Anne Ominous

The good news is, it’s done now! You can all enjoy it, and I - hopefully freed from some of the writers’ block and health issues that slowed this project down, and without my focus being split in so many directions at once - should be able to ramp up my speed considerably through the final eight chapters of Book XIII and the epic conclusion of Phoenix Odyssey. Once that’s done, I intend to devote my full focus to Reigniting books III and IV, while outlining the fourth and final series in the greater Phoenix Saga. That series’ title and plot summary will be announced in the authors’ notes for the last chapter of Book XIII. 
          
          So, yeah! Surprise! I hope you enjoy The Wildfire Tour: Live From Seoul as much as I have enjoyed conceiving and planning it these last twelve months - if not more so! 
          
          As I said, Wildfire has been a work in progress for the better part of a year. It is easily the most technically challenging writing I’ve ever done. Every detail needed to be vetted for historical accuracy, from the model number of Shinji’s bass guitar to the luminosity of the spotlights. It was also necessary to make sure what the stagehands are doing was even possible with 1992 technology, that the terminology was all correct, and that everyone was following correct procedures for safety and effectiveness on a production of this magnitude. 
          
          Oh. And one more thing…
          
          While I’m no Ranko Tendo, and I don’t have my own band of Dapper Dragons to play their instruments behind me, I’ve occasionally been known to hop on my Discord server, https://discord.gg/speakeasy, and sing a few of Ranko’s songs a cappella on a livestream. Tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern time, I plan to do a livestream in which I will sing all nineteen songs of the Wildfire Tour, in order - including exclusive tracks Tick and Bad Idea. I’ve been fighting with some mild tonsillitis the last few days, so I may have to take it slow, but that’s the plan, anyway. I hope to see you there!

Over the course of 18 chapters and right around 80,000 words, you will see every note, every dance move, and every special effect in the two-and-a-half hour concert. You’ll see nineteen original songs - seventeen you know, and two that are exclusive to this special book. There are no gaps, no time skips, and no pauses. You’ll see Ranko’s whole team working and communicating together backstage. Every costume change and every special effect is captured and explained. Every scene on the video screen behind the band is narrated. If I’ve done my job right, you’ll feel like you’ve got your very own front-row seat to the show.
          
          If you’re not a big fan of Ranko’s performance scenes - I know there’s some folks out there who aren’t - don’t fret. There is not a single word of content in Wildfire that is pivotal to the rest of the plot of Phoenix Odyssey. This isn’t the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where if you don’t consume every piece of content, you won’t understand the goings-on in the parts of it that you want to watch. Think of Wildfire as an optional DLC mission in your favorite video game, or a deleted scene on a DVD; it’s there if you want the extra content, and you aren’t penalized if you don’t. 
          
          This work has also had a lot to do with why my writing speed has slowed so dramatically of late. Maintaining multiple works became so taxing that I had to eventually pause Reignited so I could focus on Wildfire and the ongoing Book XIII. As the point in the timeline of Book XIII where Wildfire needed to release drew closer and I found myself behind schedule on Wildfire, I had to slow the releases for Book XIII down in order to give myself time to catch up. Being completely honest, I severely underestimated how difficult this project was going to be, and it has overwhelmed me beyond words for the better part of the last six months. I apologize. It has undeniably dragged the conclusion of Odyssey to a crawl, and it’s been driving me crazy that I couldn’t even tell you all why.

Hello, Firebirds! I can’t tell you how excited I am for today’s drop, because it’s been a full year in the making!
          
          Today’s chapter, Heart and Seoul, marks chapter #408 in the complete Phoenix Saga, once you factor in the net gains and losses of chapters from the Reignited project through Books I and II. This may be a milestone that only interests me, but the canon Ranma ½ manga ended at chapter #407. This means that the silly little fanfiction I started publishing 2.5 years ago now, by chapter count if not any other metric, contains more Ranma content than Ranma’s creator herself produced.
          
          It seemed the perfect time to celebrate by dropping the curtain on a surprise I’ve been cooking up for you for the last year and a half. Call it my way of saying thank you for sticking with me this long and allowing me to tell you this incredible story over the last 2.5 years. 
          
          If you think about a lot of the famous tours of popular artists - Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour being a great recent example - when the tour run is nearing its end, there’s usually a recording of one of the shows made available on DVD or a streaming platform. It’s presented as a way to invite people who couldn’t make it to the show to still experience it, and to preserve the show for posterity so people can relive it again anytime the mood strikes. 
          
          Back when Book X was in the outlining stage, I hatched an audacious plan to do the same, within the confines of the written medium that the Phoenix Saga occupies. The development began in earnest during the run of Book XI, and many of the scenes in Books XI, XII and XIII have been influenced by it.
          
          Simultaneously with this chapter release, I've released an entire new book in one day that I have been writing in secret, in parallel with both Book XIII and Reignited. The Wildfire Tour: Live from Seoul is your backstage pass to the complete performance you see the team setting up for in Heart and Seoul - the Dapper Dragons’ second performance in South Korea.

Here ends Phoenix: Reignited Edition Book II. With a final wordcount more than double its counterpart in the original Phoenix Saga, the new-and-improved Embers stands as a testament to exactly what I was hoping the Reignited project could be at its best. I am so proud of this book, and I feel confident that it's gone from one of the weakest in the series to one that can proudly stand among its siblings. 
          
          That said, the addition of nearly fifty thousand words was the equivalent of adding a whole book worth of content, and coupled keeping up the schedule on Book XIII too, it's taken a lot out of me. Redoing a chapter is a more intensive effort than new chapters; for every word that the final wordcount change reflects, it's a change of 10 words. Every plot twist has to be meticulously researched to ensure it doesn't break established future canon. Every description has to be checked to make sure the table that was pine in book IV isn't cherry in book II. It's a lot of mental gymnastics to write, in the same evening, the same characters three years apart in the same timeline without creating any butterfly effects.
          
