**INTERCEPTED ENCRYPTED TRANSMISSION** 
FROM: WARMASTER VELARIA ‘VARA’ HESSNER | RECIPIENT: CHIEF REGENT ANDREA HESSNER
Classification: Secret | Discretion | Level 5 |
Admiralty Eyes Only.

Time for a SITREP on Decimation Protocol, book two of my military sci-fi fantasy, the Warmaster Series. 

This draft has been a little slow getting its legs, but I’m making steady progress. There’s a lot of moving parts behind the scenes, so it hasn’t gotten the TLC the fantasy series enjoyed for a long stretch, but such is life. 

Let’s get down to the update and talk shop:

Prologue: 0 / 1Chapters: 11 / 40Epilogues: 0 / 1Current Word Count: 116,525 (Scrivener software)Staring Word Count: 122,293 (WriteItNow software)

Why such a huge gap in the word count? Did I cut so much? Actually, no. I’ve been adding to the story while doing a lot of clean up, delivering sharper prose, punchier dialogue, deeper internal thoughts. Each chapter has come away with more words than previous iterations. 

These are two different writing platforms, and they count their words differently. The way I see it: it’ll cost less to go to the editor, but it’ll still be an awesome story either way. 

Near the event horizon, I’ve been kicking around ideas for the next book in the series and beyond. No way another seven years passes before the next sequel. With the Dark Legacy Series as the heavyweight, I want something equally massive—but stellar in its own right. Yeah, I went there. 

Going into this weekend, I’m hoping to finish up on a side project and dipping my toes into dry runs. More to follow. 

Though I’ve navigated away from my fantasy series, it’s still prominently on my mind, and every once in a while, I’ll tinker with something. Good news is that I have it all in Scrivener now, so when I pick it back up, everything’s ready to go. 

Well, that’s the latest transmission from the Admiralty. Short and sweet. I shall return…

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Oblus ina’ti Sepan Eti — Live and die by the sword.