Chapter Ten, And Mistaken Identities

(Image: Chapter Ten, Esla tests out Bennie's powers.)

Heyo! The next chapter is up for y'all.

Esla is a fun character for me, but I had a hilarious twist happen regarding him recently.

So I was in a writing group (I technically still am but I'm not active as I don't have any new material for them right now), and when I brought this chapter to the group, one of the guys, who reads WAY more into things than I write, was convinced that I only brought his "soft" side in as a red herring to keep everyone from suspecting he was secretly a villain. I laughed so hard I cried.

Spoiler/not really a spoiler: Esla isn't secretly a villain. There IS a plot twist around Guardian leadership but it's not that good. I'm not that clever.

On that subject, if you're trying to write and you feel like you're not being sneaky enough, don't worry about it. You don't have to write something game-changing. Maybe you will, but that shouldn't be your goal. All you have to do is tell your story, and have fun doing it. Your enjoyment in the writing shows through--I can tell a book that was hard to write over one that wasn't simply by how difficult I find it to read.