The Bloodforged Kin

There's no way I can thank you all enough - you've come with me on this journey and really kept me motivated!

I would love to get your thoughts, opinions, and what you hope to see later! Below you will find:

1. My thanks to you all

2. Character notes, thoughts, and clarifications

3. What to expect from the next 3 books

4. Some fun alternate cover art

1. Thank you all

Thank you for the notes, comments, support, critiques, arguments, and conversations. I learned a lot from all of you, fixed a lot of things you noticed, and took a lot of notes. You've shown me what I need to rewrite to make book 1 better. Although I'm still sticking with the core of the story that I love so much - a family that doesn't know how to optimize The System immediately - there are a lot of ways I can improve and still keep that. The next version will be better because of your comments.

2. Character notes:

Zavier: Woo boy, was he a polarizing figure! The people who understood him loved him, everyone else hated him. Here's the thing - it looks like he makes dumb decisions. I think the most common critique is "he's the dumbest smart guy ever." But think of it from his POV. He's the kind of kid that, when you gave them a puzzle toy, the first thing they did was disassemble it to see how it worked. To everyone else it looked incredibly stupid, but when he put it back together he had a much deeper understanding than anyone else. Zavier wasn't making dumb decisions - he was experimenting, and the results didn't work out (yet). But he now has more experience with trial and error of seeing what the System can do and how it works than anyone else.

Tess: The biggest critique I got for her is that she was hypocritical in the way she argued, and I can totally see that. There's a nuance there that I didn't do a good job of writing in. She doesn't mind honest fights, doesn't mind getting angry or swearing. What she hates is attacking each other in a fight. Don't swear at each other. Be angry all you want, but don't disrespect your partner in the process.

Cass: Cass's biggest critique is his condition. To be clear, Tess suffers from depression and suicidal ideation. She's fine most of the time, but when she hits a downward spiral it's hard for her to pull herself out. Cass suffers from a different form of depression with a touch of being on the spectrum. His can be activated by certain triggers, but that isn't the full fault of his behaviors. His family has provided the maximum amount of love and support you could offer someone, and unfortunately they made his life a little too protected. Now Cass isn't equipped to deal with trauma, and this new world is all trauma. You'll notice a theme in these books of things that were helpful and beneficial in the old world being detrimental in the new.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Luna: She was mostly persona non grata in this book - unmemorable. That's totally fair. All I can say is that some things happen to her in this next book that force her to become more fully realized. Book 3 she becomes a LOT more memorable.

The Bouchards: Everyone loved the Bouchards! And what's not to like? They're smart and independent. The thing is, though, they're not really facing the new world. They're living as if it's the old world and they just got better at it. They haven't truly grasped the concept that there are going to be magical beings, creatures, and people that don't give a shit about walls or gun turrets. Things that could rip into their compound without a second thought. The Bouchards have set themselves up perfectly for the old world, but they're not in the old world anymore. Even they have said that they don't really know how to fight, and at some point someone who does know is going to show up. Zavier has been trying to convince Owen of that, but Owen is also stubborn and makes bad decisions. You just didn't notice because they happened to work out for him - so far.

Everyone else: It's easy to miss how weak the world is right now. We followed the stories of the two most powerful families in the area, and the most powerful bad guy. The rest of the neighborhood - and most of the world, honestly - are not even level 10. They haven't tried. They took what The System gave them and looked no deeper. Many don't even bother allocating their stat points - they just let The System do it for them. The Torres and Bouchard families have different approaches to experimenting and pushing, but at least they're both pushing. Everyone else is just existing.

3. So what's coming next?

- Book 2 and 3 are already scheduled for release so you should see the first chapter of The Bloodforged Path, book 2: The Trialborn Legacy this afternoon. The rest of the chapters will continue on the same schedule as you've been getting them. If you can't find it in 2 days please let me know! I'm an idiot, so it's very possible I'll screw up the release.

- Book 1: Introduced you to an imperfect family dealing with a System apocalypse

- Book 2: This will focus in tightly on the Torres family. They're going to be forced to grow, and all of the experiments, testing things, arguing and fighting on how to optimize - all of that is going to help them survive (hopefully!) and grow what comes next

- Book 3: This one expands out into the broader world. Have you wondered what happened to the rest of the area around their neighborhood? Have you wondered if the Torres family is stronger than the average person (spoiler: They are.). Do you want to meet other powerhouses that are nearby? This is what book 3 does. It also does not allow weakness. In book 3 the strong survive, the semi-strong band together to survive, and the weak are purged.

- Book 4: This one is currently being written, but this one is about individual growth. Book 3 was about team and community growth, people definitely advanced individually, but they had to rely on each other to survive what The System threw at them. Book 4 forces each person or team to grow or become fodder for others' growth.

4. How about you?

So, what do you want to see? What do you wish you saw more of, and what do you never want to see again? I really want to tell the best story I can, so let me know what you loved, hated, want to see next, and what your favorite fan theories are. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

And, as a special treat, here are some of the previous versions of the cover for book 1, back when it was called Unity Protocol (ugh, how boring!). The first was AI generated, back before I knew better. I showed it to an artist friend of mine, Ed Steckley (from MAD Magazine and this book), and he explained how much AI was putting him out of a job. I decided then and there to only use paid art after that. It cost a lot of money to get all of the different versions of art made, but I believe in supporting artists. Enjoy these almost-covers!