Hello again!

Master treats me well. He even warms up my gruel when I do enough writing.

I type many words that please Master, though the shackles on my wrist and ankles ache terribly. It is so lonely down here, so cold ... but I promised I would finish this book. I must be good for Master. I must finish the book.

The caress of the sun on my cheek ... the taste of ice-cold cola ... the laughter of friends ... all these things are as distant and unknowable as the darkest reaches of the moon.

I am writing and writing. Nothing else. I hear the chatter of my fingers on the keyboard even when I sleep. Paragraphs of text float in the dark before me; the phantasmal traces of pages written and unwritten.

Since my last newsletter, I wrote twelve thousand words. 12,000. It is many words ... but it is not enough. Master says I must write another twelve thousand, and then double it. Master is kind to be cruel. I deserve these chains.

I think ... I think freedom is coming soon. I hope it is.

I fear that if I do not find a way to free myself of these shackles, I may grow to love them ...

Just a few more chapters .... a few more words ... and then ...

Freedom.

In the meantime, while you wait for me to finish Book 2 of The Elixir of Power in my semi-sequestered state, check out the below books from authors like me! I'm sure you'll be able to find something you like.

(Also — don't worry, I'm not actually chained to my writing desk in the dungeon or anything worrying like that. I don't even have a dungeon! I'm finishing this book the usual way: chained to the upstairs desk.)