@Carrots328958 Hi there, thank you so much for your kind message! I'm sorry, I went on hiatus, and have only just come back to finish the last few chapters of book 2.
To answer your question, I wrote almost all of the chapters in non-linear order, as they are published. The major reason behind it when I started was to force myself to keep writing -- to keep filling in the gaps for each new skip, to keep chapters tied together with references and continuity that would be fun for me to try to remember and also (hopefully) for the reader to pick up. When I started book 1 I was coming off a very long writer's block, so it was my way of holding myself accountable I guess, haha.
It means a lot to me that you liked my Tay and New, and took the story seriously enough to worry about being hurt. That's something I think is really special, and also considering I hadn't even finished the 2nd book at the time, I completely understand why you hadn't continued with it. I don't know if you caught up eventually, but if you did, and even if you didn't, I apologise that I hadn't completed it. I slid back into old mentalities at the start of 2023 and only recently found the energy to finish the two(!) chapters left. Terrible, I know.
Thank you so much again for taking the time to leave this message, I genuinely appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me and spending any part of your day reading my story. I hope you have a lovely end to 2023, and a wonderful 2024. <3