July 15, 2026 I picked up the pen again and started in on Azaya’s second book. Right now, the working title is “Azaya and the Central Expanse.” Rather than talk about the book directly, I’d like to share with you some of the actual process I’m going through in writing a book as I’m writing it.
A Note About Confidence in Writing
This isn’t really about the process of writing as much as it is knowing you can do it. If you read the about page, it took me three books and over 60 chapters of writing to gain the confidence that I could actually tell a story, and write it down in a way people actually want to read.
This didn’t come easy. When I started the journey on October 21, 2025, I had never written a chapter, much less an entire book in my life. I turned to AI to help me learn how to write, and between me and several LLMs we were able to get through Charles Mandrake books one and two.
I was in the middle of Mandrake book three (Chapter 10) when I finally had the confidence to leave AI as a writing partner, and go out on my own. I got through twelve more chapters to finish off book three, and then wrote Azaya’s first book without AI assistance.
I’m providing some background so you know where I am at in experience and thought process as I take you on the journey of writing a book.
Where Azaya’s Book Left Off, and Deciding What to Write
You and I have had a wonderful run over the past season. I really enjoyed having you with me, meeting the people who are special to me, taking you to the places I love, and showing you around the streets of Skelderheim.
We’re six night-sets away from Harvest, and I hope to see you after Orra-Kai and I return from the Central Expanse.
Until then, much love, and happiness.
– AzayaAzaya and the Streets of Skelderheim (Book One epilogue)
That’s how the first book ended.
By that point I’d written Charles Mandrake Books 1, 2, and 3 back-to-back before writing and finishing Azaya’s first book, all while working a full-time job of 10–12 hours a day (which I still have).
I was completely burned out when I shut everything down on May 28, 2026.
I knew I was going to take a bit of time off from writing. I told myself that I’d take a month to figure out what came next.
Taking Time Off is Okay
During the off time, I still was working. I revised the Charles Mandrake site you are on right now, plus a few others for this compendium.
I never left the world, and I never stopped writing. It was just the focus that changed.
I was on the fence while I worked on the sites. I knew I would be coming back to doing another book, but I couldn’t decide between doing a Charles Mandrake, Book Zero, which would have been kind of the Trio’s origin story, or continuing with Azaya’s books.
The “Writer’s Spark” Moment
July 15, 2026, I reopened the Obsidian Vault where manuscripts are kept. I then opened my canon vault, which has literally every detail about East Bay, Skelderheim, The Central Expanse, characters, locations, and maps.
But what is important is that I didn’t plan on starting up again right then, nor had I actually made a decision between Mandrake Book Zero and Azaya.
I didn’t have the date in my calendar, and actually, I was working on building something else earlier in the day, and hadn’t thought at all about anything to do with writing or this world.
I was halfway through a git push when it just popped into my head, almost exactly like this:
Azaya’s lineage isn’t known. Lenne thinks she’s Khuuransh because of her darker complexion and small height, but what if she was actually one of the Hunters?
That’s where I just shifted without warning. The app development was still up on my screens when I popped Obsidian and just started writing.
Writing The First Chapter of a New Book
I am in a different spot now than if I was starting a new series. The world is mature and I have canon to refer to. The characters are well established – I use a lot of characters in my storytelling. The locations in the world were also familiar, so I wasn’t pushing a boulder up a hill to get started.
Obviously it’s easier to start with something than with nothing, and if you are just starting out on a new novel, here’s what I did at the beginning of the entire Charles Mandrake series:
Start with the characters: I started with just a name, “Charles Mandrake.” I built the character profile up a bit. He’s rich. He’s 18. He’s displaced. Then I just wrote a scene. It wasn’t a full chapter by any means. It was a moment where he was stuck in a flooding house with his girlfriend, Anna (you see where I’m going, right?) with just a amateur radio, a backpack, and the two of them. Obviously, it wasn’t Skelderheim. But that’s where it started. Just a scene. It wasn’t right, and it got discarded. But it’s easier for me to start with someone, and a scene they’re in. Build the chapter around it.
