Earlier this year, in June or July, my writing partner Jordan Bianchi and I made the joint decision to pause work on our fiction podcast, which we had been developing together for the past four years. We both realized that, while we were still making slow progress on the script and outline for the podcast, our hearts weren’t fully in it anymore: we needed a break. We wanted to come back to this project when we were refreshed, energized, and ready to finally bring this fantastically wild and complex fantasy story to life for all to hear. With no daily page goals to make, no weekly calls to show up for, and no research rabbit holes to dive down, I found myself with a lot of newly freed up time to work on my novel.