The Deeply Nebulous State of All Things: A Koltja’s Shadow Update.

I’m currently deep in edits on Koltja’s Shadow, the second book in The Aeldstorm Saga. If you somehow missed the original announcement and want to read the blurb, you can follow this handy-dandy link: The Shadow Has a Name: Announcing Koltja’s Shadow.

Right now, I’m working on Chapter 35. The book has 48 chapters total, plus a prologue, an epilogue, and four interludes. The prologue and interludes have already been edited, so I’m officially in the part of the process where I can see the finish line and therefore become increasingly suspicious of it. Once I reach the end, I’ll probably do one more lighter pass through the manuscript to clean up anything I missed, tighten a few things, and make sure nothing has quietly caught fire while I wasn’t looking.

After that, barring any last-minute acts of literary sabotage from the manuscript itself, I’m calling it good.

I’ve also been sharing a few cover teasers on social media ahead of the full reveal, and I’ve included them here in case you missed them or just want to stare suspiciously at tiny pieces of the cover and wildly overanalyze what I might be hiding.

The full Koltja’s Shadow cover reveal is coming October 9, and the book is still planned for early 2027.

Click to view full size:

Also, in a stunning display of competence, I recently realized I had somehow managed to create a TeePublic store, fill it with queer T-shirt and sticker designs, promote those designs online, and then completely forget to put the store on my own website’s links page.

Excellent work. No notes.

That has now been fixed. So if you want queer T-shirts, stickers, and other assorted manifestations of my nonsense, you can find the TeePublic store alongside my books, socials, and everything else on my links page.

Now, back to Chapter 35. Only thirteen chapters, an epilogue, and an increasingly suspicious finish line to go.