For this book, I quickly read the Book One epilogue and knew that the reader would have to come in during the trip that Azaya makes out to the Central Expanse.
The epilogue says, “I hope to see you when you return.” so now I had to consider what to do. That line would have meant that the reader wouldn’t open Book Two with Azaya traveling, but when she returned.
I solved the problem by deciding that Book Two would have no direct address. One of the unique things I did with Book One was that at parts, Azaya acts as the reader’s tour guide, using a first person, direct address voice rather than the normal close third person that the rest of the book is written in. The easy answer was that Azaya doesn’t address the reader directly in this book, so you can still be with her, but to her, she still won’t see you until she returns to Skelderheim in Book three if I make it past this book.
So back to writing this first chapter. Like I said, it just started with the idea that perhaps Azaya is actually of Hunter lineage. Hunters have been chasing Anna all throughout the entire series. They were never explained, and more of just a shadowy antagonist engine than anything else.
“So how would we start this off?” was the next question.
Again, it just popped: Azaya needs to run into one of her blood-kin, and not realize it, and what better way than if she runs into a girl her age. That way, there’s no concern for threats, or prejudgment based on years of history. Just two kids discovering each other.
For the record, Azaya’s Book 2 started with this exact passage:
Azaya stood there for a moment before noticing the sandy area. She went over, and took her boots off. The sand felt warm between her toes, just like the beach in Skelderheim. The water was also warmer than she’d expected, but that wasn’t a complaint. She started fishing around for pebbles in the water.
They were different here. Not as much color variance as in Eberhard, and smaller in size than most of the ones in Skelderheim. She found a grey rock with a dark red band that she liked. She looked at it for a few moments, rolling it around in her fingers, then put it into her left jacket side pocket.
The second time didn’t come up with anything she really wanted to keep. On the third, she brought up a baby crayfish. “Oh, it’s like a miniature lobster,” she said out loud to herself.
“If you wait a couple weeks, you can cook it and eat it when it’s bigger,” came a girl’s voice from the opposite bank. Azaya’s head shot up.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were there,” Azaya said, dropping the crayfish back into the water.
That was the entire segment that came to mind. It was just a scene clip, and I could see it in my mind like a part of a cinematic movie. That’s how I imagine a lot of the story that I write. I see it in my mind like a movie, write a small segment of the scene, and build it up. Sometimes it becomes a chapter.
After I was done writing the above segment, my method was to backfill the beginning of the chapter by asking, “What led up to this point?” And that’s how the chapter’s opening happened.
Once I got up to the part that I’d started with, I just moved past it, completing the chapter by progressing the scene naturally.
As a treat, I’m putting the chapter as it’s written now after the first pass below so you can read what a “Chapter 1, rough pass” looks and feels like.
I hope that you’ll join me as I continue writing these updates. I also hope that you find some value in reading them, or that they give you either inspiration to start writing, or the motivation to keep going!
See you in the next update.
> Learn More About Book One: Azaya and the Streets of Skelderheim
Azaya and the Central Expanse:
Chapter 1 – Home away from Home
Winds swept across the plains of the central expanse, and somewhere outside the yurt, a pony neighed. Azaya opened her eyes for a moment, then pulled the blanket up and rolled on her side.
She listened to the breathing, then a snore escaped. Anna. She’d been allowing herself to sleep in since they’d gotten to Kira’s camp, and Kira let her. “This is a place to rest now,” she’d told Anna. “When the rest of the world demands too much, you come home. You rest. You become yourself again.”
That was seven nights ago when they’d arrived. The entire camp came to welcome them. Anna had told Azaya that this was like her third home. East Bay, Skelderheim, and the Khuuransh tribal grounds were all places that felt like home to her. Azaya understood the feeling.
