"Rune Mage" is a fantasy adventure born for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2016. I completed 50k by the end of that month and, with the aid of two lots of subsequent Camp NaNos at 25k each, the story is finally completed on 27th July 2017 at 198k words.

Thank Yous

First thanks goes to seventhstar for her gorgeous cover, endless encouragements about my writing, and general awesomeness. I can't wait till her book gets published and I can get my own copy <3

Second thanks goes to these amazing people who I just love and appreciate oh so much: Vainel for the running commentary and questions to help me flesh out the histories;  Captainsarcastic101 and andgar98 for the smart speculations that allow me to spice up the story even more; kamtron for helping me flesh out the mechanisms behind my magic; VigneshR6, TheMistborn, Crisohana, thesilentshadow, Jarinrifa04, PetyrDahl, unreallyreal, bluepins, ASYSHL, ravensky777, angel7252, teathedevillel, Kevohkish,  ImaraofNeona for all your support and comments and screaming at me when I kill my characters; Nadia Krogsgaard for basically reading my year's work in two days and then screeching at me about the Big Reveals; LeonBrooke6 for having medical concerns about my characters' injuries.

Not quite sure how I can express my love for you guys for being with me, commenting your support from the start to the end, but you guys are awesome, seriously, like oh my gosh I want to hug every one of you.

And my last thanks to all the readers who voted and commented throughout my journey. You've all helped me shape who Seiren became and how the story ended (you've no idea how many times the story got replotted when people asked me questions and poked at my plot holes) -- thank you.

What is the inspiration for the story?

For those who didn't spot it right away from the tags and references, it's Fullmetal Alchemist. Possibly one of my favourite manga/animes, tied with Death Note. Brotherhood is better, obviously, and subs all the way, but FMA dubbed is also pretty awesome. Rune Mage was heavily influenced by FMA, but the way I wanted FMA to be: a kick-ass heroine that is borderline likeable (if that), multiple kickass female characters, morally grey everybody, and a few nutters that make the bad people seem less bad (looking at you, Portendorfer).

The story had taken quite a fair few turns along the way with the readers helping me shape what made it actually better than my initial plotting. Kristen was always the baddie, but I hadn't banked on Kommora triumphing in catching her or Seiren in removing her powers. Kommora evolved to be a bigger kickass, physically, than I had intended; delivering savage burns had always been part of her character, however. Tylene was meant to be the one Madeleine revives into, having jumped in and taken the blast for him against Karis Bonneville's organic magic. Well, we know what happened to Tylene, after all. Maura's death fitted in that I wanted Rowan to have redeemed himself in her eyes and also for her to forgive herself and her brother at last; it was probably my saddest death (except maybe for Loren), but Maura finally put her own wants above her unyielding philosophy of 'for the greater good' for once.

What is the inspiration for your characters?

Seiren isn't inspired by Edward Elric -- I think that much is obvious. She doesn't have much morals and isn't interested in being a do-gooder. She's kind of inspired by me thinking "What if Edward stopped being such an annoying do-gooder and actually just said what's on his mind?"

Kommora Haigh is inspired by a boss I once worked with. "You can't turn shit into ice cream" is one of his great phrases. A great man, he always speaks what's on his mind, profanities and all, and has no issues calling people out on their bull.

Rowan Woodbead and Kommora are both sort-of inspired by Mustang. Rowan is Mustang's caring fatherly type to Edward, but without the high aspirations, mixed with Kakashi Hatake from Naruto's traumatic history that made him value human life and teamplay above all else. Kommora inherited Mustang's aspirations and understanding of the reality that Seiren (and Edward) lacked.

Loren Rummage is obviously Maes Hughes, for those who hadn't already cottoned on. Yes, she's very dead. So is Hughes. Sad times.

The overarching theme is I wanted to break the norm. More kickass female characters. Females who don't need males to support them to be strong; females who can be evil; females who can be manipulative and sadistic. Males who can show emotions and cry, or be frightened and make bad decisions, or be so blindly in love they act against what they feel is right (looking at you, Zor Jarsdel). Kristen, who is short and plump with a monobrow, does not fit the stereotype of a Big Bad, but will happily erase every Karmans off the face of the earth. Seiren, the unwilling heroine, has not a romantic thread of hair on her body and blissfully ignorant of any hint of romance. Rowan, the well-meaning and troubled tutor, isn't tall, cool, or mysterious. 

Where do your characters' names come from?

Seiren's name (pronounced "Say-ren") actually came from a character in Vampire Knight. Whilst not a fan of the manga or anime, I loved that name, and I knew I wanted to use it for one of my own characters. The rowan tree is a protective symbol, pronounced "Ro" (as in rhymes with "so", not as in "cow") "-un". "Row-un" is a girl's name.

