After a lot of consideration, I've decided that "Sky Woman" will stay posted online indefinitely. I believe the next books in the series will still come down once their published versions are released, but I want to at least have the first book available for free even if it's in this rougher version of the story. Also, I first got into reading Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books because I chanced upon "Mistborn: The Final Empire" while it was being offered for free on Kindle. That free eBook led to me preordering every dang Cosmere story that flows from that man's fingers, so I want to do the same. (Also, read the Cosmere books and geek out with me over them. Oh my lord, they're the absolute best!)

So, the point of this appendix of sorts is to present the differences between this online version of "Sky Woman" and the published one. After some extensive beta reading and more edit passes than I can remember, there wound up being quite a few differences. All for the better, I like to think.

In no particular order, they are...

CHARACTER CHANGES

Enfri didn't see much significant change, but there was some. Most prominent is the issue of her racial identity. It should've always been apparent that Enfri's biracial, but that wasn't as important a part of her character in the online version as it warrants being. A common subject brought up by beta readers was how quickly Enfri accepted the fact that she was Aleesh and how she readily identified with this group of people she'd never heard of up until then. This got a lot of attention for the rewrite. While she still accepts that she is half-Aleesh, she clings more stubbornly to the idea that she was raised in Althandor. "She may have been half Aleesh, but she was more than half Althandi" becomes the foundation of her identity before everything goes sideways. Her picture of who she is then takes a big hit once the royal assassins start trying to kill her and she begins to resent the Althandi half of herself. As the chase into the desert goes on, she grows more attached to this idea she holds of who the Aleesh were. When she finally reaches Marwin, she considers it a homecoming, and then that new identity is devastated once she learns the truth of the Empire of Scales. She is left feeling lost about who she actually is, and that leads her to cling harder to the part of her identity she feels she can control, that of being a healer. This part of her journey doesn't end with the book, and I intend it to continue into the "Rune Knight" rewrite. If you've read Books 2 and 3, I'm sure you can guess what spooky fellas showing up will get her contemplating her heritage again.

Additionally, Enfri's disability got some more attention. One of the worries I had from posting this in the first place was that magically healing her back at the end would devalue her ever having a disability in the first place. That always struck me as ableist and not what I would want to convey. Instead, I put more focus on how she devalues herself for the disability to begin with-- her mother's influence there-- and as her journey progresses, she begins to see it as something that has made her stronger and able to survive what she's going through. Then once it's gone, it comes as a more earned relief because she's already worked hard to overcome it by her own means. And being healed, getting released from having to struggle against it any longer, is the final straw before she falls hopelessly in love with...

Jin. Jin got more work done than any other aspect of the book. There's a lot in this online version I'm just not happy with regarding the romantic subplot. Part of the problem with this version is that I actually didn't intend for them to end up together when I started. I expected them to stay enemies all the way until Book 5. Clearly, that is no longer the case and some hefty redrafts of the series outline were in order. As a result of that change of intent, there are a mess of relics of a harsher, more antagonistic Jin that just doesn't fit the character of a buff-femme sword-lesbian assassin who more or less elopes with her target. So, on to what's different.

I set down some rules for Jin to follow. One, she doesn't generally touch people without their permission (unless she's offing them, of course). So the part where she touches Enfri's hair at their first meeting was out the window. Parts in the online version where she'd get all up in Enfri's face were either toned down or straight up cut. The exception is when Jin is interrogating Enfri in the dream world for the first time, because yeah the whole wall slam trope thing is just about my favorite trope. I admit it. On the opposite side of that coin, I kept in mind the idea that Jin also craves innocent, affectionate touching. Touch-starved, I suppose is a thing, and that's what she is. On the few occasions she and Enfri do touch (hand-hold in the dream, resting together in the cave), Enfri either initiates it or gives tacit permission. I feel this makes the part in the dream where Enfri grabs her wrist and Jin tries to snatch her hand away a bit more informative of Jin's character. That didn't make her angry, it startled her, and it began her arc of opening up to Enfri.

