Soulbound is a massive, daunting undertaking for someone as undisciplined and disorganized as me. From the original ideas developed by Arcis and I in 2022, through the planning process and then writing, it’s been 15 months. With 50,000 words of lore and backstory as well as a large cast of characters, I wanted the world of Soulbound to be vast, with a rich history. A world that, above all, feels lived in.

We had the idea for a character who rises from nothing to make the powerful quake in their exquisitely made boots and then to surround her with people who may or may not have her best interests at heart. A character who doesn’t know who to trust or where to go but knows that doing nothing is not an option.

Through our initial ideation (a word Emi would be proud of me for using) we basically just threw a bunch of things at the wall and found that some things stuck while others slid off into the gutter. Those initial frenzied brainstorming sessions provided an initial framework but as the book moved into the plotting and writing phase that framework proved untenable, so changes had to be made on the fly.

Emma’s companions changed, their reasonings changed, their goals changed, even their names changed. In fact, everything changed so dramatically and constantly I had to pause a dozen chapters in and write the history and lore down or else I would get everything wrong. Trust me, there are few things more embarrassing than getting the details of your own novel wrong.

Arcis has been a constant source of suggestions, some of which made sense to the story, some of which did not, but all of which were appreciated. His ideas were great, but some simply didn’t fit in the framework of the novel. At least not yet. Still, his contributions were legion.

I feel I must warn those proceeding to the novel that there is coercion, domination and submission, sex, drugs, general debauchery from time to time and other things I put into the story so that it would work out the way I needed it to. So, while the novel is a lesbian novel, the world itself is not entirely inhabited by women so please be aware of these factors moving forward.

I do my very best to never put unnecessary scenes into one of my novels just for shock or titillation factors. I firmly believe each sex scene or instance of nudity or violence must further either the story itself or the characters involved and Soulbound is no different. However, I will also not shy away from scenes I feel are important to the story or characters which is why I’m grateful to have this platform to write what I feel needs to be written.

While the book is finished, I will be editing this version of Soulbound myself. Arcis is working with very talented artists to bring a different cover to Soulbound and will be doing the editing when it launches on the Tapas Creator Program some time in the future and will most likely play a much larger role in that edition than this.

Still, I would be remiss to not thank him for all he brought to this project. Without him this book would not exist, and his ideas and encouragement were invaluable. A huge thanks, as well, to Yati for her great work on the cover. She is a talented writer, and I can’t thank her enough for taking time away from her own novels to help with graphics I had no hope of creating on my own.

I understand that this novel is not going to be for everyone. Please be aware there will be things that some might find disturbing or unpleasant. Please also understand that I felt the inclusion of all these elements played a role in furthering the overarching story.

I hope people will find the story engaging and the characters relatable. With no Minji to lighten things up this story is a bit darker and more somber than Reaver’s Song and, like most of my novels, is a departure from the others.

With elements of fantasy, werewolves, vampires, witches, magic, technology, pirates, steampunk, elves, dwarves, and a thousand other things all present in the world of Soulbound I hope people will find something they enjoy about the story. Thank you for your kind attention and I look forward to the journey through the Empire of Azadora with you!

Yours,

Katsu