EDIT: The story is away! If you were signed up for the mailing list by 9:30 EST tonight, you should have already received it! If not, fear no more, sweet child: send me an email at <[email protected]> and I will deliver it to you with my own hands.

You remember a few weeks ago, when I asked you for short story ideas? I took one suggestion from among them and made it into reality. It's coming tonight!

There were a lot of intriguing ideas in your comments, and I actually found several ideas I wanted to pursue. For instance, several people suggested following major events from the perspective of minor characters. Not A Raccoon (who is probably a raccoon) requested a day in the life of an ordinary servant in the Emperor's palace from Elder Empire. Mick wanted a Traveler's Gate story from Lycus' perspective, Q wanted a Cradle story about Fisher Gesha's life, and more than one person asked about a Traveler's Gate story from the POV of random non-Valinhall Travelers.

I feel like this could be a short story collection: extraordinary events as seen from the perspective of ordinary people. I'll come back to this topic in the future.

Several people wanted something entirely new, which admittedly was my first instinct as well. I haven't written anything outside these three universes in a while, and while I love them all like my children, sometimes you need a break from your kids. Kaden and the Godking of the Outer Lithosphere both suggested original stories, though I'm pretty sure Kaden is already the Godking of a different layer of the Earth, so they may have colluded.

But by far the most common request was for a scene with Simon conquering a room in Valinhall. It would be churlish to ignore the will of the people, and I don't think of myself as a churl. So...Ben, you're the winner! As are the rest of you who specifically supported this idea--Oliv, Dragon, Anon, Nightwold, Shantanu, Nikk B, Chris, Zach, Blake, and Shane--and all the rest of you who generally voted for Traveler's Gate (too many to list).

Simon feels the love, though he's shy about it. Leah is going to try to recruit you all for Damasca.

Tonight, through the mailing list, I will release The White Flame, a short story about how Simon earned a power from the forge between Crimson Vault and City of Light. For those of you disappointed that this story isn't set after CoL, don't worry--there's new material in here, I promise. You'll be pleased.

If you're not signed up for the mailing list yet, I've got good news for you! Scroll down to the bottom of this very page, and enter your email into the field provided. If you're using a Gmail address, sometimes it eats my emails, so add <[email protected]> to your contacts.

Short story will be released before midnight EST! Enjoy!

​-Will

I had another blog post planned out for tonight, but in a happy coincidence someone actually sent me some Cradle art last night!

A fan who wishes to keep their True Name closely guarded commissioned this piece just to show what the Cradle main characters look like!

Here's the artist's page, for those of you interested in their other work.

I thought it was awesome!

-Will

I'm still catching up on everything, so in the meantime, here's the new cover (with no type) for Of Shadow and Sea!

​-Will

I'm back, more or less alive! And because I have a ton of emails and comments to catch up on, not to mention a bunch of writing to do, I'll keep this brief.

Here's what we'll do: I'm going to release a new short story this month, and you guys can tell me in the comments what you'd like it to be. If there's one clear winner, I'll do that, otherwise I'll pick. I might pick anyway, because this is a dictatorship.

Anyway, let me know in the comments what the short story should be about!

And it's great to be home.

​-Will