Izrah and Lenne settled into life in the camp the fastest. They were up before dawn, sometimes herding and other times, regular things like catching fish and running water to Oyun’s food tent.
Anna worked too. Most of the time, she could be found helping Gata with the mending or next to Oyun preparing food. She appeared happy not to be buried under paperwork, or having a steady stream of Scholars, Messengers, or Commoners looking for her attention. Azaya knew that everyone was aware Orra-Kai was among them, but it felt less like the title was there, and more like a tribeswoman among family.
Azaya sat up and rubbed her eyes. She looked down at the leather band around her wrist that hid the Casio watch Charles had given her as a traveling gift. “Since you spent enough time in East Bay and know how times works for us, this watch will help you keep Anna on a schedule.” He’d told her the morning that they’d left. The watch itself was purple and black, and had the word “G-SHOCK” across the top. Todd had told her that it would last through anything she did to it. She dunked it in water. He had just smiled. It still worked. She’d nodded. Now she smiled and checked the time.
Either Izrah or Lenne had added another split or two to the fire before they’d left earlier, and now Azaya got up, took her water bladder and started in on making coffee.
As the water heated up she took her satchel from its peg near the door, and sat down, pulling out her notebook and a pen to note the time and weather, just like she’d seen Anna do in her own.
She reviewed the notes from the last few days, but what was different was that the “todo” section of the pages were blank. It felt weird, but Kira had told her that Anna was not to do “Orra-Kai” things while she was home. Azaya had nodded as Kira patted her shoulder and went on to the next thing.
“Anna?” Azaya shook her.
“Mmmf…”
This was how the last few days had started. Azaya knew Anna was awake, but she liked to pretend that she wasn’t. It wouldn’t be until the smell of coffee had filled the Yurt before Anna would pop an eye open. Anna was not a morning person.
Azaya poured the grinds into the pot and moved it to the side of the small iron fire box, lowering the boil. She sat down and opened her satchel.
Truth be told, Azaya was actually a little bored out here on the steppe. She’d grown up in the faster-paced city, and this quiet life out on the plains seemed… a bit too quiet. Azaya looked around the Yurt. She’d been in them before.
At one point, she’d stayed in one for a few nights while traveling from Skederheim to Eberhard, and then of course, on the way back to Skelderheim with Lenne wounded on the cart.
The Yurt flap opened pulling Azaya out of her thoughts. Lenne poked her head in. “Is she up?”
“No momma. She’s awake, but pretending she’s still asleep.” Azaya smiled.
“Morning meal is getting cold. Oyun’s asking for her.” Lenne let the flap drop and Azaya heard her walking away.
Azaya removed the pot from the heat and put it on a board. She poured a little cold water in to settle the grinds, then grabbed two tin cups and her wood “thermos” that Todd had made for her.
She filled the cups, then the thermos, and closed the lid.
Azaya went over to Anna’s blankets. She’d pulled them completely over her head.
Azaya shook her again. “Coffee!” Then she noted the time on her watch.
Exactly three and a half minutes later, the blankets moved and Anna sat up. Her hair was all over the place. Azaya remembered Anna calling the look a “Hot Mess.” She opened her notebook and wrote:
“Anna up. normal time, which is late by anyone’s standards. Hot Mess.”
Anna reached for the coffee. Azaya sat down next to her and the two drank in silence.
The flap of the Yurt opened. Oyun stepped in. she had a wood board with two wood bowls of hot stew.
“I had to reheat these. Twice.” she said sternly, but a smile crept over her face as she took the girls in.
She sighed. “Give me your brush, Zaaya. (for context, Anna’s steppe name is Zaaya)” Anna looked around. Azaya found it near her pillow and handed it to Oyun. “You first, Azaya.”
Azaya sat down and Oyun worked her hair from the back. Roughly. Like it was an epic battle between good and evil. Azaya looked at Anna. Anna was smirking.
