All artwork done by JC Heinrich. You can find more of his work here. And his website here.
In the world of Iota, the power of the written word stretches beyond the pen stroke. Magic-born scribes known as Inksayers script immense power into the words that scar their flesh. They have done so for centuries, shaping the world around them with every Word of Power.
Rakmeed is a Silencer, a member of an elite force sworn to oppose the magic in their land. Meinhort is the only kingdom where it is outlawed and Rakmeed has barely seen outside its walls. As his world widens and his mind is opened, long held truths will be called into question. He will have to reckon with his plight quickly if he is to make it out intact.
I started working on the first draft of this book back in December of 2014, less than a month after self-publishing my first book. Admittedly, I was not writing with anywhere near the same level of seriousness or consistency as I do now, but it was what ‘writing’ meant to me back then.
I had the original idea for the story and world back in January of 2013, when I was still finishing up the first book I had ever written. I had picked up “Flesh and Fire” by Laura Anne Gillman whose cover toted a sticker that boasted of the original and unique magic system within. I only ever read about teen pages and the excerpt from the author, explaining how the magic system came to be. As a challenge from her editor to write a food and drink based magic system.
I was hooked, immediately. I wondered how I too could craft a unique magic system. And, admittedly, I wanted to have a sticker like that one day. I thought it would have to based off of something that I either knew a lot about, or something I was passionate about enough to bullshit my way into coherency. I love books, I thought. I love writing. What about a book based system?
I told a friend that the idea for the magic system would be about the power of the written word. He said, written word? Why not Spoken Writing. We laughed and then stopped laughing. The magic system was known as Spoken Writing for quite some time before it later became Words of Power.
I finished the first draft back in 2016 and took about a month away from it. In that time away, I considered ways to improve the story but also tried to develop the magic system further. The most common piece of criticism I had ever received was that there was not enough cost to the magic system. Lexís, as seen above in J.C. Heinrich’s drawing of a Fire Lexí, were one way I tried to balance this.
I wrote a complete second draft and then began writing a third. Each time it was as if I was getting slightly closer to uncovering what the real story was, but I kept falling short because I was too attached to certain ideas. I ended up taking three years away from writing all together, for one reason or another. When I finally returned, I had to dip my toes in first by recording each chapter of the most recent draft from years before and releasing them as episodes of an audio book podcast. You can find those episodes here.
I eventually caught up to where I had stopped writing in draft three and even wrote a few additional chapters. Though I stopped working on “Knowledge is Power” and the podcast in October of 2023. A friend of mien suggested that I go back to the drawing board in regards to the plot of the book and I agreed. I sat down and wrote out a very poor and basic outline.
It seems that that’s exactly what was needed, because the next day I started thinking and plotting for “The Last Dragon.”
I have every intention of getting back to Knowledge is Power one day. The time away has allowed me to distance myself from my darlings and I am excited that every new idea I have for that world and story is a much better fulfillment of the aspirations that I had for it.
One day, I will invited you all into the world of Iota-when we can properly see what Rakmeed’s journey is.
Thank you,
-Y.J. Sargis