a flower & a sword

STORY IDEAS (SPRING 2023)

IN A LITTLE update to the previous chapter, I thought I might share my two current to-be-began story ideas! Obviously I'm still currently working on the rewrite of Hexes for Exes and finishing up Of Mist and Power, but I've also been planning slightly ahead.

After I finish OMAP, I'll most likely take a short break from the Silk and Steel Chronicles before delving back in to begin the City of Sins series, featuring our Giran-located characters: Fayette and Adrian Mi, Io's half-brother and sister; as well as Naeva Li, the unfortunate fiancee of Malcolm Man and one of Lady Kuroki's students. I doubt this'll affect much for your reading experience since I haven't even begun updating the long-finished chapters of Of Copper and Blades yet, but that's just a head's up.

Hexes for Exes is also very near completion, and is already being updated on a regular, more-or-less weekly basis. It's currently planned to just be a standalone, though there maybe a high chance of there being a spin-off written for some of the characters. Possible protagonists of spin-offs include Pamela, Livia's sister; Remiel, Livia's cousin; and Victoire, the little sister of Amphion and Zeth. The original series was a trilogy, with the second book split into two halves featuring Pamela and Madi and the third focusing on Victoire, but I doubt I'll be doing this with the rewrite.

Okay. But. Time to get to the point: the current story ideas.

PROJECT DYNASTY

I've shared some tidbits regarding this project on my feed before. It's inspired by the historical Chinese Dugu family, and especially the version of them featured in the show The Legend of Dugu.

This story will be located in a fictional Chinese dynasty, one that's far more accurate than what's featured in the Silk and Steel Chronicles. The Grand Chancellor has three daughters: the glorious and ambitious Shangguan Yunhua; the single-minded and talented girl-general Shangguan Yunjun; and the soft-spoken yet sharp-witted Shangguan Yunxuan. And by their side, always, their distant cousin, and the point-of-view character of this planned story, Fei Mingxi.

The story will be written in an autobiography-style fashion from the perspective of Mingxi many years after the events of the story. It's a story of politics, of power, of jealousy and the helplessness of women under the medieval feudal system. And it's a story about how they'll rise up against that, to gain their own power and change the destiny of a dynasty.

It's going to be quite different from what I've written before, but I think I'm up for the challenge. I already have the whole story plan set out, but I am less than a month away from my GCSEs, so proper work on this series is likely going to start in the summer.

PROJECT INSTITUTE

I like to describe this as a bit of The Mortal Instruments meet wuxia story, though at the same time I don't think too much Chinese-style fantasy would necessary fit the story. Quite obviously, only a thin skeleton of this story exists at the current moment.

The story would go something like this: our main character (MC) is an eighteen year old member of the Prokeroi, one of the two parties. The second party, and their rival, is the Makeroi. As the daughter of an elite of the Prokeroi and a talented (insert name of their species I have not decided upon yet), our MC is a student at the Scholomai. However, a year and a half before the story begins, MC's father is accused of being a traitor and MC is also put under arrest due to it. By the beginning of the story, MC's father has been wrongfully executed, and MC had managed to prove his innocence, to the chagrin of some specific people. Still, she's allowed to return to her former life at the Scholomoi, where our tale begins.

I'm trying to do what I wasn't with the Bridewater College duology here and actually create a proper magic system. Thus, this book is still heavily in the planning stage. Still, you can definitely expect a book with a plot like this somewhere in the future. Much like Project Dynasty, it's going to be a story heavily centred around politics. I'll be trying to cook up actually smart schemes and plots for this story, so it's going to take a while to plan.

So that's it! As of April 2023, these two stories are most likely what I'd be working on after the completion of my current works. My writing speed has slowed down a lot, with incoming GCSEs and an overall lack of inspiration in the past while, but I'm hoping to recover by the summer so that I can write more stories for you guys to read and enjoy :)

Have a nice day!