With Beneath the Vault of Stars (BVS) typeset, I’m walking away from Between the Lion and the Wolf (BLW) for a while and outlining Above the Circle of the Earth (ACE). I started by creating a list of all the elements and plot points I left hanging in the first two books. (All right, I’m still creating that list, but it’s in the works!) Armed with my list, I should have no problem (ha!) outlining the last 20 chapters in The Daybringer series.

There is a lot of ground to cover. A lot. After getting into Book I, a friend asked me, “just how big is this world?!” I told him it was pretty big, but I think it’s actually bigger. (How’s that for vague?!) Granted, I’m considering more than just the world’s present, so I’m sure I have a better sense of its breadth and depth than anyone else. Maybe I’ll write about it someday.

Maybe.

That does remind me: I need to revisit Tsharak’s Tale! I haven’t forgotten about it, but it’s been, well, crammed against the back of my mind for a while now. I’ll bet while I’m outlining ACE, I’ll think of a few more elements to incorporate into Tsharak’s Tale, too.

One of the issues is that I redesigned the letterforms for the written language the characters use. You’ll see it in the updated signage for Mbirin’s Place in BVS. Image 1 shows what it looks like now:

I think I mentioned it earlier, but I also tweaked some of the syntax. Regrettably, I’ll probably tweak it again (but I hope I won’t!).

I reimagined some of the symbols, too. For example, Image 2 shows Abarandal’s symbol before and after I messed around with it:

I’m sure I’ll come across other things I can’t resist tweaking, too.

Enough about what I’m tweaking (ruining?!)—it’s time I get back to work outlining ACE (and converting BLW into an ebook format). It’s a little daunting, thinking about stringing together another couple hundred thousand words, but I did it twice now. I’m sure I can do it again! Oh, right: the revised print edition of BVS is (or will be) available now-ish, but it’ll be up to a year before the ebook version is available again. That said, it does exist, and it will be available. Eventually. (BLW [ebook] will most likely hit “shelves” before BVS does!)