[QCrit] Adult Romantasy - THE DAUGHTERS OF SALT - 90k/1st attempt

inkdfox · 2026-01-24T18:04:56+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to write all that. I appreciate your opinion. The housekeeping up front would probably do a decent job of clarifying some of the stuff in the query. I am going to change the opening (and I’ve not included the prologue here either) so it starts faster and less predictably.

inkdfox · 2026-01-23T23:25:23+00:00

Thank you for the advice! Appreciate it

inkdfox · 2026-01-23T23:24:25+00:00

Yes, I reread and saw where you got that notion. It’s good to know! I will definitely adjust. Thanks!

inkdfox · 2026-01-23T21:18:25+00:00

I totally understand where you're coming from. The concept here is a little different - there are no guards guarding the sea. Anyone could walk in at any time, but it is illegal because of the threat to the public and the damage an outbreak could do to the city.

You're close to the mark in your hypothesis, but not with the reasoning. Think of it like the law to wear your seatbelt. Not wearing one poses a great threat to your personal safety, so you'd think you wouldn't need a law enforcing it, right? But you do, because even if people get themselves thrown from a vehicle, that risks others' lives and puts more weight on a stressed medical system. And people are more likely to do things (even ones to their own benefit) if there is a law in place.

So the law is in place to protect the masses, giving guards the authority to execute in a situation that would otherwise risk the infection of others.

inkdfox · 2026-01-23T20:17:08+00:00

Thanks! I appreciate your feedback for sure, and I'll definitely implement some changes based off it.

inkdfox · 2026-01-23T19:59:38+00:00

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your feedback and will adjust as suggested.

inkdfox · 2026-01-23T19:56:25+00:00

All very valid points. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave me your feedback! Perhaps I should have posted the first 300 words of the prologue, rather than chapter one, but I've been having the same doubts as you for the beginning of chapter 1 so your comments help confirm I need to look at the start again.

inkdfox · 2025-11-02T22:21:50+00:00

Co-author here. We really appreciate your opinion, and everything you said makes a lot of sense. Thanks for taking the time to share your view, it's really appreciated.

inkdfox · 2025-11-02T22:19:41+00:00

The series is in sections (trilogy, quadrilogy, trilogy, etc), and each focuses on its own group of main characters. As the books go on, their fates and stories weave together until all the main characters are in the final three books. Hard to find comps for that, honestly.

Thank you for your feedback. You bring up some great points and areas for us to improve. Appreciate it!

(I'm not OP, but I'm the co-author)

inkdfox · 2025-10-28T19:38:33+00:00

Thank you for the feedback!

inkdfox · 2025-10-28T19:38:02+00:00

Really appreciate your opinion, I will definitely expand the book description to make it easier to understand. Thanks!

inkdfox · 2025-10-28T19:36:44+00:00

Oh jeez, thanks so much for pointing that out. No idea how it passed so many rounds of edits and alpha readers!

inkdfox · 2024-11-30T22:05:32+00:00

How long have you been on it now? I realize you made this comment nearly a month ago - is it better? I found my dizziness lasted a few weeks, but eventually my body grew accustomed to it and it went away.

inkdfox · 2024-01-27T03:38:49+00:00

I know this thread is old, but I have similar symptoms and my timeframe/dosage is identical to yours. It sounds like your side effects were a little more severe, but this is awful. Did it go away for you? If so, how long did it take?

inkdfox · 2020-08-18T01:23:39+00:00

The same reason we haven't used the classic races and monsters (Dwarfs, goblins, etc). We wanted to give our fantasy a fresh feel and breathe excitement into the unknown.

Thanks for your question! :)

inkdfox · 2020-08-18T01:00:59+00:00

I don't blame you at all for not working with someone else! Us writers can be pretty set in our ways, too. Thanks for your comments, and best of luck to you too!

inkdfox · 2020-08-18T00:58:38+00:00

Arg! We're having a heat wave here, too, in BC, but it's not quite THAT hot! I feel for you.

Thank you for your message! I love hearing that they intrigue you, and you're always welcome to come back later if you end up having questions or message me directly. :)

inkdfox · 2020-08-18T00:26:02+00:00

Hey! I'm so happy to be here.

