Status Updates From A Night of Falling Stars (A...

Zair is lethal 😮‍💨

“Why did I try to hide from him?”

🥹🥹🥹

Kerr and Aine are crushing my heart to pieces. I don’t even know how I managed to write this 😭

In case you didn’t already guess, Prince Arsene and Tabitha’s marriage story is heavily inspired by Jacob, Rachel, and Leah’s story in the Bible!

Also, the meeting of the soulmates is one of my absolute favorites in the series! It’s so special to me! ​

(I’ve left a couple of other notes on my blog post that I didn’t put here!)

Confession - in the first few drafts of ANOFS, I actually forgot all about the Staff of Horeb 💀 But then, my editors made it clear that getting the Staff was such a huge plot point in AWOWA, that it cannot be undermined in ANOFS.That pushed me to think. I’m really glad they pushed on this because it definitely strengthens the battle scenes!

I’m also obsessed with the names of places in Albion. Especially Zimihan (my favorite), Caullech Coast, Sidihorn. I remember looking up names of places and merging them. Zimihan was originally Wembley, but I didn’t really like the name. After some brainstorming, I came up with Sidi-HORN. Horn here is for the peak/crown!

Just got chills over how brilliantly the Ward of Stars now being used in Sarqi flows. Over how impactful it feels. As fantasy writers, we tend to introduce lots of new things, tools, and people. The goal is to make sure we don’t forget and ignore something that was initially painted as important. Otherwise we’d be telling not showing.

‘Nath’ is actually a nickname I had to google 😄😂. I remember really wanting a nickname for him, especially when Jaziah spoke to him. Their friendship feels like the kind where they HAD to have nicknames for each other. I tried “Dath” a few times and it didn’t work at all. So I turned to google, and instantly loved “Nath”!

One of my *things* is describing magic. Trying to use metaphors of natural things to create vivid imagery in the reader’s mind. This description of Zair’s camouflage magic being like a net was one I took time on, and I love how it reads!

Zair’s conversation with Asahel put tears in my eyes. I always love reading it 🥹

I also love this moment Zair had to breathe and savor her new life.

Zair does not play about her man. 🙂‍↔️ I just love so much when they’re together!

As a Nigerian, there are certain tribes that are very violent to we the other tribes. It wasn’t like this when I was younger; I had friends from all the tribes. But as we grew older, their violence and bias grew. And even though we’re still neighbors, there is a clear divide between us and them. But as a Christian, I know it’s not good to continue that. Jaziah’s response to Dathan flowed out of this side of me

Um okay, wow. I love this final exchange in the twins, Arno and Zair’s meeting! I feel so bad for Arno that his feelings for Zair is one he can’t hide and that people try to use against him 🥹

😭 Dathan’s family’s history… my goodness 💔💔

Clever Dathan 😎 🤝 🔥
I sometimes worried that people might not follow this Dathan versus Sarhedrin plotline because it doesn’t have magical battles and explosions. It’s mostly a battle of wits. So I was very happy when it was one of the things my youngest brother praised most! It gave me the hope that readers can follow the plot thread!

Initially, this scene had only Artaxexes carrying the three Esan boys into the air. But I suddenly felt it needed higher stakes. I know Zair has a big heart, but was the death of two really enough threat to get her, Arno, and the rest out of Hiymah? That was when I had the morbid vision of hundreds of Esan youths being suspended midair, rather than three, and the image was so epic and chilling.

In this scene, Ellasar reads The Litany of Pain, and I actually have poems from it that I wrote down. I think I watched Dune and was intrigued by one of the chants in it, and so I wanted to create something like that. I never put the litanies in the book, but they do exist!

I love this scene of them discussing books in chapter 52. I saw a reader once say that a fantasy book had characters who supposedly loved reading but were rarely ever seen reading, and who vaguely loved music but this was also never shown. That stuck with me and is one reason I consciously show Zair and Lysias (and Ellasar’s) love for reading!

When I realized that Zair’s hobby would be reading, it felt unrealistic that she wouldn’t have a favorite book! Especially when I talk for three books about how much she loves to read. So our girl had to have a favorite! I also believe it was while editing AWOWA I came up with the title of the book.

For space, I break it down on my blog post how “Little Girl” became her favorite’s title!

Part of me, as a reader, also wish that Aine had asked him to stay, and that they’d just had a tender moment together. 🥹 One thing I’ll always wish for, as a writer and reader is that Aine and Kerr had more time together❤️‍🩹

The ending line of chapter 51 is one I’m so happy I added. I remember wondering how to end that chapter after Kerr tucked Aine in bed. I didn’t want to write something that would rush their relationship’s progression, yet after multiple reads, I realized they didn’t have that much time left together. So there was space for a deeper expression of their feelings.

(I have to shorten notes on GR for space!)

“She inhaled the scent of old paper like they were flowers.”

Wow. Some beautiful lines that can get lost in a story ​because they’d been written so effortlessly.
A fun fact is that in book 1, I’d planned to make Zair’s hobby “interior decoration”. I’d still been getting to know her character, and was also trying to find something unique. But that never really made sense for her!

Jaziah, leave Ellasar alone 😭😂 I also really love this scene that allowed me do some world building on the history of Thalesai ☺️

This discussion—where Zair asks Niah if Niah feels bad Zair is the queen—is one I consciously wrote in. Firstly, I’m very aware of and love the fact that Dathan and Zair are both younger siblings. (Typically, MCs are sole orphans or the oldest!) I’ve always questioned how likely it is for their older siblings to be fine with bowing to the younger. Even King Khasar and Queen Yval had been younger siblings.

Totally NOT crying over Zair thinking of how her mom had always been an outsider and how Zair suffering to free the Esans was also for her mom to finally find belonging too😭😭

Aine’s whole story makes me so emotional. Both her past and being the witch’s blood offering. I feel like this time around, it’s really hitting me how painful and dehumanizing what she’s facing is. And the fact that she can be playful and animated through it is amazing ❤️‍🩹💝💔 love you my Aine girl.

I just can’t with Kerr. I love this man so much 😭 Each time I work on/read ANOFS, I feel like I see him in a newer way!

I’m just thinking of Zair’s mom making those teabags for Dathan’s family, despite how they reject her, and sending the teabags with hope in her day after day 🥹

I always love when the families come together and we see their dynamics. This scene with Dathan, Asahel, and their mom feels so rich to me! In the argument, you can both see Asahel and their mom’s point of views. And this is one of my favorite ways to write arguments because readers struggle to choose a side!
(More thoughts on my blog post!)

I wrote this descriptive scene of the Art Village in hopes of grounding us in desert-y, craft-rich Ari’el again. While working on an earlier draft (maybe the 2nd), I felt like I was missing the desert feeling that had been prominent in ADOBS. I worked on improving this across ANOFS, but THIS was the first scene I added after realizing it, and so I love the scene so much!