Announcement: NEW PROJECT ALERT

As some of you may know my ebook Shinelle just came out. (Buy pls) That doesn't mean the work is over, it just means it's time to work on something else. It's my favorite part of the writing process.

It's new project time! I posted about this specific project when I was first inspired to create this world. There is one story coming out of the Vault.

With no further ado...I present It's Complicated as my next book!

The reasons for picking this project can be found in the latter half of my post last week. This is where I'm going to update you on how things are developing.

I've sat down and done some outlining. My outlines tend to be more like a list of chapter summaries. 

This gives me the freedom to try out every idea, see what doesn't fit, develop character arcs, and plan out my challenges. All without having to worry about actually writing the story. 

Now I started setting this up last week. This part of the process means a lot of changes. Since this one is much more sprawling than Shinelle was it's a lot more changes as I'm plotting out throughlines for the whole trilogy. 

What that means is I could send you the entire drafting doc as it stands now and all you'll really know is the starting point and some of the ideas as I've been developing character arcs. 

While I promised an outline last week, and I do have an outline I can give you, it is already behind the times. 

Instead I present a peek into my live doc. You'll see: 

• Chapter headings, with subheadings of scenes and ideas I'm patchworking together. 
• Raw writing from my phone while I've been out and about. 
• One of my favorite emotional beats so far. 
• Hints at the FMC's VERY public childhood trauma.
• My editing notes in a different color, the way I do it while patching things together

Here it is. Enjoy the mess (and look out for a question to readers at the end).

Chapter One

Moira and Nessa are headed to their own combat test and a school administrator stops Moira to tell her she's going to the fae side to "round out" the numbers. Moira knows what this means, Nessa does too, so Nessa asks why. When the administrator starts listing demerits Moira just walks past him and towards the tunnel to the fae side. Nessa can be heard defending Moira as she walks away, and the administrator is angry for being ignored. Then after Moira sees Jack, after they incidentally make eye contact and they hold it while he kills his sparring opponent, her interest is sparked. The look while Jack kills the other cadet makes her feel connection. She's been so disconnected for so long that it takes her off guard how much she likes it. How much she needs it... he's the first person who just let her exist in the same space without expecting anything or existing over her.

Their eyes meet and all that, and when she steps to the mat for her first match he's watching her.

Killer Connection

I really want to do a scene where she's waiting for her turn as the human disruptive enough to be forced to join the fae combat test. She's looking around to try and figure out the general skill level around her. And she sees Jack about to snap his opponent's neck. Just before the crack rings out his eyes meet hers. He pauses for a breath and she looks away. She should feel disgusted, horrified, this was her first time seeing someone die after all. Instead it gives her an idea. That might just get his attention. She steps on the mat, sees him standing against a wall watching her. And she not only defeats her magic wielding, fae opponent. She kills him. With the same killing move Jack had done. When she looks back up he's gone.

Chapter Two

Jack’s POV, from where their eyes meet. Move through him noticing her on the mats as he’s sneaking off, and staying to see her kill her opponent. Mirroring how he killed his. A little different, she doesn’t have his build or whatever, and she’s clearly not the type who usually does that. How could she be? He’d’ve heard of her by now. But the clairvoyance is getting overwhelming so he goes to the tunnels. His quiet isn’t interrupted by his third ear so-to-speak but his physical ears. And it’s her. It wouldn’t be out of character for him to kill someone for using the tunnel when he was there. But it’s her. She must be a human. Sent to the fae testing grounds to die and instead surviving. That makes her special in a way. Meant to die, and killing instead, in an environment slated against her on purpose. Heading back to her side of the school. He doesn’t have to use his clairvoyance to know this isn’t the last time he sees her.

Or…could be him watching her kill her first opponent the same way he killed his. Not with the same grace or practice, but efficiently enough. Too bad she's there to die. She's clearly human with those rounded ears. He goes off to the tunnel for his peace and then there's the tunnel scene.

The Tunnel - Jack

When I hid in the tunnel between tracks, it was to process what I’d just been through without anyone’s bullshit in the background. It was the only place far enough from both tracks for my power to reach neither.

She’d killed her opponent the same way I killed mine. It wasn’t weird for girls to try and get my attention, but no one had tried that.

It worked. Maybe it just got her to the finish line, because I could still feel her stillness. The way everything seemed to pause when our eyes met.

Normally to get that kind of respite in public I had to kill. I thought I had done it when our eyes first met, until the fucker tried to twist out of my grip. The way she grew more still when I snapped his spine? Hot.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts I missed the sound of approaching footsteps. Light, mechanical, a good little soldier passing through.

