The Journey from First to Second Edition
Full spoilers ahead!
This page is for people who:
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Read Pawns of Fate and Fortune, don't mind spoilers, and are trying to decide if they want to read the second edition, OR
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Just enjoy a front row seat to the writing and editing process, and have already read the second edition.
When I first published Pawns of Fate and Fortune, I had been writing for about a year. Mostly un-seriously. It felt good to write an entire novel, even if I never did anything with it.
And then I watched a few YouTube videos about publishing on Amazon and decided it couldn't be that hard. Why not give it a go?
Fast forward a few months: It could be that hard, as it turns out. I had a book. But my skills had taken me as far as I wanted, and it still wasn't exactly the story I wanted to tell.
So, I hired an editor. Did critique exchanges with fellow indie authors. I learned and grew. And in the process? My book did, too.
Major Differences Between the First and Second Editions:
Full spoilers ahead!
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First, I shortened the title to Pawns of Fate and got a spiffy new cover.
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Magic is much more pervasive in Pawns of Fate. I added several examples of it working in the background of the novel, as well as a few scenes where it affects Rose and Nicholas's daily life or we get more of an insight into how they use magic.
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More monsters: The journey from Castle Robson to Castle Sharp is far more eventful! Their party is attacked by mountain ogres, and Rose falls victim to twiddletoads. We get more of an in-depth look at Nicholas's time in the swamps, and all of the monsters he's dealing with there.
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Better developed villains: Oh Snake. While Snake remained an unhinged shadow mage, and probably always will be, I did flesh out his character quite a bit more and reveal a lot of information about him that will be key for upcoming books in the series: His real name is Lysander, and he is Lyla's twin brother.
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Speaking of villains, Snake's/Lysander's nameless monster friend gets a lot more development in the second edition, too. His name is Kagon, he's a druid, and by the end of Pawns of Fate, Snake/Lysander has doomed him to life as an actual snake.
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The druid ruins: These were towers in the first book, but they got a makeover in the second. Instead of obsidian towers, Snake/Lysander and Kagon hang out in ancient druid ruins, which essentially look like Stonehenge.
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Rose and Nicholas don't make it to Duke Talbot's castle in this edition. They really just didn't have time. Lysander kidnaps them on the road instead.
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When Lysander kidnaps them and insists that Rose increase his mana flow, he uses a spell that allows Rose better access to the spiritual plane. She's able to see that the druid ruins he's turned into his secret lair are inhabited by an elemental spirit. This spirit helps Rose and Nicholas defeat Lysander, though Rose does still increase Nicholas's mana flow during the process. The whole climax of the book was a lot more fleshed out/thought out, and honestly, fun to write!
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Finally, I swapped the timeline around a bit for a few characters that are minor in this one, but will be important in the upcoming novels: Duke Talbot is still a perfectly eligible bachelor in this novel. (Though he won't be for long!)
And finally, I think the word count of the book increased by nearly 30,000 words. Overall the second edition had a lot more details and description added, as well as extensive line editing.
If you made it this far, thank you! As you can see, writing is a journey, and I'm not sure that any author ever feels that their work is really, completely, perfect and done, but I'm happy with where this story ended up.
Thank you, again!
-Trixie