Headless Over Heels [Dark Fantasy Romance]

Hello, folks!

We'll be returning with Book 2 of Headless Over Heels on the 17th. It's gonna be called Necropolis.

In the meantime, though, I thought I might give you folks an open forum to ask questions about me, my work, or the world of the United Territories, since during this upcoming week we won't have our usual HoH chapters.

I can't promise I'll get to all of them, depending on what they are and how many come in, but in the meantime feel free to fire away in the comments! I'll update this post with answers to your questions as they come in. The stuff already on here is from Royal Road.

Note that there will be spoilers below for various worldbuilding facts and the previous volume; I won't spoil any important future narrative stuff, though!

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I would like some sort of map of the world, if possible. Even a rough sketch of just what exists in the protection bubble would help me place events in my head.

This is definitely something I plan on doing, but I am hoping to get the map commissioned by someone who actually knows how to draw it!

My question is if the soul magic was discovered before or after the seraphs started invading? And are there any limits to a persons possible darkness?

Magic existed before the seraphs, but hexiscraft was not yet known, nor were hexentatuae. Those were brought to the kindred during the First Emergence by the Hundred Saints, and led to the ousting of the seraphs.

As far as limits, they don't get much stronger than the ones possessed by the al Ydrises, but the use of hexiscraft can strengthen them.

As an Irishman, have to say you did a phenomenal job with Annalise's vocab. Her kids don't seem to have taken after her much in that regard. Is it because they've spent a relatively long time outside of Orwiny during their extended puberty?

Annalise's first husband whisked her away from Orwiny; her children were born in the Western Plainlands. Neither has ever seen Orwiny, and it's a dear wish of hers to return there one day and show them their ancestral home. Unfortunately the taboo against the Unlit is pretty strong there.

Is the Sorcerer-General an inherited, assigned or elected position?

This is a spoiler so I won't go too far into it, but sorta all three.

Roughly what fraction of the planet is protected from the seraphs? And is the entirety of the “outside” the domain of said seraphs, with no other “safe zone”?

By the time of the first emergence, the people of what are now the Territories knew of four settled continents. There is now only one remaining. As far as anyone knows, the rest of the world has fallen, but it's impossible to get far enough to check.

You said before that there was a qualitative diference between hexis of human origin and hexis originating from animals or popmites, can you clarify what this diference means in pratice? Right now the only things we know about the worth of a life is this: a goat's hexis can be used to source power to a large state for roughly a week, and it takes more than one human soul to fix a big injury with blood magic.

Any reason why they couldnt have used goat hexis to fix Ofelia's wounds(aside from expediency), or raise enough cattle to power the Deathspell? Is it something inherent to human hexis that makes it more versatile?

I don't want to get too numerical with this, since that's not my forte. But a human (or other kindred) has many times the power that an animal's does, and its hexis can last for much more complex uses than those animals as a result. Any use of hexis beyond a simple exothermic release needs a ton of additional juice, and for a process as involved and complex as accelerated healing, only a sentient soul's amount of hexis can get the job done.

So Annalise obviously has an Irish accent, but do you imagine any of the other characters with accents? And more specifically, do her children also have Irish accents or are they different since they grew up in a different part of the world?

Her kids get a lilt now and then when they get frustrated or emotional. Mostly they have unadorned accents with a bit of a mid-south twang, as Seth does.

A secondary question you might have answered already but how much area does the deathspell cover, roughly, in comparison to earth? Like, for example, is it a continent or a couple counties or whatever.

An area roughly the size of North America.

How much Locked Tomb is in this story's DNA?

I love the Locked Tomb but beyond the bony aesthetic and the big sexy muscle lady I haven't taken a ton from it. I've answered this elsewhere but my bigger literary influences are The Blacktongue Thief, Berserk, The Book of the New Sun, and The Gentleman Bastards.

Also WWE professional wrestler Rhea Ripley.

I have a couple small questions about hexentats -- Are there any that are restricted or withheld from the general populace?

Yep, big time. A bunch of Annalise's, including the Eclipsing Moon, aren't supposed to be known by anyone outside the Necropolitan scribers of the Legion. Doesn't stop the black markets, though.

Is there a planned number of books until the story is complete?