Two, Jin doesn't hate. In the online version, I feel a measure of malevolence to how she pursued Enfri at first. I don't like that at all. Instead, I wanted to portray her as doing what she's doing because that's what she's told to do. She parrots the reasons back, but she doesn't feel it. In fact, she feels the opposite. She felt something for Enfri at first sight, pretty much, and she absolutely doesn't want to hurt this bashfully cute herbalist. She was made a lot softer in many instances. Such as when she first notices Enfri's hair, she doesn't call it unusual anymore. She calls it remarkable. Little changes made a big difference. Gone are the pronouncements that the Aleesh must be purged (yikes,wth was I thinking?), as is her conviction that she will kill Enfri. It should be more clear the new go around that Jin isn't feeling this assassination business and doesn't herself mean Enfri bodily harm. That said, she's aware of her duty and will give that the priority over her personal feelings. I hope Jin's turmoil over everything is more readily apparent.

Three, Jin is extra af. This is something that just evolved over writing her for three novels by that point. Jin is a drama queen, and there's no getting around it. I try to convey that through her deliberate mode of speech (no contractions aside from "I've" or "you've" or other "have" forms unless she's completely open, in which case she drops the act and speaks like a normal girl) and her obsession with duty.

And four, Jin identifies with Enfri. Jin understands the pain she's putting Enfri through, and she doesn't much like herself for that. Particularly as she realizes who Enfri's father was, Jin grows more and more disillusioned with what she's been ordered to do. She equates Enfri losing her father to how she lost her brother (sidenote: Roan is now Jin's twin brother), and that realization makes her even more ashamed. Because she understands how Enfri must resent the royal assassins as much as Jin resents the Courtesans for killing her brother.

Deebee barely changes at all with one exception. Her introduction and the following few chapters saw her dialogue getting rewritten because her character has evolved since then. The original idea was for her to give off a fairy-like quality, but it didn't really work and doesn't really fit her anymore. More motherly and like a doting governess, less puckish.

Haythe isn't as dough-brained. His head's still full of hammers, but I didn't like that he came across as an idiot.

Maya, if anything, gets dialed up to 11. More sneering, more forward. The only significant change is how Enfri reacts to her. Rather than being like "oh, that stupid slut", Enfri is almost in awe of her for being so aggressive with her sexuality and femininity. This series is supposed to be positive about an individual's approach to sexuality. And sure, Maya gets aggressive when she's got the hots for a guy, but I don't think she's bad for doing so. Nope, she's bad for other and more valid reasons.
Also, she's been aged up. Maya is 20 when she first meets Enfri and 24 once the main story begins. No big reason. Just to have the timeline of events Maya needs to have been old enough to be aware of make more sense.

Josy gets like one or two barely noticeable edits. I just didn't like the implication that she's the youngest assassin and has already killed enough people to be haunted by their faces. You see, Josy has grown on me a lot since the series began, and I feel obliged to do right by her. The problems I leave her with are awful enough without adding blood on her hands to the mix.

Others don't really have anything big. Tarlus and Gain aren't big enough roles that they need to change. Dashar is... well, he's Dashar, and you can't fix what's not broken.

SETTING

There were two major things I wanted to make more prominent about the setting. The steampunk influences get a bit more attention. By the nature of the story, they couldn't feature all that much, but a few mentions and asides I think drive home that the Five Kingdoms are closer to the 1800's than medieval times. There are now rumors in town that a new rail line will go up near Sandharbor. Yora was handy with boilers and steam engines. Small things like that, but I definitely have plans for upping the steampunk ante further in the "Rune Knight" rewrite.

Religion gets a spotlight hear and there. This was mostly done by adding the character of Goodman Priest, only mentioned in passing a few times. Sandharbor has a regional god now, the Lively Zephyr, who is predictably enough a wind spirit. Spirituality still isn't a big part of the story, but it felt really disingenuous to pretend it wasn't important to the everyday lives of people.

