Hey look at me, a second post in the same week? Who would have thought?

Alright, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Back on the 19th, Final Fantasy X had its twentieth anniversary. 2OTH ANNIVERSARY! I FEEL ANCIENT. I feel like most people my age or a little older remember the franchise, but if you don't it was a role playing video game set in the fictional world of Spira where you had to battle Sin and all his various spawn with a rag tag cast of characters. It was visually stunning (especially the cut scenes which for the time were AMAZING), the story line was good (I'm currently watching an ELEVEN HOUR YouTube video just for the story LOL), and you know...there's a love story. Love stories are my thing.

I rented it a bunch when it was initially released, my cousin and I were obsessed with the sequel and wanted to be Rikku and Yuna. I've beaten the game twice (Once in college and once two or three years ago). It is the first video game that made me cry emotional tears (the other being Zelda: Twilight Princess).​

So now that I've giving you that background and shouted things in capital letters, your probably dying to know what this has to do with writing. 

I realized the other day (while listening to FFX Lo Fi because I LOVE Lo Fi, it's like my favorite of genre at the moment. Does that make me a hipster?) that this game has had a huge influence on me. 

I haven't talked about my Apocalypse Heart Saga lately or even really worked on it because I was trying to get Squad Treble finished and now Eminence has risen from the dead, but I see so many similarities between Yuna and Riya's journey.

Yuna's father was High Summoner so when she too becomes a summoner, there are many expectations on her. The future of Spira rests on her shoulders, they compare her to lady Yunalesca, the first summoner to defeat sin and she has these moments especially as she falls in love with Tidus (sorry for the spoilers, but it has been 20 years...) where she's not sure if she can do it, but in the end she realizes her destiny.

It's not a perfect parallel, but Riya was discovered at age three to be the most psychic and telekinetically sensitive being on her planet. Not since the Goddess herself (still in the planning stages with this backstory but she's like a protector of Sahana) has someone been so gifted. Riya has been groomed her whole life to be an Oracle and spearhead of her people. She is expected to marry another "spiritually" gifted member of their society (Who is thirteen years older than her...blech) and when she falls in love with her childhood friend and the expectations and rules prevent her from being with him, she's not sure if she wants the title any longer.

Cole and Tidus are more of a stretch, but both had to watch the loves of their life make sacrifices and potentially be with terrible people for the better of "the people". Both also did their best to stand beside their girl when they needed them. 

Even in Eminence, Sage's drive to search for Jonty gives me major Yuna in X-2 vibes.

So to wrap this up, I'm so glad that Final Fantasy X exists. Thanks for being a muse of sorts for this sci-fi writer girl. <3

​Kay

I've been busy busy busy, and keeping up this website has not been on my to do list. I'm back and I've got a BUNCH to tell you. If you are one of my Newsletter subscribers this might look a little familiar when I send it out in a few days.

WARRANTED MOTION WILL BE OUT 8/1
Somehow I got my crap together to get it ready for the release date I wanted. The eBook is available for pre-order at all the major vendors and I will making the paperback version for Amazon on Friday or Saturday as they can't be bought ahead of time.

It's really bittersweet to be wrapping it up. I've mentioned this before, but the characters are like my children. They have grown up and changed over four books and I'm going to miss them. On the other hand, It is definitely time to move on. I thought about doing a prequel trilogy from Priya's point of view for a hot second (to the point where I even outlined book one) and quickly decided that any more Owen and Meera might make me a crazy person. That, and it was set to take place in Bangalore India, a place I know nothing about, so I decided to table the idea.

Future YouTube Star?
You heard that correctly. I've posted three videos to YouTube for the first time since I made my Enshrine book trailer. I wouldn't say I've become a viral sensation, but I've gotten some views and I guess that's a starting point. I plan on reading Limited Truth on there as like an audio book to hopefully get people hyped up about the series as well as some writing advice/process/funny/day in the life things. The only thing that stinks is that I don't have a desk set up for even writing right now (I'm typing this on my bedroom floor while my son is playing LOL) so I feel like it doesn't look super great, but it could be worse. Check me out? My "first" video is below. :)

Enshrine...Back and Better Than Ever?

So back in March I decided that I was going to take Enshrine off the vendor sites and I did for a few months...It's still all the things that I mentioned in that previous post (a hot mess, not really aligned with my YA Sci Fi brand, it's been 4 YEARS since it came out) but like three different people who I don't know wanted copies of the book while it was off the sites and I took it as a sign. So I put Enshrine back on Amazon for now at least and will most likely add it to the other sites as well.

A few days later, I woke up and had this burning desire to work on the sequel which is called Eminence. I had been working on it after Enshrine released but stopped because of weird writer's block/emotional trauma reasons. I had about 30,000 words and had the whole thing painstakingly outlined. 

Well, I'm proud to tell you that I did a huge overhaul to that original draft where I deleted about half of it, and about a month and a half later I am at 50,000 words. Enshrine was over 100,000 words so I'm not excited yet, but it's coming along. I forgot how much I loved Jonty, how much Sage and Jonty are a dynamic effing duo and I've got her sisters, some new characters, and major plot developments that even I wasn't anticipating (Gotta love when characters take the wheel. LOL) That being said, I'm not even going to try to anticipate when this will potentially be released. I also have no clue if there will be a book three. Without spoiling everything...It seems like that is what is probably going to happen, but the hell if I know how to connect the dots. Hopefully it won't take 4 more years to figure it out. 

In the meantime, will Enshrine finally get fixed up? It's got "predictable uneven prose", after all LOL. In all seriousness though, that is one nice thing about being Indie, I can make those changes whenever I like. 

See you soon (I promise),

​Kay