Posting Notes from the University of the Unseen and Talking a Little About Development

But first, the most pressing news.

As you can see, the cover to Ivy and Ash has been changed. This is because I received nine emails asking me whether I was done with romance and if I was writing a nonmagical boarding school mystery. Unfortunately to both of those questions– I am not.

Buttttt, I just wrote this off as being another part of the long development hell that was the University of the Unseen as a series; a series that will likely plague my nightmares for the next year.

From the first book being so obscenely long that I had to divide it into two semester and resign myself to having six books instead of a cozy three, to removing some chunks of chapters after another event in america provided worry for both me and my editor; this series has proven to me that witch books will always be my development hell.

But also I love this series and the world that it’s set within and I wanted to show off because this series marks a new milestone in my writing career.

A milestone in which, drumroll please…

My worldbuilding is slowly beginning to get so extensive that I have to have a shared onenotebook with my editor for her review.

Ready yourself for a peek of what my notebook looked like during The University of the Unseen’s first semester and note that what you are about to see next is heavily censored for spoilers.

Of course, you’re not going to see everything in this notebook. The Avarelle and Jones Families page will be censored entirely, portions of the prior to the story section will be redacted (you’re only getting immediately prior), and the full list of students involved in the Green Brotherhood will be revealed at a later date. Plus it’s just bad authorship if I show you the plot scratch page. But–

Let’s just get into it.

Prior to the story

Immediately prior

Driven mad by unknown forces, Dr. John Jones’ apprentice Simon Petrov killed eight non-magics from the Pieteran church as well as his own familiar in the university square, marking him as the first wizard to ever kill his own familiar and retroactively himself. The news has sent the world into a tailspin, taking place two days before Knox’s orientation days and just two months prior to major Pieteran holiday proceedings.

No one is able to discern the reason why, nor how he could so much as begin to turn his wand on his familiar, and the world holds its breath for any sign of news as to what happens.

Meanwhile, Doctors Jones and Avarelle find their research on the forefront of everyone’s mind, and human experimentation trials pushed forward. This forces Jones to take on an apprentice, who he finds in the top of the masters program, alongside Rowan Avarelle, Ana Nilsen; a relative outsider from the pomp and circumstance of academic magic, and a young woman who is far from ready to step into the world of Knox just two days past the crimes of Simon Petrov.

Terms

Normals – Nonmagical people

Psycheology – the study of souls/the soul and its attachments

Familiars – a physical embodiment of a witch’s soul that takes the form of an animal companion. Can often change forms in relation to a poem that I can’t remember the name of that stated “he changed the shape of my soul.”

Character Bank

Get longer from semester 2 onwards with names for familiars coming largely from Norse, Greek, Roman, and Celtic mythology.

Students	Familiars
Ana Nilsen	Nyx
Rowan Avarelle	Aoide
Everett Milner	Odin
Hester Lockwood	Atlas
Alison Morris	Stasia
Adam Knight	Edmund
Aiden Knight	Eldon
Madeline Rose	Adelaide
Nan Smith	Bara
Simon Petrov	Cassandra
Heather Morningcad	Numpty
Warren Leary	Winston
Annaliese Roseau	Margo
George Sacks	Plibby
Callum Wells
Liam Hollands	Nixty
Flynn Rhodes
Kieran Allows
Samson Niels
Stefan Kingston
Lyle Rosam
Henry Swane
Aily Stommond

Professor	Familiar
Dr. Quinn Avarelle	Meret
Dr. John Jones	Titus
Dr. Lisandra Rhodes	Lennox
Dr. Thomas Leeman	August

Notes on Knox

Buildings list

The Green Brotherhood

Introduction

A secret society formed at the very inception of Knox University, the Green Brotherhood operates in the shadows in honor of old world magic– the Green Man of lore, a creature created from the earth’s forests and haunting the shadows of architecture on campus and around the world.

The Green brotherhood believes that magic is inherent, and stronger in some bloodlines than others. They seek to advance only their members from an exclusive list of long reigning families, as well of those of such exceptional skill that they believe it to be impossible for them to have come from a nonmagical upbringing.

The Green Brotherhood is, as it has always been, a male exclusive society, and has not admitted a single female student in its time on campus. Much of this has to due with patriarchal magical beliefs stemming from the societal gender discourse– but it is of note that not all members support the female exclusionist methods of the Green Brotherhood, nor the underhanded dealings.

Unfortunately, however, all brothers are sworn to secrecy under the penalty of death.

The Green Brotherhood draws inspiration from the English architectural detail, reoccurring literature theme, and proposed pagan deity the Green man. You can read a little more about the green man here, which is a safe link that does not hint at the specifics of his background that would spoil the series.

Aaaaand, End Notebook.

I don’t know if this is going to be something you guys really like to see or something I should continue doing as a blog feature, I just happen to have started typing up portions of the world building to share with my editor and thought it might be nice to share with you guys as well.

Typically I have a bunch of binders and bullet journals full of other information about my series, and I would be completely willing to type up the rest of the University of the Unseen’s information and maybe even show my hand drawn map of the campus if that’s something people are interested in. Later on, I also have maps and notes for Alice and Whynne that I could type up as well, and have already worked on doing so in the case of Whynne.

If you liked this irregularly planned blog post, let me know! And if you’re interested in the University of the Unseen, you can pick it up below for free from June 2nd-June 5th, I believe– just to make up for the whole cover changing fiasco.

Please leave reviews and stay tuned/subscribe to my newsletter if you’re interested in future releases. I’m getting the rest of the Gancanagh’s promotional stuff sorted out tonight, and I’ll be talking about the World of Whynne miniseries in my upcoming newsletter as well as sprinkling in some fae lore posts in the months coming to hint at what’s coming next in that series.

If you were following me for Campnano as well, keep an eye on this blog as well as my booksirens, because depending on how long the cover takes, it’s looking like my dystopian novel will be available for ARCs at the end of June and probably launching about July twentieth.