The steps faltered, and I knew. I knew it was her.

When I looked at her I took my time turning my gaze up from her feet. She wasn’t particularly attractive on her own. Attractive enough, I supposed. But those eyes. The shadow of a smile that revealed her enjoying me enjoying her.

She just walked by as I took in what she had to offer. Only looked back for what I could have sworn was exactly three seconds. And then she had passed. The entire time I heard nothing.

She was a creature of instinct in a world of strategy. I decided to try and learn her name, but for now settled with, “See you next time.”

Chapter Three

Could be her standing around waiting to be called up again and sketching Jack leaning against the wall watching her. Roan asks why she's drawing him, introduces herself, and tells Moira that guy is bad news. His name is Jack and he's best known for having the highest kill rate of the entire fae track despite being a first year. Then Roan is called for her test where we see her fire magic. But Moira isn't called back to the mats. Good, she already killed four cadets and a couple of them had manifested magics. She goes off to the tunnel and you see the tunnel scene.

The Tunnel - Moira

I’d been the only human to survive “rounding out” the fae mats. And now it was over I was expected to return to my dorm room on the human side. Through a tunnel where only every third light seemed to work.

If ever there were a time to be scared it was now. The humans wouldn’t want me back, I’d been sent to statistical death for a reason, and the faes wouldn’t want me. I wasn’t one of them. It wouldn’t be unheard of for someone to be killed in this tunnel.

Yet it was the only path. So I took it.

Halfway down the hall I saw him. My foot hesitated for just a moment, all he needed to know I was there.

His eyes, as blue as the clearest sky, as cold as a river in December, locked onto mine. I’d watched him kill today, now he was watching me walk away from it.

I refused to look any more than I had to. To keep from falling into that dead stare. From being pleased that his eyes seemed to like what they saw. I counted three seconds and forced myself to turn my attention ahead of me. Into the next dark patch of tunnel.

After his match people had grumbled that he was just there to get away with murder, He was a killer, cold blooded, animal.

As I passed him I felt his eyes on my back, and my resolve almost broke when I heard him speak. In a voice low and rich and smooth. “See you next time.”

And I could feel him in every shadow until I reached the other side. Protecting me, even just in my imagination.

Prodigal Roommate

Where Moira shows up when she really should be dead and Nessa is so relieved she's distraught. Jourd is there because Nessa couldn't stand being in the room alone with Moira dead. You get the impression that Jourd has a crush on Moira, and see how despite being her best friend Nessa kind of interacts around Moira's silence. Jourd does something similar. It can also show how Nessa wants Moira to go back to the person she was at 6 years old, even if she's 22 now. Moira goes to sleep and doesn’t notice Nessa looking at the sketches of Jack with worry in her eyes. This could be in either POV

New Schedule

Eventually they let her go to sleep, and in the morning there's a missive for her on the shared desk. One that states she will be participating in the fae physical trainings, and some of the fae classes, starting today. Her new schedule is included with the missive. On the way there she stops for breakfast and coffee, but gives her coffee to some cadet on guard duty half asleep. Just because it's against the rules doesn't mean it's not what's right. She goes to her first fae class. Common magics. And Jack is there.

Two Inches

Moira Gray, of the Gray incident Make this a time lapse

There was exactly one class I had with Jack. Common magics. I wasn’t nervous about learning the material. I’d never been one for grades anyway. I was nervous because none of the teachers, or cadets, knew me yet. Not on the fae track.

So when the teacher started calling on random students to answer questions posed in his lecture? He eventually called on me.

“Because matter is never created, who can tell me how creator mages can create seemingly from thin air?”

I knew the answer. But I would never tell. He had no right asking me to speak in front of a room of strangers, not even knowing my name. While I stared him down I wondered how old he might be.

“Miss, what do you think it might be,” The teacher continued. He must’ve been about fifty. Plenty old enough to know when he checked the roll. He’d see my name and fall silent himself. “You can give a wild guess if you want.”

Two seats ahead of me I could see Jack stiffening up. He just turned his head so he could glance my way.

In his POV her stillness changed. Like a dagger instead of a pond. He sees the guest lecturer getting flustered. Hear his intention to punish her. A position she’d had to have been in countless times. Usually her stillness calmed the fraying edges, this time it bristled them. Idk, I’m throwing shit at the wall. He turns his head so he can just see her. Even bristled she was poised.

