FUN FACTS FIRST!

1: So far, there have been three books where Patton's go-to move when he has no plan is "Tackle the enemy." And its often triggered by anger and or fear!

2: Roman and Janus don't like each other and I'm honestly pretty sure the only thing stopping them from killing each other are their brothers.

3: Logan's feelings for Virgil never went away! But throughout their captivity, he tries to focus those feelings into protectiveness and friendship.

4: In 'We Can Be Heroes' Remus is the one that wants to get married but here, Remus wanted Janus to wait a little longer as he felt he was still too young. This was done on purpose.

5: I wrote Remus and Janus on the ace spectrum because at the beginning of this story I was questioning that part of my sexuality. I obviously had to do a lot of research and talk to lots of people to make sure I had everything right, but writing characters who were part of that community helped me understand it better. I still don't know quite where I fall on the ace spectrum, but that's okay.

6: Prince Hollis was aro/ace which was implied when Markus said he was celibate in that final battle scene. People really seemed to like Hollis, he's no Nora or Medusa but he's cool I guess.

7: During Janus's coronation, Virgil and Hollis stood on Janus's right and Remus was on his left. A reward to whoever can tell me why will be revealed at the end.

8: When Virgil told Remy he loved him, that was the first time he'd heard Virgil speak since they were 12. And the first time Virgil ever spoke the words 'I love you' in a romantic sense.

9: So Roman and Virgil are both great sword fighters. Remus is great with any close range weapon really and great at strategy (if he's been born as a Dark Realm prince and wasn't first in line to the throne he would've most likely been a general) Janus and Logan are both very strong advanced wizards and while Remy doesn't have a lot of fighting skill he makes all his own magical weapons. But what everyone seemed to have forgotten is that Patton is the best archer in half the Light Realm and they're only 19. It's not really a fun fact because it was mentioned a couple of times but I just wanted to remind everyone that Your Happy Pappy Patton is not as harmless as he might seem.

10: Most of the time Logan only ever called Virgil 'Ann' in times where he was either trying to make him feel comfortable (kiss scene), trying to hide his identity (bandits), or he was HIGHLY stressed (final battle). But everyone else called him by it pretty often, Roman and Patton rarely use Virgil's birth name at all, and the only reason Remus, Remy, and Janus use it is cause they're his best friends and family/future in law.

11: For a long time I considered having Patton and Remus have a past romantic relationship and give them a semi-awkward reunion where Janus gets all jealous and protective but I decided against it because I felt it'd be better if I just kept Patton single overall without any hints to past relationships.

(Answer to fun fact number 7. Virgil and Hollis are Janus's right-hand men. They're his second and third in command basically. As for Remus, he's gonna be his left-hand man. For those of you who don't know what that means, traditionally a wedding ring will go on the left ring finger. A husband might be referred to as a left hand man.... so yeah, there you have it. Did anyone guess it?)

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TIME:

1Q: which of your books did you have to do the most research for??

1A: As of now? 'We Can Be Heroes'. I had to do a lot of research about the foster system, abusive relationships, military, EpiPens, and much much more. But the books that'll need the most research will probably be 'Not Your Typical Ghost Story'. So far I've already done a bunch of research on PTSD, Ghosts/Ghost Lore, Jewish traditions, and other stuff that if I revealed might spoil the book. But, let's just say, Roman, is not okay!

2Q: what book felt more like a guilty pleasure rather than writing for readers?

2A: So, it has nothing to do with any of my books here, but a few weeks ago I was bored and wanted to do some more superhero stuff, but I didn't feel like writing my current hero book and I obviously wasn't gonna start a whole new book when I have neither the time nor motivation to get a lot done on it right now. So, I decided I'd just do a mini little prompt. I went online and found a superhero prompt, and got to work. Now, my expectations for this prompt were not high, I was expecting it to take a few hours and only be one or two thousand words.... It took me four days and is over eleven thousand words long (About thirty pages in Google Docs). Basically, it turned from writing a prompt to writing a short story (It's about the size of a long chapter in a real book)

The characters are completely my own and it features a gay relationship. The prompt was that a villain and hero discover their sidekicks have started dating and need to try to stop them lest they all face very serious consequences.

