N.J. Prynne

A Tower of Half-Truths is now out in the world! This is far from my first book, but it’s the first I’ve felt ready to share with complete strangers. Here on release day, I wanted to take a moment to share some thoughts about the writing process behind Tower.

A Tower of Half-Truths can 100% be read as a standalone novel, but Mavery and Alain’s story doesn’t end here. I’m planning at least one more full-length novel with them at the center of it. The next one will be plot-heavy; while the romance will still be present and continue to evolve, it’ll be more of a subplot. (Without getting into spoilers, if you enjoyed Part Three of Tower, the sequel will be your cup of tea!) I’m also planning standalone stories for many other characters across Perrun, some of whom appear briefly in Tower.

I’m not ready to announce release dates for any of these projects, but know that I’ll be returning to writing soon! After dedicating the past couple of months to promoting the book and making last-minute edits, I’ve been itching to simply write again.

How A Tower of Half-Truths began:

I’ve worked in an academia-adjacent job for over a decade. While I’m not usually in the thick of scholarship, I’m on a college campus regularly enough to see and overhear plenty from students and professors alike. In 2019, I started graduate school as a part-time student. A few semesters later, there was a little incident of absolutely zero worldwide significance that resulted in both my full-time job and part-time classes moving entirely online.

When the majority of my days were spent cooped up in my home office, and most of my socializing was via Slack messages and Zoom meetings, I began to escape into the fantasy world of Perrun. (Fun fact: its original name was Cambria, but Rebecca Ross beat me to it!) As I yearned to be in an actual classroom again, I began imagining a story set in a magical school—but with the faculty as the main characters. (As a thirtysomething, I now find the professors much more fascinating—and relatable—than the students.) I came up with character sketches, developed the magic system, and expanded on this new world. But as life returned to “normal,” I had less free time to devote to writing. Over the next few years, I would dabble in it here and there, but none of my story ideas ever got off the ground.

Then, in early 2024, I began playing Baldur’s Gate 3. Correction: “playing” is an understatement. For a few months, it consumed my life. (My husband can attest that it became kind of a problem.) While playing as a wild magic sorcerer, I had a unique bit of dialogue with Gale, the wizard companion. (Here’s a YouTube clip of that exact dialogue.) And then inspiration struck. I wrote a short scene where a sorcerer and a wizard argue about their vastly different approaches to magic, with some anecdotes about their own magical mishaps.

I put my writing aside to play even more BG3, but Mavery soon appeared to me as a fully realized character. She had Perrun’s version of wild magic, a sharp wit, and a roguish backstory—which included her penchant for “collecting” books. She also had her goal: steal an expensive relic from a wizard, then leave her life of crime for good. First, I expanded on that original scene of sorcerer/wizard banter. (Most of it was scrapped, but a few snippets of it survived to the final version of Tower.) And then I wrote what is now chapter 22. Eight months and 199,000 words later, I had a (rough and ridiculously bloated) first draft!

It took me a little longer to get a handle on Alain’s character. I had always planned to include his POV, but I ran into an issue that’s common in so many romantasy stories: the main male character had few goals and little personality beyond his love interest. So, I scrapped his POV chapters until my early beta readers encouraged me to revisit them. As it turned out, leaving out his POV made him too much of an enigma! A few drafts later, Alain finally had not only his own personality and backstory, but his own character arc.

I hope you love reading about these characters as much as I’ve loved writing them over the past year and a half. And I hope you stick around for more—because their story is only the beginning.

A Tower of Half-Truths is free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. The paperback is available through IngramSpark for US and UK customers, or you can purchase it from Amazon and other online retailers.

—N.J. (aka, Nicole) ♥