Updates & Notes

Chronicle of the manuscript's progress and the world it describes.

• August 2026

  Manuscript Progress

  Chapters 1 through 5 are complete and have passed their first structural edit. These chapters establish the valley, introduce the survivors, and walk through the catastrophe hour by hour. Chapters 6–12 are in various stages from draft to outline. The full novel is estimated at approximately 28,000 words of prose.

• July 2026

  Worldbuilding Note: The Bitterroot Valley

  The story's geography is drawn from the real Bitterroot Valley in western Montana — a long, narrow corridor between the Sapphire and Bitterroot mountain ranges, drained by the Bitterroot River. Bramble Hollow is fictional, placed somewhere along the corridor's middle reaches, where the valley floor narrows and the mountains crowd close to the water. The history of the place is ordinary: settlers, sawmills, a bridge built in 1912, farms held by the same families for three generations. It existed long before this day. That is the point.

• June 2026

  Survivor Profiles

  The character compendium is now available. Luna, Arrax, Heather and Valerie Whiteclaw, Coda, Peony, and Senako Steel each carry a piece of the valley's story. None of them are chosen ones. None of them are prepared. They are simply the people who were there when the ground moved. A new profile will be added each week until the full cast is documented.

• May 2026

  Coming Next

  Chapters 6 through 12 are in progress. The remaining chapters cover the week after the flood, the counting of the dead, the impossible decisions of the survivors, and the silence that settles over a place that no longer has a name. No release date has been set. The words will be ready when they are ready.