Good mornooning!

I stole that from Akira Toriyama.

Anyway, new month, new update.  As you can see, I’ve been posting more content more often (I posted a review and the next two chapters of HD)!  Now, when you see the stats for the story, you may notice some dropoff.

This is not due to the other content, it is simply because I forgot to write for three consecutive days.

I just wanted that to be clear.  Anywhoozles, here are the current stats for the story (as exported into Word):

Current Chapter: 13 (Bloom and Wither)(Working Title)

Pages: 233

Word Count: 86,385

Well, compared to the difference in the last two updates, I definitely slowed down a bit. 7,000 words to… 5,000-ish.  That’s not too bad, I guess.

In other news, I’ll be trying harder to actually address the released content in these update diaries, since I tended to ramble about life and non-Hell/Dolls information.

First of all, art and designs.  I still want to release a map of the world at some point, and I want to commission someone for the title art if I can swing it, but right now, my finances are not what you’d call “in order”.  I have people in mind for each of the things I am wanting to release (world map, Saruja map, and title picture), but after a session with acrylic paint and a great teacher, I am feeling more confident in making some of these visuals myself.

Secondly, I would like to talk about the first two chapters, which I released back on August 5th.  The first release (Prelude) acts as a setting description and a quick look at the history of the world.  I have looked at other series doing this, as well as their readers, and I understand that this is usually integrated into the first few chapters along with the story.

I am not a professional writer, and I will never claim to be.

I always go with my gut when including scenes or descriptions, as wrong as it may be.  I wanted to present a history of the world early on, so those who don’t really care can move onto the first real chapter at their own pace.  Though the history of Grudia and Uruhsatt will probably be more touched on in future chapters (late Book 1 to mid-Book 2), it’s only currently relevant to those who care about the history of Kiria.  The introductions to the mortal races, Baael, and Essence are pretty important to the story, but I think most people can glean the necessary information reading the main story.

Chapter 1 is where the story really starts, following Vincent’s first steps into his new job, introducing three major characters (two technically for this “Book”), moving us into the major state Saruja, and readying us for the large set that is the stage.  For now, Vesic acts as the driving force for Vincent, while Simon and Regnah will be Vincent’s direct contacts into this unfamiliar city-state.

I realize that I’m still editing these early chapters as I go on (in small doses, but nevertheless editing), but I will try to only update them when I release new chapters, to minimize the amount of back-reading people have to do.  Most of the changes are clarifications that I forgot to include, but some tend to be major points (as I found recently) such as how Vincent knows about the Sealed God.  Again, I will try to minimize the amount of backtracking I do after release, but I can’t promise anything.

On a different note, I do have a separate document detailing specific world notes that I don’t really touch on in the story, so I’ll try to make a point of adding those to these update diaries.  Or maybe I’ll release the sections as their own posts.  I haven’t decided yet.

For now, thank you for reading my story, following my progress, and letting me provide you with a new universe (that may or may not be similar to some anime released last season  GODFKMNDAMNSNINT.

Thank you all!

-Marcosias Isif