Hey there!
First off, of it's my pleasure to introduce the title and backcover to the third book of Pale Lights, "Borrowed Trouble". We can talk about the rest after you've had a peek.
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Borrowed Trouble
The Thirteenth Brigade returned from Asphodel famous and triumphant, but as their second year at Scholomance dawns they learn they cannot afford to rest on their laurels.
Between the fresh students flooding Port Allazei, the addition of a fifth member to the brigade and the mysteries revealed by a sinister graduation ceremony there is quite a bit of trouble to go around. Of course, the Unluckies being who they are, even before ancient nightmares begin running wild they’ve somehow found additional trouble to borrow.
Tristan finds religion (then promptly loses it) while Angharad finds herself haunted by consequence (and, more concerningly, ghosts). Meanwhile, Song’s quest for accurate essay citations earns a (continuously rising) body count and Maryam learns that legacies are a heavy burden to bear (even when you have two backs).
As for Izel Coyac, still fresh to the Thirteenth, he does not need to borrow anything: trouble followed him all the way from home, and this time she isn’t taking no for an answer.
By the time their second year comes to a close, no one will ever doubt again that the Unluckies earned every bit of that sobriquet.
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With that out of the way, we get to more technical stuff.
As I mentioned in late January, the 21st of March will have an AMA on the Erraticana Discord (link here ) instead of an update. I plan to put at least a few hours into it, which means scheduling in advance. I've started a poll below for which start time works better for you, the winner will be when it takes place.
Since I've already had inquiries about asking questions on "A Practice Guide to Evil", I'll put it here that to keep this about Pale Lights there will be a cap of ten questions about the Guide - last time I did an AMA there was the same rule and questions were submitted to the mods on the Discord, I expect it'll be the same this time.
The last part of this post is an uneasy admission - I've been working on Borrowed Trouble for a bit now, and despite the pause when my son was first born I'm finding that I'm pretty burned out, both physically and creatively. I could probably grit my teeth and power through, I've done it before, but I'm concerned that will result in a lower quality book.
I've already committed to everything up to the AMA on March 21st and that's not changing, but I'm strongly considering taking a break after that. Updates for Pale Lights would resume on April 11th, which would let me build up a reserve of chapters again and tighten up the plot. I'd pause payments for April, naturally.
Consider this me taking the temperature for your opinion on the break. I'll have settled on a decision by next week's update, and an announcement will follow.
See you around,
E.E.