Monday, September 8, 2025

This is the eightieth installment of West Wind, your weekly drop of thoughts, ideas, and info for this Season. As Summer draws to a close, I’ll be showcasing one of my published stories each day, because there are getting to be quite a few!

Let’s begin at the beginning! Octave of Stars is my first published book, having been released out into the world on January 28, 2023. It’s the story of a heatproof restaurant cook struggling to rescue his aquatic girlfriend from a dark organization, and all of the adventures they have along the way. Although it would go on the YA shelf at a bookstore, I really wrote it with all age groups in mind. There are a lot of jokes that younger kids wouldn’t understand, but it’s also safe enough to let them read it. If it were a movie, it would definitely be rated PG, since there is “mild peril” but no swearing or violence.

One of the main themes I wanted to capture with the book, the “vibe,” if you will, was fun. The story isn’t dark or gritty, people don’t have to make major sacrifices or compromise their ideals to succeed. They definitely have obstacles they need to overcome, but not in an explosive, thrilling, adrenaline-fueled way. Fighting against evil can still be laid-back, if you approach it the right way.

In thinking about all of the other things that I could write about the development of the story and what went into it, I realized I could write a much longer post than this quick daily bite is supposed to fulfill. So, I’ll likely make that part of the new Torchmouth Saga World Anvil site, which is coming together nicely. Until then, you can read the story in a couple of different ways:

During the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, I released two serial episodes per week on the other Extraordinary Seasons, on Substack. Posting it that way allowed me to include Bandcamp embeds that helped set the mood for each scene, and also some memes that were created from the LegendFiction book club that I took part in earlier that year. Don’t know what book memes are? Then read it and find out!

If you want a downloadable, offline version of the book, you can get it through the ZMT Bookstore. You can also order a paper copy, which is satisfyingly large and looks great on your bookshelf!

If you’ve read Octave of Stars already, let me know! Reply or leave a comment and tell me what you thought. If not, there are a plethora of options above.

Thanks for reading this post, and keep an eye out for one tomorrow as well! I smell bananas and chocolate, bacon and blueberries, just around the corner. If you know what that means, let’s hang out.