I hated myself for noticing it. He’d stop showing up at the tunnels lately, and hadn’t so much as looked at me since that night. When the lights were out and I thought…

“Miss, it is very irregular for a student to ignore when a teacher is talking to them.” I turned my attention back to the trainer. I’d heard once I could get a teacher to cry with a glare so I decided see if it was true.

He looked down at his lectern, shuffled through some papers, and ran his finger down a list he found. “Young miss, I believe you must be the new student,” he said, a note of superiority in his voice. “Ah, here it is, Moir-”

He lifted his stupid hanging glasses up to his stupid face and squinted through them. They turned up at me, then back down to the paper.

“You are Moira Gray, of the Gray incident.”

Whispers erupted around the room that the trainer didn’t bother to try taming. I couldn’t tell where they were coming from but I knew what they said.

“That’s the girl that doesn’t talk right?”

“Didn’t she get both her parents killed?”

“I heard she’s been a cadet since she was like six,”

The only person who didn’t whisper, didn’t seem to react at all, was Jack. He just continued sitting where he was.

Eventually the teacher gathered himself together and continued with his inane lecture. The cadets quieted down. I did my best to slip out unnoticed. I’d been reminded of this, my biggest mistake, my entire life. It never got easier.

I leaned against the wall and tipped my head back to just breathe. I didn’t have to look to know I’d been followed.

Jack reached out and pulled me to walk with him. He didn’t even ask me a single question all the way back to the human dorms.

After the incident with the professor Moira can't breathe and leaves class. She leans against the wall just outside the room and tipped her head all the way back. Seconds later Jack appears in front of her. She just looks at him and starts walking to the gardens. He follows her. It’s a nice day and everyone’s in class so they’re alone. She goes to the tree she used to climb and hide in as a child. She doesn’t climb trees anymore. Instead she sits against it, barely registering the bark through her shirt. She didn’t hear him sit there, barely two inches between their arms, she felt it like electricity down her skin. He doesn’t say anything to her, doesn’t reach out for her hand. She’d never brought anyone here with her before and it’s…different. In a good way. For the first time since she can remember she doesn’t feel alone.

I NEED this in both POVs.

Jack - In Class

Jack, realizing that two rows in front of him is that girl. He doesn't know her name yet, forgot to check around he supposes, but even with her back to him he can feel her stillness. She doesn't take notes. She doesn't answer questions. She doesn't so much as stop leaning on her chair. And then class is over and she's somehow the first one out the door despite being close to the front of the classroom. And he hears the whispers. From the few human cadets with latent powers in the class who know her. Moira Gray sounds familiar but he can't place it. He knows someone who will. He's pretty sure he saw her talking to Moira at combat training, and he's pretty sure the girl is in his weapons training next. So he goes to weapons training and finds that Moira is already paired up with the redheaded bitch he was looking for. Their eyes meet when he walks past them and she doesn't just look for three seconds this time. This time she holds his gaze until the redhead almost burns her with her magic.

Jack - After Class

He doesn’t know why it bothered him so much that she was upset. Or why he found himself getting up and running out after her. She’s just standing there. Leaning the top of her head against the stone wall and not seeming to even notice. She was taking slow deliberate breaths. He just stands by her. He takes a relaxed attention position. She’s noticed, even if she won’t look at him. He just knows it. After a couple minutes she steps away from the wall and looks at him. Her eyes are watering and threatening to spill, her usual stillness dissolved into turmoil that was just as quiet. Three seconds. Then she turns and walks away. Her pace is easy to match and she doesn’t seem to mind him following. They go outside. Spring was quickly turning to summer and it was a beautiful day. She knows exactly where she’s going through the manicured bushes and various trees from around the kingdom and it’s vassals. All the way to the corner further than I’d ever cared to wander. There was a tall tree in a corner where the yard wall and a guard tower met. Leaning against the tree heavily she slides to it’s base. He doesn’t hear anything from his clairvoyance. Could she know? Know the only reason he can even stand to be around her is that he doesn’t hear her intentions in his head? That and…he sits next to here. As far away as he can stand to be. Moira Gray of the Gray Incident. He remembers Roan telling him about it. What people thought about her, he’d seen how people mostly acted like she wasn’t even there. Perhaps that’s why she’s so still.

Remember that question I said I had for you? If you made it all the way to the end? You made it!

I'm considering keeping access to the working doc available on this site. Just for the first few chapters and just until the first draft is done. To show my process and get people excited about the book. This blog was always meant to be a BTS kind of deal and this idea lines up perfectly with that.

What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments!