 1 was the first thing, and the scene where Iethuth and Auk talk at night in the middle of the camp was the second. So I'm all over the place!

I figure it will be extremely confusing for the readers and difficult for me to be rearranging chapters after the fact like I do in my file. So I need a head start.

Also, don't expect the characters to be perfect. Their voices are really unique, and I often need a second or third or fourth or sixth pass to get them right. Lol. Ov'ielk was a nightmare! That scene where Carter meets Ov'ielk was actually the last scene I wrote for the book… It was on like its sixth full rewrite.

I'm going to try to post mostly correct stuff, but some of it might be garbage.

I wrote a lot ahead in my Hades book, so I still have chapters to post there even though I'm finished with it. The book finishes with ~70 chapters (I'm still changing things), and I'm going to let these post to Patreon throughout November while I take my little break. I figure not everybody will rush out and buy the book on launch day, so for some readers the chapters won't be redundant.

I'm almost through my second draft, like I said. And then I proofread. I'm hoping to get the book out November 5… But that might be a tad optimistic. It depends on how many changes I still want to make.

Sometime in early-ish November you should be able to enjoy the exciting adventures of… Hades and Seph!

Well, I wanted to have started Pykh 4 already, but my Hades book has run long. I expected an 80k novel. It seemed pretty simple, having two main characters and a straight forward plot. Somehow I'm up to 106k, and I've brainstormed ideas for an additional 20 chapters or so until the ending. :/

I'm not good at planning.

So expect another month, at least, for this novel to wrap up! I also got a little stuck on it in August (I didn't write half as much as I wanted to) but I think I've got an ending I really like.

Below is another preview. This chapter introduces Minthe, an underworld nymph.

I just wanted to share how the book is going! I'm sure everyone in the US is out partying this weekend, so it seems like the perfect time, lol. After being passed a horrible summer flu, I've thankfully recovered and am up and working again.

I've written a TON. Waaay more than I thought I would for this book. I thought Hades would end up around 90k total. But I've been taking my time with it, and I'm somehow with 70,000 words and only in the middle of my plot. The chapters have been flowing like crazy. I especially am appreciating that there's only two points of view and not so many characters on board.

I think Pykh 3 broke me. The writing is way easier now.

But I'm still not at the ending, and it looks like the book will finish in August. Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself again by putting that date out there. I think the book might finish up around 120-130k.

I have 17 chapters on Patreon if anyone is impatient to read! I'm posting one of my world building chapters here today so you guys can see Elysium, the great city of the underworld. This is right after Seph has been abducted.  :)

So, about a year ago, I came upon a reddit post of someone criticizing this painting for romanticizing rape. And someone responded explaining that Hades & Persephone are basically #relationshipgoals for Greek gods, and that her abduction was part of her wedding ceremony, approved by Zeus. Also, rape and abduction are the same word in ancient Greek.

So poor Hades, who legally and appropriately married his wife, has gone down in history as a violent weirdo rapist. I also learned that Persephone is a true queen of the underworld. She shares equal power with her husband, and her name is associated with death. Not spring and summer and fluffy bunnies and everything else that I was taught from a children's book of Greek myths.

Persephone does not bring the spring and the harvest when she returns. That's her mom, Demeter, whose heartache is relieved. Persephone brings the winter and death when she happily goes back to her husband in the underworld.

Man, what a misinterpreted old myth! And then I learned a few personality traits of Hades. The number one thing that stuck out to me was an unbiased, merciless sense of justice.

Hades has no pity. He does what is fair and just. Always. To anybody. (Persephone chides him into taking mercy a few times, but these are rare exceptions made for his wife.)

He's also very protective and possessive of the underworld. Nobody had better fuck with his shit, basically. Zeus respects him.

He's also extremely rich and loves jewels and fine things. All the gemstones and precious minerals are his because they reside beneath the earth, in his domain.

He also makes the best wine. Better than Dionysus. In fact, in later versions of the myth, he and Dionysus start to blend together, kind of like he goes by a different name on the surface world.

That won't be the case in my tale. I've looked up 30 different versions of the tale and cherry picked the facts that I liked. Then I stitched them all together (multiple myths, beyond the abduction) to create a fun novel that I hope you guys will like.

Of course it's a gender bender. Hades & Seph. Because.... Hm.

Because.

I'm going for a sweet romance in a dark fantasy world kind of feel. Much, much different than the Pykh books. The perfect project for a little break! Though I won't be surprised if many of you say, "Gee, I love Pykh, but not this thing..." XD

That's okay! I'm writing this one for me! I truly became compelled to write it as I learned more and more about Hades and how interesting he is. Hopefully you guys will think so as well. I've only just started to write him, so I'm in that honeymoon phase where the novel is a world of possibilities. I hope I get something close to my vision.

Disclaimer: In the original myths, all the gods are related to each other.  Hera and Demeter are Zeus's sisters. For the sake of world creepiness and authenticity, I have kept this fact in the books. Hades is technically Seph's uncle. However, this is not incest taboo romance. Readers can figure out the funky family tree with a little logic, but it is NEVER referenced directly.

I hope you like Chapter One!