          Reignited is an amazing project, and I'm glad to be doing it, but it's exhausting. Book II was a hell of a lot of work, but Book III was the only weaker book in the original series. It will likely double, if not triple, in wordcount, and that's an undertaking I don't feel mentally ready for.
          
          So, I'm going to take a little break. Not huge - we're not going on hiatus or anything! I'm giving myself a couple of weeks to recharge, catch up on sleep, take a mental health day or three, and try to build up a little bit of backlog for both book XIII and Book III of Reignited. 
          
          The Reignited Edition of Phoenix Ignited Book III, "Flames", launches on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. 
          
          Of course, if you can't wait, you're welcome to continue on starting with book III of the original Phoenix Saga. Look for book XIII chapters to continue to drop on Mondays in the interim.

Hey, everybody! Announcing a really cool thing I made this week: ThePhoenixSaga.com! This new site is a landing zone to the story (Reignited and the OG Phoenix), side material like the song lyrics and cocktail recipes, plus fan art, recursive fics and cameo appearances of our characters, acknowledgements, Anne's social media and full list of author profiles, and more! Maybe even some fun gifts there! I'll expand the site more over time, but for one night, I'm really happy with how it came out. (And, low key, let me know if you find any bugs...)
          
          Whew, my voice is tired today! I jumped on my official Discord, the Storytellers' Speakeasy, and did an eight hour livestream last night, where I sang most of the original songs from the series for our friends! Did you miss it? Well, then you should probably join our Discord and hang out with your fellow Firebirds! https://discord.com/invite/WXRhHzPbcu

I’m beyond excited/terrified to announce Phoenix: Reignited, an ambitious project I’ve been planning for some time. Reignited is a complete remaster of the entire Phoenix Saga. Every single chapter will be re-edited, improved, and expanded. We’ll see new scenes and whole new chapters added based on reader requests, scenes I wished I’d included the first time, and loose ends we never really dealt with on-camera. 
          
          Phoenix: Reignited begins Saturday, October 5, 2024, in celebration of the premiere of the new Ranma ½ anime. We’ll drop the first eleven chapters of book I on that day, and then continue serializing new chapters on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from then on. Please drop me a follow as an author to ensure you get notified when it drops!
          
          I’m sure there’s going to be a million questions about Reignited, far too many to answer here, so I put together this announcement post: https://www.tumblr.com/anne-is-ominous/762391039178948608/announcing-phoenix-reignited-edition
          
          For some time now, I’ve run a little Discord server for my beta readers. As the story has been posted across more and more platforms, the community around Phoenix has become somewhat fractured, and I’ve decided it’s time to bring all the Firebirds under one roof. I’ve partnered with my friend PrincessColumbia as co-owners to combine my Discord server and hers into a new server we’re calling the Storytellers’ Speakeasy. This is now the official fan Discord for my work and hers, and several other prominent Ranma ½ fandom writers frequent the server as well. We do live reactions when chapters drop, I do ask-me-anything sessions as the characters from the Phoenix series, there’s fandom groups for several popular fandoms (mostly the ones PrincessColumbia and I write for) and more. 
          
          The Speakeasy is a LGBTQ and plural-positive safe space that I’ve been a part of for several months. NSFW content exists but is properly gated behind roles and entirely opt-in. Join at https://discord.gg/xDj33m3c.

In Book XIII, the conclusion to Phoenix Odyssey, we’ll see the Phoenix undergo some changes under new proprietress Yui. Ranko’s contentious relationship with Yokai will continue to evolve, and she’ll have to deal with some of the new restrictions placed on her conduct. And she’ll head to China for the final third of the Wildfire Tour, setting up some discoveries and decisions that will change her life forever. And, of course, there will be three new song premiers.
          
          Book XIII planning is well under way, but there are no words on paper yet. I expect to start that this week. I am going to try not to start serializing book XIII until it’s finished this time. The stress of live-writing chapters just in time has just become too much for me to handle, and it’s time for me to listen to the wise advice of so many of you who have told me to prioritize my health and well-being. I know I’ve said that with the last three books, but this time it really burned me, and made me take a serious look at it. 
          
          Starting with book XIII, I will be shifting to a posting schedule for new content of Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in order to give me more breathing room between chapters for edits, rewrites, and new content if necessary. But don’t worry; I won’t leave you starving for content, because in the meantime, we have something else exciting coming…

Well, here we are, Firebirds. Another book completed, which means only one remains in Phoenix Odyssey. We won’t be done after that, of course, because there are plans underway for a fourth series after Odyssey, consisting of books XIV - XVI. I’ll be talking more about that series as we get closer to the end of book XIII. 
          
          As always, I want to end the book with some acknowledgements. Thank you so much to InaNewmoon, Diet Gender Fluid, Xadlly, PrincessColumbia and PyrusLex for your support and advice when beta reading parts of this book. Thank you to CliffVT for your continued support in the creation of Ranko’s Rocktails. 
          
          This book was… hard for me. It’s the largest book in the series to date, just barely edging out book IX. I thought I had a huge backlog and I was safe, but a bout of severe burnout coupled with some lingering health issues broke my daily posting schedule and left me in a state of severe anxiety for pretty much the last three weeks non-stop. I want to thank every single reader who sent well-wishes, left supportive comments, and just kept the faith while I powered through to get to this point. It really meant, and means, the world to me.
          
          That said, I’m revitalized and ready to take on a series of incredibly ambitious projects for you all, my wonderful, amazing Firebirds. I’m not ready to share details on all of them yet, but there’s two in particular I think we should talk about now. Anne-ouncements coming momentarily...