Breath of Stone In Progress

The opening chapter is now complete! In it, we have treachery questioned, loyalty confirmed, a touch of elemental manipulation, a dire threat, heightened stakes, and the discovery of a theft that could determine the balance of power.

I think that's quite enough to get the ball rolling apace.

At some point in the last few years, I lost the backstory-angst of writing a sequel. I no longer feel the need to ensure the reader is "up to speed" with all that happened in Book One. Backstory should be revealed on a need-to-know basis. There's no reason the rule should be different for sequels. So, happily, I find myself untroubled as a set a continuing story in motion.

Besides, one of the primary reasons behind telling/reminding the reader what happened before was the anticipated difficulty readers would have finding previous volumes. Now, with the shelf-life and accessibility of series novels extended and expanded immensely, the likelihood of readers having to jump in mid-series is so much smaller. Yes, there will still be readers who pick up mid-series, but it simply isn't going to be as common.