Coming off of spirituality, there is one facet of spirit lore that actually gets to become a minor plot point. And that's the shattered hour. Working out just how the calendar in this world works, I ended up with the crazy idea of making days 24 hours and 20 minutes long. Those last 20 minutes of the day become a superstitious time of night, when the north star goes dim, the veil between the spirit and mortal worlds grows thin, and spirits do their business. That sort of thing. The shattered hour is an attempt to flavor the story a bit more with the animistic theology of the setting. And it plays to my personal sense of humor when Enfri breaks down and prays to the Celestial Maiden for help and the star promptly goes dark just before the assassins find her on the road.

Also culture, though it isn't as much a focus as the previous two. I wanted to differentiate the Althandi a little from every other Euro-centric fantasy culture. So, a few minor things. Men put on their hats when women are about. You can't have your head uncovered around the opposite sex, good lord you hussy. A little more details about guest-rights, giving and accepting them. And some minor details, such as the homes appearing more like traditional Japanese estates with sliding doors and paper interior walls. Some of you have probably already noticed a few of these changes leaking into the current drafts of "Blood Runner" and "Mage Slayer".

Just because of the nature of the story, Althandi culture doesn't get to be on parade for a whole lot, so I felt comfortable allowing them to remain assumed Euro-centric. Considering they're a deeply imperialistic society with that whole manifest destiny thing going on, it works for them. That'll change in future books when we go to other kingdoms. Something to look forward to, the Altieri in "Rune Knight" are going to be all but unrecognizable from their current online incarnation. Steam-powered magical paladins with maritime warrior traditions are going to have a lot more reasons to rebel while their culture is subsumed and overshadowed by the imperialistic Althandi. Their Slavic influences will get thrown into the forefront. You want seafaring Cossacks thrown into a steam-powered technological revolution a century too early? Well, you'll get them. Totemic plate armor forged into the visage of powerful animal spirits, pneumatic lances, pelts adorning the shoulders of officers, a simmering outrage growing at the loss of the old ways, and dancing that carries a risk of dismemberment! The only thing I'm still waffling on is what animal Ban will claim as a totem. I mean, he's going to have a whole new look, and it's gotta be an awesome one. I'm leaning towards him using a seawolf (what we'd call a megalodon) seeing as it's already his house sigil. If you have other suggestions, please tell me.

MISCELLANEOUS

The edits to the actual storyline are few and minor. Not to give anything away, but the spooks that become a main plot point of "Blood Runner" show up a bit more obviously. And what they actually say has been changed to match with their particular way of doing things that I really didn't have a full handle on yet when the story was first being posted. Beyond that, grammar and prose were cleaned up a great deal. Commas were exorcised with reckless abandon. But one of the best things I did was seriously cut back on exposition. I took a hatchet to chapter 1 in particular. You don't need to know all the details of Enfri's living situation right away, and nothing was presented that you can't figure out yourself anyway through dialogue.

And some name changes. Megathons change to arkathons so they won't get confused with megarachs. As for megarachs, I doubled down on the whole concept that girls in the Five Kingdoms adore giant spiders. The Smiths have some, and Enfri wishes she could get one but can't justify the expense of a pet. I also do a better job explaining Althandi naming themselves for their profession. Enfri's surname is actually used. If you've only read the online version of "Sky Woman" and haven't gone on to the next books, you wouldn't know that her full name is Enfri Page. And lastly, it should also be more clear now that the Althandi aren't Caucasian but would appear as Korean or Japanese. I think that's something that tends to fly under the radar because we've all been conditioned to imagine book characters as white by default. Now that I think about it, the only white guy in the book is the dead old man in the epilogue. Do dead guys count? Maybe you could count Ban since he showed up in Enfri's dragon dream. I guess Ban will always be the token straight white dude of the series 😝.

AND IN CONCLUSION...

That's what changes from the online to published versions. There may be other things I neglected to mention, but nothing world-shaking. Now you can have a pretty good idea of what's different about the series moving from here on out without having to fork out the 8-15 bucks to buy it. But, just in case you want to read the revisions yourself, please go right ahead, because it sure helps me out. Rate and post a review on amazon, recommend it to your friends, because the more sales I get, the faster I'll be able to put out the next volumes in the series. (Shameless self-promotion done)