“You know you’re next, right?” Azaya winced.
The Central Expanse
Azaya blinked as she stepped out of the yurt. It was bright out and she looked out over the lands that stretched out to the horizon. A ways off she could see the yaks grazing. She instantly recognized her mom, Lenne, with the missing arm, and on the other side of the yaks, Izrah sat tall in the saddle of her horse sharing a pipe with another rider. Azaya had never seen Izrah smoke a pipe.
Anna surfaced and held the flap for Oyun as she came out with the board and bowls and headed back towards the cook tent.
“What do we do today, Zaaya?” Azaya looked up at Anna.
“A whole lot of nothing.” Anna stretched with a big smile. Azaya looked down.
“Can I go down to the river an look for rocks then?”
“We’ve done that every day.” Anna looked thoughtful for a moment.
“You know, we’re off duty. You don’t have to scribe while we’re here resting,” Anna said. “I think I might like to spend some time writing today.”
Azaya wanted to do a bit of exploring, so she nodded. “I’ll be back around midday.” Anna smiled and watched her head out.
Yuna and Shara met up with her just past the tools tent.
“Hi Azaya!” Shara fell in on Azaya’s left. “Going to go look for rocks?”
“Was thinking so.”
“We should go down past the rapids. There’s a calm pool down there we haven’t shown you.” Azaya nodded and they turned to walk alongside the river.
They hadn’t really got more than a couple hundred yards away when Shara and Yuna’s mother yelled for them to come and help with some things that needed done.
A quick apology, a promise to meet up later, and the two girls were running the other direction as Azaya pulled the strap of her satchel higher, watching them before continuing on.
She followed the bend in the river and found the rapids. It was less grand than she’d expected. It was maybe a five foot slope where the water rushed faster, but beyond that, the river went back to it’s usual, slow pace.
Rinna
Azaya stood there for a moment before noticing the sandy area. She went over, and took her boots off. The sand felt warm between her toes, just like the beach in Skelderheim. The water was also warmer than she’d expected, but that wasn’t a complaint. She started fishing around for pebbles in the water.
They were different here. Not as much color variance as in Eberhard, and smaller in size than most of the ones in Skelderheim. She found a grey rock with a dark red band that she liked. She looked at it for a few moments, rolling it around in her fingers, then put it into her left jacket side pocket.
The second time didn’t come up with anything she really wanted to keep. On the third, she brought up a baby crayfish. “Oh, it’s like a miniature lobster,” she said out loud to herself.
“If you wait a couple weeks, you can cook it and eat it when it’s bigger,” came a girl’s voice from the opposite bank. Azaya’s head shot up.
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were there,” Azaya said, dropping the crayfish back into the water.
“Sorry I didn’t let you know I was here.” The first thing that Azaya noticed was that the girl’s complexion as a bit darker than the other kids she knew. More like her own. The girl had a rounder face, like hers, and seemed like she might be seven or eight winters as well. Her hair was long enough that even though the girl was sitting on the bank whittling, her hair touched the ground.
“I’m Azaya.” Azaya introduced herself.
“I’m Rinna.” The girl smiled, and reached in her bag.
She held something out. “Would you like some dried yak?”
Azaya looked around, then realizing that she was being a bit impolite, nodded, and said, “Do you like coffee?”
“You have coffee?” Rinna’s eyes widened for a moment. “Yes, please.”
Azaya fetched her satchel, crossed the pond, and sat down on the bank with Rinna.
“My mom made it yesterday, and it was done this morning,” Rinna said. “It’s seasoned with senta, maata, and salt, but I hope the senta isn’t to spicy for you.”
Azaya poured coffee into her tin cup and handed it to Rinna, then took the piece of Yak.
First was the deep meaty flavor that only comes from yak meat. Rich, powerful, and a bit overwhelming on your first try, according to Charles. But Azaya loved dried meats, and routinely got them when she had spare coin at Mayah’s tent across from her old apartment above the bakery before she and mom moved.
