Dark Offerings Chapter 27 has been released

Hello out there,

Its out!

I know I haven’t been very talkative lately but there’s a reason for that. Last week I worked at a new short film festival called the 100 Fims Resort. It’s a quarterly festival that I help run.

I’m supposed to become the curator for this event eventually and am learning the ropes. I posted a small commercial for Dark Offerings at the festival which wasn’t all that successful because I didn’t read anything from my book. However, I also submitted the book cover for review as well and if I weren’t working for the festival it would have won best poster.

I’m a little behind on Chapter 28 but I plan on finishing that tonight. I hope you enjoy chapter 27 I really enjoyed writing it.

Katherine

Dark Offerings Chapter 24 is out

Hello out there,

It’s out!

It’s my birthday and what a great day for a new chapter! I hope you all enjoy this one. It’s pretty dialog heavy compared to the others but it pushes the story along quite well.

I know we’ve been in the mall for something like four or five chapters but there’s so much interesting stuff that is happening.

We will eventually get back into the game but there’s a lot that needs to happen before that’s possible. This is turning out to be a story more based in the town rather than in the game. Perhaps it’s less LITRPG and more Scifi. People can bring up menu’s anywhere so real life might as well be LITRPG too.

I’m sure if people didn’t like it they would say something right… right?

I also collaborated with ChatGPT recently and we made a short story together. Feel free to give that a read too!

It’s here.

Have a great day!
Katherine

Talking Offerings Chapter 5

Hello out there,

Welcome to the fifth episode of Talking Offerings! This series offers a deeper look into the weekly story Dark Offerings. I provide my insights as the writer and analyze the story so far.

Dark Offerings is like the Dark Souls of Augmented Reality MMOs. Even the lowest of creatures can still kill you especially if you’re being ganged up on.

If you don’t currently read Dark Offerings feel free to use this link and read it. It’s free!

Chapter 5.

In this chapter, Azerail concludes her dealings with Victor and heads to the Grizzled Beard to sell her now-identified loot.

Although Azerail is a solo player, I didn’t want to fall into the trope of portraying her as a complete loner. Right away, I aimed to establish that she has friends in the real world, which is where Aaron and Julia come into play.

Spoiler alert: I do introduce at least a couple more friends later on.

While she is in the shop, Azerail has her first real conversation with Kumori.

I’ve always loved intelligent inanimate objects. They’re one of the reasons I enjoyed Beauty and the Beast and playing D&D with my friends. Inevitably, someone would end up with a talking weapon.

I have future plans for this sword, and if you’ve read further in, you’ll know some of what happens. However, I have even more plans for it.

The crux of this chapter is the interaction between Molly and Inethiel.

Molly is a person’s character, but she still has the appearance of a 10-year-old girl. I was concerned about this scene and hoped I handled it well.

Let me explain why. Molly becomes entranced and is clearly under some sort of charm. It felt as if I was toeing the line of appropriate behavior by having her want to cling to someone she doesn’t know very well.

Kos Play and I had an extensive discussion about the subject. He believed the additions I’d made were appropriate after a lengthy conversation.

I had to change the wording several times before sharing it with him, not because I thought I hadn’t done it correctly, but because I wanted to get it right.

Although Azerail is playing a game, her strong sense of justice shines through in her actions. She wouldn’t behave as she does or become emotional about the treatment of the Hexed if she didn’t care.

I’d like to maintain this sense of her doing the right thing, even though she’s technically on the bad guy’s side, throughout the book.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of Talking Offerings. It’s not very long, but I hope you appreciated some of the insights into my feelings while writing it.

Have a wonderful day,
Katherine

Talking Offerings Chapter 4

Hello out there,

Welcome to the fourth episode of Talking Offerings! This series offers a deeper look into the weekly story Dark Offerings. I provide my insights as the writer and analyze the story so far.

Dark Offerings is like the Dark Souls of Augmented Reality MMOs. Even the lowest of creatures can still kill you especially if you’re being ganged up on.

If you don’t currently read Dark Offerings feel free to use this link and read it. It’s free!

Chapter 4.

This Chapter revolves around the sword that Inethiel found in the first Chapter. When I wrote the description for the sword it was a simple sword with a green glow. I knew I wanted to do something with it so I expanded on it. When I wrote Chapter three the sword was still simplistic. It was only when I wrote the dream sequence that I decided to change it’s appearance.

The web on the guard with a bunch of trapped figures I thought was a moment of brilliance. Each person cursed by the sword leaves behind another negative effect which I hadn’t seen a story do before.

I haven’t read many undead novels but I loved the fact that Inethiel was buffed instead of negatively impacted by the curses. The undead are already cursed and I like the idea, just like in math, two negatives equal a positive.

The poison, however, is a separate thing. It’s not something super secretive or anything like that. It’s simply a self-defense mechanism that indicates that the sword’s charge is low. It’s charged by the drain skill being used. It’s a simplistic mechanic which I probably put too much mysticism behind.

Kumo still hasn’t been fully explored and I’m writing chapter 22.

Victor came seemingly out of nowhere. I knew that I wanted Molly’s friend to be interesting and that’s it. His accent and everything came out of my head as it is. I didn’t have to alter it at all.

I had to rewrite the dream sequence a few times. I’m still not perfectly satisfied with the papers and how Kumo emerged from them.

As for the two knocked-unconscious scenes. I didn’t plan to have two of them but I needed to drive home how deadly the sword could be even when Inethiel had protections in place.

What I really enjoyed exploring was the whole ‘out of body’ experience that came with Azerail being kicked out of Inethiel’s body.

Mixing Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality can make pretty much anything happen in the real world and I found that extremely fascinating.

The chapter itself took a while to complete. When the story has heavy descriptions or heavy dialog (Especially dialog like Victors.) it can take a while for my brain to form the words I need to write.

That’s it for this episode! I have a ton of fun writing these and I hope you enjoy them as well. Feel free to use the chat below if you have any other questions about this Chapter. I’m happy to have an open dialog with anyone who wishes it.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Katherine

Sick

Hello out there,

I’ve been sick for the last four days and wasn’t able to write my story this week.

I know there’s a lot of you that look forward to it and I’m sorry but life sucks sometimes.

If you would like to read something a friend gave me a bit of Dark Offerings fan fiction. Which I posted instead of this week’s chapter.

Have a look.

I appreciate your patience while I recover.