August and Everything After
New Beginnings in Bondfire: Of Spires and Masks
August and Everything After
New Beginnings in Bondfire: Of Spires and Masks
Forgive me—I’ve recently saw the Counting crows and have had them on my mind and in my playlist.
It’s August. It’s still hot. And August and Everything After feels like a mood.
Here in the Deep South, summer doesn’t politely fade. It lingers. It sweats. We don’t see a true breeze until October. But hey, that just means more beach days, right?
And with August comes the return of school.
You know it’s coming—the wave of first-day-of-school photos flooding Facebook and Instagram. It’s tradition.
That got me thinking about what’s next for Felicia and her friends in Bondfire.
Enter: Of Spires and Masks
Starting Wednesday, we begin a new chapter in Felicia’s journey. It’s been two years since Whispers of the Soul Crystal.
Our quad—Felicia, Lucy, Drix, and Victor—are now firmly entrenched in their high school years at the Harathe Academy.
This is where things start to get real.
We’ll see new sides of Felicia. She has a big heart—sometimes too big for the Empire’s liking.
The story opens with her organizing a supply drive for flood victims.
Noble, right? A no-brainer?
Not in the Harathe Empire.
In their society, a House governs its own Drift. For an Augustine to step in and “help” is considered meddling.
Felicia’s compassion puts her at odds with political expectations—and there will be consequences.
Masquerades, Promposals, and Harathe High Society
The Academy is abuzz with talk of the Veil of Concordia—a grand masquerade ball celebrating Harathe Law.
Think prom, but with more masks and political undertones.
It got me wondering: How do Harathe teens even ask someone to a dance?
Promposals are a big deal here in the States, but in the Empire?
They have their own… more on-brand ways of making it awkward and ceremonial.
In this story, we’ll explore the tension between freedom and duty—especially through Lucy, whose life is shifting from commoner to noble, and the expectations that come with it.
But What About Football?
I’m a Gulf Coast kid. High school football is part of the culture here—it’s Friday Night Lights every weekend.
Naturally, I needed the Harathe version of football.
I started with an image from the Thundercats reboot—Lion-O and Tygra racing up a tower—and spun that into Spirefall:
A towering structure of platforms and ramps where players battle their way to the top, ball in hand, to score through an aerial ring.
It’s intense.
It’s fast.
It’s the perfect blend of sport and combat.
You’ll get your first taste of Spirefall in this week’s chapter—and in two weeks, we’ll see a full match unfold.
It’s gritty, it’s physical, and I wrote it imagining it set to grainy old-school NFL Films footage.
Fifteen is the Age of Destiny
Felicia’s fifteen now. She’s gaining notoriety, finding her place in the Empire, and—because this is Young Adult Fiction—fifteen is, of course, the most important age in the multiverse.
Of Spires and Masks is about high school drama, political intrigue, and the ever-complicated journey of growing up in a world where duty often overshadows dreams.
But Felicia’s not one to sit back quietly.
And neither is her quad.
Join us Wednesday for the start of "Of Spires and Masks."
The Empire’s rules may be rigid—but Felicia’s story is just getting started.