Music
Listening to set playlists helps me quickly reenter the world and tone of the novel. All my writing playlists on public on Spotify. Because my novels are character driven, I base playlists on the POV characters. For the first two books, Jin, Nanami, Xiao, and Bai each had their own. I merged An Ning and Karana's because their POVs are so tightly woven, but I suspect you'll be able to tell which song is whose!
Concept
In January 2019, I started watching the Chinese drama Ashes of Love. It was the first Chinese epic fantasy that I had encountered, evoking a sense of wonder that I hadn't felt since childhood. I immediately started imagining other stories set in such a world, and it wasn't long before I wanted to write a novel. However, at this point I hesitated, wondering if, as a white American newcomer, it would be acceptable. But as I continued to learn about wuxia (martial fantasy), xianxia (immortal fantasy), and xuanhuan (Western-influenced Chinese fantasy), the more I wanted to create my own fantasy world, inspired by these Chinese stories. I finally decided that some of my favorite takes on Greek mythology and European chivalry come from Japanese anime, and that I had to try writing this story that really excited me.
The world of the Immortal Beings is not xuanhuan; I definitely drew from East Asian mythology and aesthetics (possibly more from Japan than China, as I studied Japanese and lived in Japan after college), but in the end, the world and the story don't fit that genre neatly as my own identity must influence them more than any inspiration. (If you are interested in xianxia and wuxia, I recommend The Legend of White Snake, The Untamed, and Maiden Holmes. There are many Chinese fantasy novels but few official English translations of them).
In the end, I wrote this novel in pursuit of fun, adventure, and wonder - I hope it provides those to you!
If you want to know even more, here's an interview about Trials of Fire and Rebirth.
Writing
I originally intended this to be a single standalone high fantasy, even though having four equally important POV characters seemed like a lot for one book. I plotted it only loosely, discovery writing in pursuit of that sense of wonder that I so wanted to capture. When I hit ninety thousand words in the first draft, I realized that I needed at least sixty-thousand more to finish the story that was unfolding. I did some reflecting and decided to split the novel, creating two climaxes. That being said, book one has a cliffhanger ending.
I really enjoyed this fantasy world, and book two left me with a lot of questions about the magic as well as side characters. Thus book three, which is a standalone (with some general spoilers for the earlier books, as it takes place after). I currently have another duology planned, which I hope to share in 2023, and many other story ideas. We'll see how it goes!
My husband, who is a software engineer by day and a roleplaying GM/board game designer by night, has become my de facto editor, and I have a team of wonderful readers who help me strengthen the book and catch lots of mistakes!
Publishing
This series is currently published through KDP (paperback and Kindle), ACX (audiobook), and Barnes & Noble (hardcover).
I absolutely love formatting the books - I use Word for the physical editions and Sigil for the ebooks. Although I am only an amateur artist, I thought the rough ink sketches I could create felt right for the interior maps and diagrams, and I edit the results in both paint.NET and Google Drawings. I also create the covers in Google Drawings, though the beautiful cover art for all three books was done by the amazing Goldfinch1 of Fiverr in Photoshop.The audiobook was produced Zachary Zaba via ACX, and I highly recommend him.
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