Azaya and the Streets of Skelderheim is done, and it was surprisingly easy to write. Once I got started, the story seemed to create itself, and one chapter just flowed into the next.
Azaya has a long arc that begins at the end of Charles Mandrake and the Keeper of the Flame (Book 2). From Harrik’s ship as it pulls away, Anna watches the fighting on the docks and sees a young girl dart out from the crowd into an open space. Although the girl is unnamed, Book 3, Return to Skelderheim, starts from that moment on the docks, and continues Azaya’s arc as a supporting character that becomes a protagonist in her own way.
Now in what is book four of the Skelderheim series, but broken off as “Azaya’s Skelderheim, Book 1: Azaya and the Streets of Skelderheim”, Azaya takes the lead protagonist role. Those of you that loved Charles, Todd, and Anna will be relieved to know that they’re very much a part of this story, along with the entire cast of characters (and a couple new ones).
I started writing the book on May 6, 2026 and it was done on June 2.
Twenty seven days. 31 chapters. No AI writing. On a sidenote, I have found that the AI models have gotten a lot less friendly towards writers that actually care about their craft. The model training is so much stronger than when I wrote book 1 and 2, it’s nearly impossible for AI to generate anything but AI Slop. Even the “best” models tend to rush towards tidy endings and clean storytelling.
At first, Azaya was just scared kid that trauma-bonded with the woman that saved her, but as the story continued on, the character grew and took on a personality of her own. She’s blunt. She says what she sees. She isn’t really afraid to call an adult out. She has a unique sense of humor that’s mostly dry, and during the course of these two books, she grows from five winters old to eight.
The writing process for me is pretty loose. I don’t start with plots. I don’t really plan. The whole story is just imagined up on the fly as I write, and the most organic things happen that way. For example there’s a part where Azaya goes around the table in the Annex as the adults talk stealing their coffees and “drinking it for them”. I don’t plan that stuff. It just happens. Also, the Mel’s Over Easy souvenir cup is another detail that just got written in as I went.
This type of freestyle writing doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s what I found confidence in as I went from just authoring LLM-first and editing second, learning the best way for me to write, and finally to writing a complete book with no AI.
One of the most daring choices I made was to break the close third-person narrative style, and go back to a similar first-person narrative in this book, but I took it even farther. In Book 1, Charles and Anna have a few chapters where they narrate directly. Here, in Book 4, Azaya narrates parts directly, but it’s a direct address to the reader. I made the choice that you’re in her world for a little while, and she’s taking you around the streets she knows.
Well, the writing’s done, and now it’s time to work on the covers. Azaya and the Streets of Skelderheim will be launched on June 21, 2026.