The absolute minimum I need to tell the story I'd like to tell is three. However, as you've seen in book 1, a lot of the plot is picaresque monster-of-the-week stuff, so I would certainly be happy to extend that if the demand is there. There's a lot of stories you could potentially tell in the Territories.

i suppose i'm interested in what are your influences in the romance genre, both right in the development of this specific relationship and overall as an author? and did you conceptualize one character first, or both, or the world?

My big influences for this specific romance are the Saint of Steel series from T. Kingfisher, Ruby Dixon's Battle God stories, and in more general terms the romantasy genre. Just like Princess of the Void is me doing alien abduction romance for dudes, HoH is romantasy for dudes. I conceptualized Annalise first, in part as a response to Sykora from Princess of the Void. I wanted as opposite a love interest as I could get.

Besides Rhea her inspirations include Karlach from BG3, Blonde Blazer from Dispatch, and the general stock character of a powerful traveling swordsman like the Witcher. The concept of a Verdugo originated in a tabletop RPG game I ran.

I wanted to ask more about your process if that’s alright? Are you more of a plotter or pantser, what does your drafting/editing process look like, and do you have any recommendations for writing for RR and getting pen to paper more generally? Thank you again!

I am more of a plotter. I have three or four bullet points for each chapter, and as I write I add more between sections, and turn bullets to sentences, and add extra little bullets after, and eventually the whole thing's built.

My first drafts I put on Patreon, where we're about 20 chapters ahead at the moment. When it's time to put them up on Royal Road it's been long enough that I can edit with relatively fresh eyes.

My advice for writing is trite, I think: do it every day. I have written at least 200 words every day for two years, and my usual goal is 1.5k. A lot of people write more per day than I do, but I never miss one.

A lot of people have great ideas about how to find success writing specific genres or conventions on Royal Road, but I can't write them well, and if I tried I wouldn't have fun, and you'd be able to tell, I think. It has been a blessing that I've found my audience despite my fare not being the usual thing for RR. When it's a slog, throw yourself a curveball or try some fun experiment or daring device. Do what you can to make it fun again. If you're having fun, the reader will, too. Or at least that's how it has been for me.

For advice on writing romance specifically, I did up a guide for the progression fantasy reddit and a discord that I am on. Here ya go: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FG_Lh3r1_cIVXe6PU0O0gqPwIwkhNUbCve0NZXgvjhk/edit?usp=drive_link

I have a few questions regarding the hexentat structures thet are drawn on humans. Are all of them are drawn in the form of concentric circles?

Also, do all of them have 3 rings like Seth does, or does it vary from person to person?

And finally, how many individuals hexentat can be fit into each ring from innermost one to the outermost upto the 3rd ring?

Rings aren't the only way of doing it, but they are a very efficient way, and Legion scribers are trained to work within the system, so it's by far the dominant one in the United Territories. The Sarkani have their own alternative system which is the second-most popular.

Three rings are the maximum. Many people have only the first or second.

A single ring array can have up to eight first-ring tattoos, four second-ringers, and two third-ringers. A hexentat of the second or third ring is best paired with two tats of the previous ring, or else they cause fatigue and nausea when used, sort of like a Darkness.

What is each of the Ydris' (and seth of course!) favorite colors? / Whats you're favorite color

Annalise's is black.

Tiago's is black.

Ofelia's is black.

Seth's is green.

Lisa's is red.

Anna thinks this is a stupid question but if you must know it's green.

Mine is purple.

How does the process of Annalise getting a new "donor head" work? Is the donor always completely consenting? And what makes a good candidate for a new head? What happens if she puts on a male head?

To get a new head, Annalise has to strip the flesh cleanly from the skull without damaging it much, and then do some preparatory hexcraft to it. Both of these things are best accomplished at the Necropolis; she can do it herself in a pinch, but she isn't comfortable doing so, and without flesh-eating bugs, scraping a skull clean is hard and unpleasant.

The head doesn't need to be given, but since it includes certain memories and psychological imprints of the deceased, a head taken from someone who bore Annalise ill will carries the risk of inspiring self-harm, so she tries to keep to donors. A male head would work, but it's her strong preference to stick with women's to prevent dysphoria.

What is the coolest hexentatue, in your opinion? Or which one is your favourite?