The rest are mostly bastardisation of modern names to sound a little less common -- Loren (Lauren), Maura (Laura), Edgard (Edgar), Bolliver (Oliver) etc. Thanks, George RR Martin. Kommora just sounded like a Kommora.

Will there be a sequel?

Not currently, no. I had actually initially wanted to strip Seiren's magic, too -- her price in exchange for removing all of Kristen Harred's, but that would spell the end of Mage Seiren Nithercott as we knew it and it's a shame to take all that away from her when she's literally just graduated King's about eight months prior. But stripping would mean no sequel for her at all, so I'm leaving a little leeway.

About the demons:

For those who are interested, most of the demons featured in the story are actually based on real-life creatures, up-scaled in size.

The orange lizard in Chapter 1 is a bearded dragon. They look like this.

The black and white lizard featured in end of Chapter 1 and throughout Chapter 2 is an Argentinian Black and White Tegu Lizard. They look like this.

The flying demons in Chapter 55 that attacked Acrise are based on fire-breathing dragons. No picture available.

Later in that same chapter, the stumpy-legged demons that breached the Acrise wall are Blue-Tongued Skinks.

Other works:

If you're a fan of a coming-of-age novel in a corrupt kingdom filled with magic and magical creatures, check out The Windcaster.

If you like DRAGONS and destruction, check out Rise of the Vengeful Dragon.

If you're a fan of fast-packed action and plenty of flying demon guts, check out Seeker: Demon Killers. It's pretty gory.

If you're a fan of gory horror, check out Stuff of Nightmares.

If you want to see my dabble in sci-fi fantasy in a superpowered semi-dystopian futuristic setting, check out March City.

What's next?

Currently undecided. I've started plotting March City 2, but it isn't ready to start. I've been wanting to rewrite The Windcaster for ages and certainly after 4 years of writing I've come a long way, and that world is still so vivid in my head. There's also a new plot bunny, a sci-fi, I've been brewing for about two years. At the time of writing this, I'm going back to edit Rune Mage, mainly to add in points I've forgotten during the first writing, such as the background of chaos magic, the difference between flash and burst magic, poor Hadrien (Loren's forgotten trainee), Seiren's saviour when Halen Ashworth gutted her, etc. This editing may also spur me to edit my other, very aged works.

Regarding future projects, there have been some issues in the context of safety of my work. From a few Wattpad friends on Facebook, it's come to my attention that there has been a site (or multiple sites) for the past year that have allowed internet users the ability to download stories onto their own computer -- pdf, word, epub -- whatever the format. This means anyone can download anyone's stories -- yours, mine, any Wattpadder's -- slap their own names on it, and upload it as their own content. Change a few character and place names, and they can publish it and get money -- and you'll likely never know as it'll be harder for you to find it on random Googling. The aforementioned site has been going on for a year and allegedly Wattpad has done nothing to get it taken down. There are likely other sites and downloads as we speak. You may have noticed several ambassadors and Wattpad-owned accounts sending out messages regarding what Wattpad is doing to ensure our stories are safe. This is likely what the messages are about.

Godhand has a book with further details. You can find it in her "REMOVED" book (I shall provide the hyperlink in the comments). There are other Wattpadders who have expressed similar concerns and have taken similar action, like my good friends JessicaBFry and EliseNoble. Wattpad has yet to address this site specifically.

What it means for me is I do not wish any of my work to end up being stolen, especially as I have no current intentions to make money from my work. I want my work to be free. I want my work to be accessible on my terms. I want your feedback and support. I do not want other people to get paid for my hard work.

What it means for you is that my works will no longer be up in their entirety on Wattpad. Rest assured; I will continue to post stories on here for the foreseeable future, but works will not be available in their entirety on Wattpad -- they will, however, be available fully on the Radish app, and will remain free/on freemium (which means the work becomes free after 1 week there). This helps reduce the risk of people downloading my full stories and monetising my hard work and tears until this issue is sorted, if ever.

Sorry to end on a downer. I've been mulling over this for the past weekend.

If there are any more questions, feel free to post them here and I'll answer them to the best of my abilities. Questions from readers are in the next chapter. Any other questions, please feel free to post here or on Chapter 100 (I got some already!) If you haven't already, I would be grateful if you can vote on the chapters and leave comments on your thoughts. I love connecting with readers.

Thank you again for being with me during this story's creation. My best piece to date! Well, every new story is my best piece to date. Here's to more stories in the future. Hope you all will be with me.