The slow smokey taste of the tonga wood that was used to smoke the meat came next. A taste from cold nights, and warm meals by the fire. Azaya closed her eyes.
The maata had a slightly sharper taste than she was used to, but it felt right for this piece of dried yak. It held, and the salt helped bring it out. Azaya smiled slightly.
Finally, the slow heat from the senta came through the other flavors. Quietly it presented itself as a underlying nuance, but then as Azaya chewed, it grew warmer and fuller. The meaty taste of yak balanced the warmth until they sat side by side on her pallet.
She swallowed and slowly opened her eyes. Rinna was staring at her.
“Well?”
“That was literally the best dried yak I have ever had.” Azaya smiled back. “Your mom is fantastic at making this!”
“And your coffee,” Rinna looked down at the cup. “That was truly wonderful.”
“Really?” Azaya asked.
Rinna took another sip and fully tasted it across her palette. “I taste the sunlight on the cherries as they grow in planting season. The rains deepen the flavor during the growth nights, and I taste the hard work and care that whoever harvested the beans must have had, but most of all,” she took another sip, “I sense you really care how it tastes.”
Azaya sat with her mouth open for a moment. Then she realized it was open. “You can taste all that?”
Rinna smiled. “In my tribe, we describe food through the care, not the actual taste.”
Azaya blinked. “That’s genius!”
Rinna nodded, “Even if you don’t like the food, the person still feels special because they know you’ve properly tasted it and appreciate the work.”
Azaya nodded. “I am going to have to remember that.” She reached for her satchel and pulled out her notebook and pencil to jot it.
Rinna watched with intense curiosity while sipping. “What are you doing?” She asked.
“Writing it down so I don’t forget.”
“What’s writing?”
Azaya looked up. She considered the question for a moment, and realized that writing must not be a thing in Rinna’s tribe, so she scootched over closer.
“Writing is making shapes with this,” she said, holding up her pencil. “Your name is Rinna. Let me write it so you can see what your name looks like.”
Rinna watched closely as Azaya wrote her name down. She did it slowly so that Rinna could see the pencil move, the shapes take form, and Azaya pronounced each one as she wrote so Rinna could see it form as a whole.
Azaya handed Rinna the notebook and pencil, and took the coffee. “Try and copy exactly what I wrote.” Azaya nodded.
She watched Rinna slowly and carefully follow the shapes. With each one, Rinna repeated the sound. When she finished she looked up at Azaya.
Azaya gave her a huge smile. “You wrote your name!” The girls laughed, looking at the name on the paper.
Then Azaya did the same with her own name, and gave the notebook to Rinna to try.
Azaya tore off the paper and gave it to Rinna. “Now if anyone ever asks you to write your name, you’ll know how, and you’ll always remember mine since it’s right there too.”
Azaya refilled the coffee and Rinna brought out a couple more pieces of dried yak jerky. The afternoon passed quickly as the girls talked and searched for rocks together in the pond.
Rinna taught Azaya how to find the crayfish and catch them. At first, Azaya was a little spooked when they shot backwards right into her hand. Then she got used to it. They let them all go.
As the sun got lower towards the horizon, Rinna said that she needed to get back to her mom and help her cook. Azaya nodded saying she’d probably need to be getting back to Zaaya as well.
Rinna waved as Azaya slowly crossed the small pond back to the other side. “Do you want to meet here later?”
Azaya smiled back. “Yes, I do, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to come back yet.”
Rinna nodded and then said, “In our tribe, if you leave one stick in the ground so I can see it, it means this nightfall. If you leave two sticks, then I know you’ll be here sometime tomorrow. Three means keep watching this place for one or two sticks, and if there are four, you had to leave and won’t be able to come back. I hope it’s not four.”
Azaya laughed. “I’ll put sticks right here in the bank for you as soon as I know.”