The MCs and couple are Elliot (villain sidekick) and Lucas (Hero sidekick) Elliot is shy and easily flustered but loves to cause mischief. Mischief is like in his top three reasons why he wants to become a villain. Elliot is very curious and inqusitive to the point where he sometimes will put himself in danger to figure out how something works. He's the type of person who goes online and looks up 'Pick up lines' and then just uses them without hesitation even if he has no idea what it means. Lucas is kind and very encouraging to everyone, even the villains. He's senstive and hates himself for it, and is an all-around terrible liar. He likes complimenting people, especially Elliot. He and Lucas have an ongoing joke, where every time Lucas calls Elliot 'cute' or 'adorable' Elliot will say, "I'm not cute. I'm evil. Evil isn't cute." or whatever.

And then theres their mentors Adrian (villain and no it's not the same Adrian from my other hero book the name just fit the character). And Nadia (hero). Nadia is very much a tough love type of mentor who doesn't ever stop letting Lucas make mistakes unless it's gonna endanger one of them, like, if they're ever sparring and Lucas loses she won't tell him why. She'll let him figure it out on his own unless it becomes a problem during a real battle. Meanwhile, Adrian is very much like "You're doing it wrong, there you go. Good job." (Not so much in a helicopter way, just like, if he notices he'll let Elliot know). One of my friends has a headcanon that Adrain and Nadia have some 'business' going on outside of work if you know what I mean 😏. And while it is implied that they have a bit of a history, they're by no means together.

After reading it, a lot of my friends said it seemed like a metaphor for homophobia and how in lots of places same-sex marriages/couples aren't allowed. It was a lot of fun to write though, especially since one of the main guys is based on a friend of mine. If you guys wanna read it, I guess I can post a link to the doc. But yeah, that was something I was never gonna show to anybody but after spending so much time on it I wanted to at least show some of my friends. (And now some of them are demanding both a sequel and a prequel due to how it ended on a. cliffhanger and how both Lucas's and Elliot's pasts were alluded to but never brought up in extreme detail)

3Q: is there going to be a second book.

3A: Ah yes, that was a question some other people asked me as well, especially after reading the epilogue. As much fun as this book was to write, I don't think there's much to base a second book off of. Despite Ira still being alive and free, and having different motives for her actions here, I don't think there's enough to make a second book with.

I can't say I haven't thought about it though. If it did happen, it'd be short. Maybe 30ish chapters? And take place about two or three years after the events of this book. It'd feature Janus and Remus's wedding, maybe Roman's coronation, Virgil coming to terms with needing to learn and now knowing black magic, and of course all three of the ships (I would most likely leave Patton single, I think he's happy that way. But I think he'd start to build a bit of a mentor relationship with Hollis.) I think I'd have Logan's mother have passed or about to pass away, leaving him as the only heir to the family fortune and with a shit ton of grief because he's the last in his family so Roman has to be like "love you uwu" and it'd be sad but cute...Unlike in Gone, there might have been a couple of chapters of fluff before the conflict sets in, and Ira would make a reappearance.

I don't think I'd introduce a new villain. I don't think I'd bring back Tafe either. The general has served his use to me and is hereby retired. So it'd be Ira and her lackeys as the villains. But I personally don't think that revenge would be a big enough motive to base a whole book off of, and that was the biggest thing Tafe and Markus used to convince her to help them. (They convinced her that since Virgil and Janus were the ones to kill her son then they should be the ones to bring him back by means of forbidden -and dangerous- magic. And that since Janus and Virgil are both such strong wizards, there's certainly nothing that can go wrong. wink wink.) She had a few other motives too, power and wanting to be able to have some level of control over all magic users (and consequently all magic) on the continent. But her primary motive was always her son. And to me, that's not enough

And in reality, Ira was never supposed to make it out. I was planning on having either Logan or Janus go head to head with her and defeat her. I was planning on having one or two chapters dedicated to Ira trying to raise her son back from the dead using Virgil's magic only for it to fail and for her to get pissed off. That was what was supposed to set off the black vines of black magic Virgil got. And in all honesty, I forgot. it wasn't till I was halfway done with chapter 59 did I realize. I decided it was too late. I was out of time and energy, and I wanted to be done. Plus, leaving it at 60 chapters exactly felt really nice! 60 is a good number. Its a very polite number. And the next good number after that would have been 63 and then 65. And knowing me, if I didn't have enough to get up to that I would've ended up writing crappy chapters or combining chapters till I could reach those numbers. And I wasn't up for that because that wasn't fair to any of us. But I did want to include that last bit, because its very important to her character and so there we have it.

So, to sum it up. Unless I get a sudden burst of motivation there will be no second book and Ira was never even supposed to make it out. All the villains were supposed to be dead or imprisoned, and there was supposed to be a 'happily ever after' 'curtains close lights come up and everybody leaves without any questions' type of ending. But that wasn't how it panned out. So here we are.