The Darker Aesthetic and Future Plans

I’ve changed my shadow drop plans for Crown of the Orphic Queen to simultaneously releasing with the next Orchestrylus Odyssey novel, The Voided Promises of Noble Songs. Seeing as I don’t have to answer to anyone to make such changes, it works for me to do a duo-release launch.

This story is a modern take on Persephone lore from Greek mythology.

Hades won’t play the exact role as in the original source material, but he’ll still be her love interest in the modern era. Let’s just say I’ve flipped things a bit with the way the story works.

I thought about making a pomegranate motif work for the cover, but that would be far too Tracy Wolff or Meyer instead of focusing in on the queenly aspect.

Writing more macabre stories is almost cathartic for me during the process, though that’s not due to any macabre tendencies in my real life. I’ve always loved the darker aesthetic of the underworlds of human folklore and mythology.

Vampires, the occult, the aesthetic of gothic subcultures—they’re all quite striking to me and prime real estate for telling stories.

Horror doesn’t seem to fit the Christian ethos of storytelling, but I aspire to be my own storyteller with my own flavor as an artist who is Christian, yet not a Christian artist.

I believe these settings, archetypes, and aesthetics are not explored enough by people of my faith background, so I want to break that ground in ways others have not done it. If that means pushing the envelope or going over boundaries, that’s fine with me.

My first foray into this was my debut novel, which had the same vibe as the stories I tell the best.

The Orchestrylus Odyssey is more of a lyrical story, with attacks that are represented by poetry and musical themes throughout every facet of the tale, but there are still cosmic horror elements and unfathomable (especially coming up) creatures that are beyond understanding.

Every story of mine has some form of this aesthetic choice because I’m quite fond of it.

I’ve recently changed my stance on “messy” first drafts, too, leaning toward the “place a firm foundation” side of the debate. If you place a bad foundation, the house will collapse. If you write as best as you can from the get-go, your house will stand upon something solid.

This doesn’t mean not editing later down the line, but rather, it means doing the best I can from the outset.

There’s far too much time spent bogged down in the editing phases, and The Voided Promises of Noble Songs will be the last book I take the other approach on. Crown of the Orphic Queen is being written with the artisanal and solid-first-draft method, which makes the editing passes so much easier and without need of delay.

I’ve delayed books because of needing to edit heavily too many times. Couple this with other work and prior engagements, and the schedule fills up fast. Getting it mostly right the first time through will make the process so much more streamlined, but not easy.

I love the process, though, even if editing takes forever.

These changes should make getting my stories on the market far easier. I have more than 25 fresh stories I want to release by 2029.

By 2032, I desire to have written 50 novels.

But since I accomplished the laborious task of making stories work before these new ones, I’m sure I’ll get there with enough drive and work.