Hello everybody! Big news today: I finished writing Knife in the Back on November 20th (and it clocked in at a WHOPPING 106k)!

I'm super excited to share this with y'all, and I decided that rather than doing my standard book finishing post, I'm going to do something a little different. That post is coming soon, but it will take a long time for me to write, so instead...in honor of Midnights, let's assign each of the MCs from this book a Taylor Swift song!

(There is no album criteria here. I just picked the song I felt picked each of the leads, haha. There's DEFINITELY room for debate here!)

Estelle--Haunted (Speak Now)

Dantyl-- Maroon (Midnights)

Aver--this is me trying (folklore)

Tristan--The Last Time (Red)

Annie--I Did Something Bad (reputation)

Zayn--The Archer (Lover)

1. How’s the writing going overall?

I'm at 98,000 words as I type this! I'm very very excited--I haven't written a book longer than 80-85k in literal years. Not since 2019. So the fact that I've still, in fact, got it is thrilling. 

2. What’s been the most fun aspect about writing this novel so far?

Getting to delve DEEP into these characters' psyches has been amazing. I'm juggling six POVs from the very get-go this time around, which I don't normally do until the later books of a series (for reference, while the first Pentegreens book initially had 2 main POVs and two secondary POVs, the fourth one had seven). But I'm messing with people of a lot of different kinds, and it's been so fun to work with characters with vast emotional ranges.

3. What do you think of your characters at this point? Who’s your favorite to write about?

I love all of my characters. I think my favorite overall is probably Aver--his character arc is so distinct from everyone else. Aver is a little cinnamon roll boy, who's getting the fantasy equivalent of his Ph.D. and got stuck working in the assassin clans in the meantime. He's an investment and he knows it, but he's happy to just focus on making life easier for his family and friends. And the EMOTIONS. We've got a lot to work with here.

As for the rest of them...Let's just say things are going to get painful now that I really know them all.

4. Has your novel surprised you in any way?

Probably mostly in that it's taken on far more of a group ensemble feel than I was originally expecting! I was fully expecting this to center on Estelle, with only some side focus--but I guess having 6 main POVs will do that to you, haha. 

5. Have you come across any problem areas?

Keeping the plotting tight is always a problem for me, but goodness knows that's what editing is for. Sometimes I get carried away in characters' minds and forget to actually do things with them. Gotta work on this.

6. What’s been your biggest victory with writing this novel at this point?

I'm actually writing in college! This is a major accomplishment--normally I suck at actually getting words down at school. So the fact that I've written 80k in just a few months here at school already...dude. This is magic. This book is actually going to be something.

7. If you were transported into your novel and became any one of the characters, which one do you think you’d be? Would you take any different actions than they have?

If I were in my novel...probably...I'd probably be Yelena, one of my side characters, and I would make VERY different decisions. Haha. I love Yelena, but she is not the queen of good decisions.

8. Give us the first sentence or paragraph then 2 (or 3!) more favorite snippets!

The first few lines: 

If killing were a prize to be won, she’d have the first-place trophy. Both for quality and quantity.

Estelle slipped through the shadows, her hood drawn up over her face to conceal it. The streets were empty this late at night; only a few windows still burned with lights, and those few would soon go out. It was raining, as it almost always did at night; the moisture made her skin feel alive. It would water the earth and give new life to the weeds bursting through the cracks in the cobblestones.

Estelle shook her head, letting raindrops cascade down her back. The darkness was hardy enough of a cover, but she didn’t care anymore. A shiver slid down her spine.

9. Share an interesting tidbit about the writing process so far! (For example: Have you made any hilarious typos? Derailed from your outline? Killed off a character? Changed projects entirely? Anything you want to share!)

Well...I thought I knew how this duology ended. I knew what all the characters were doing, what their final positions were going to be, and everything in between. But then I was thinking about it and went... What if I did not do that?

I swear I do this every time.

But here we are, and I'm super super excited about the way this is going now! We're going to THRIVE, y'all. I realized how little I was invested in these characters (because I knew how it was going to end), and I decided that something needed to be done. And now I am FLYING, and I've rarely been so excited about character development as I am with this crew now. Estelle, Tristan, Zayn, and the rest of the crew are my favorite characters ever now. No exaggeration. (And I hope someday y'all love them as much as I do!)

10. Take us on a tour of what a normal writing day for this novel looks like. Where do you write? What time of day? Alone or with others? Is a lot of coffee (or some other drink) consumed? Do you light candles? Play music? Get distracted by social media (*cough, cough*)? Tell all!

I have to dig time out for this novel from the pit of school, so it usually ends up with me either sitting in my bunk bed or my study cubicle, pounding out words while avoiding eye contact with my physics textbook. I drink lots of water. I blast music in my earbuds, whatever happens to be the vibe of the day, and I go. That's...about it. This hasn't been an aesthetic or cute process--it's been ugly, tired, and sleep-deprive. But the book is BEING WRITTEN. And I am in love with it.

How is your current writing going? Talk to me in the comments! I want to hear about ALL the WIPs!