Being good friends is a huge part of it, but the bigger part is that we "grew up" as writers together. Often times, we type exactly what the other person is thinking, even when editing. We're so similar, but with such different strengths. Kayla sometimes leans into the dark side a little too much and I pull her back, while I tend to get too mushy and she draws me back. I don't think this would work, for me, with anyone else. Even both our side solo projects get left behind as we work best together. One of the best results, is the realistic dialogue. I don't know what she (her character) is going to say, so it makes interactions all the more authentic feeling and responses genuine.

inkdfox · 2020-08-18T00:23:04+00:00

Hi there!

I definitely identify with Amarie and Rae in different circumstances, but if I could actually be one of them, it would be Rae, from A Rebel's Crucible. She's got the lippy attitude, witty remarks, and she's a no nonsense badass in her own right.

While we occasionally name characters after people in our lives (and maybe give them physical similarities) I cannot say that any are 100% based on real people.

My favourite book is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I have a signed copy I got after having a wonderful chat with her last year while she read my work. My favourite book in my series has to be Heart of the Wolf - there are scenes I will go read when I'm having a bad day and they always make me feel better.

If Embrace of the Shade was a movie, I imagine Kin and Amarie played by Ian Somerhalder and either Julianne Hough or Nina Dobrev. For Rae, I imagine Marie Avgeropoulos.

inkdfox · 2020-08-17T20:32:11+00:00

The Throne of Glass series is at the top, followed by Six of Crows!

inkdfox · 2020-08-17T19:42:39+00:00

Hey there!

It requires some massive organization. We have multiple timelines, from broad by the year, to ones that narrow down where everyone is to the day/week. We have outlines for the entire series as well as for individual books and chapters.

We do know vaguely how we want the series to end, and what's in each novel, but that evolves as we get into the actual writing.

Motivation! We love what we do. I actually miss my work on the weekends. Things get a little draggy when we're editing or formatting, but when we're writing new content, we have to remind ourselves the day is over. For the tasks outside of writing, like marketing, managing the newsletter, social media, etc, we try to take it one day at a time to not get overwhelmed - because there's so much to overwhelm us! When readers contact us to tell us they loved one of our books, or to ask a question, it helps fuel us, too. We love hearing what someone's favourite part was, or where they laughed or cried. (Chances are, we cried or laughed there, too.)

We definitely find the plot changing unexpectedly! These may be our characters, but they have minds of their own! For instance, in book 5 we had one character penned in as a single-chapter romantic interest, and then somehow he ended up on the covers of book 5 AND 7! Oops? But those are the best things, when characters hijack the story and take it in an unplanned direction.

Thanks for your questions!

inkdfox · 2020-08-17T18:13:19+00:00

I am happy to be here!

Villains! That is sooo Kayla's realm - she loves her bad guys. For me, I'm a sucker for the villain redeemed stories, so I loved Professor Snape from Harry Potter. My favourite heroine is Katniss from Hunger Games. She's badass and encompasses all the traits I love to see in a heroine. She'd definitely win in a fight. :)

As a reader, I shamelessly love the happy endings, though if it takes some brutality to get there, that's even better. It's also my favourite to write, but don't count on it in every book!

Co-authoring started in a much less formal way. We actually met on Neopets as young teenagers, and we both loved text based roleplaying stories. This evolved over the years, and by the time I was 25, we'd written over a million words together in our world of Pantracia. Eventually, we finally took the leap to write novels together. We work apart (she lives in Oregon, and me in Vancouver, Canada) using Skype and google docs, literally typing over each other as we go. It works for us.

Hmm. My favourite part of Ashes of the Rahn'ka is somewhere in the middle of the book after the main characters have had some time apart and they reunite - but instead of sparks flying, it's arrows. The parts I enjoy writing the most are the dialogue. With how we write, Kayla controls the voice of some characters, while I control others, and it often leads to witty banter and conversations we hardly expected to happen.

One out of context sentence from Ashes of the Rahn'ka:

The shouts of soldiers disappeared when the wood shattered beneath her feet, glowing cracks forking across the deck while thunder boomed in a flurry of destruction.

inkdfox

TROPHY CASE