Acolytes and Aspirants! Timelines and Other General Chaos Within

Fuck me, we’re about to start daily chapters for book 1, so time for some perks!

So, let's talk beta reading, because apparently, I'm about to become one of those authors who asks people to read unfinished drafts and then nervously hovers over their shoulder asking, "do you like it?" every thirty seconds.

First things first: all Aspirants can access beta reading opportunities whenever they become available. Just a heads up—this means spoilers, unpolished prose, and the occasional chapter that might get completely rewritten because I decided to take the plot in a different direction mid-sentence. You've been warned.

If you're an Acolyte and interested in joining the beta reading chaos, let me know! I'm looking for any feedback you want to give—verbose detailed analysis, general thumbs up or down, vague limericks about pacing issues, interpretive dance reviews, whatever works for you. I promise not to take anything personally, and I won’t show up at your house asking why you didn't like that one scene where Ben does the thing. Mostly because I don't know where you live, but also because I'm not that kind of author. Probably.

Now, for the logistics that are keeping me up at night:

Beta reading for Book 2 will be available shortly after Book 1 concludes—somewhere around October 3rd. This is where things get interesting, and by interesting, I mean potentially terrifying from a writer's perspective. There will be a few chapters available right off the bat, and I'm planning an A/B test in terms of narrative approach—basically, I want to try different ways of handling certain plot developments and see what lands better.

Here's the important part: these are draft chapters that can and probably will change. Book 1 has the massive advantage of being a complete rewrite that I've obsessed over for a year, and it's going to get the full professional editing treatment from Aethon before it reaches its final form. Book 2? That's going to be me figuring things out in real time, implementing feedback as I go, and occasionally staring at my computer screen at 2 AM wondering if that plot twist is brilliant or if I've just been writing for too long and lost all sense.

There will be spoilers if something gets cut. I'm mentioning this because I tend to write scenes that I absolutely love but that don't serve the story, and sometimes those scenes reveal things about the world or characters that don't get addressed until much later in the official version. So, if you read a beta chapter where Ben learns something significant and then that knowledge mysteriously vanishes from the published chapters, just... pretend you didn't see anything. Think of it as classified information.

For now, I'm looking for three beta readers. Just three.

Why only three? Well, partly because you're all paying for quality chapters, not rough drafts. This is supposed to be a premium experience, not me crowdsourcing my first draft editing to people who are literally paying me for finished content.

But more practically, I'm expecting around 10-20k words total for the initial beta content, and managing feedback from more than three people on that volume of material sounds like a recipe for decision paralysis. Three voices feels like the sweet spot—enough perspectives to catch genuine issues, but not so many that I lose track of the story I'm trying to tell.

This feedback will hopefully help keep me on the rails as we move into future books, because let me tell you: a lot happens in Book 2. Without spoiling anything, Ben's situation gets significantly more complicated in ways that I think will surprise you. More importantly, I’m dumping out the LEGO box of pieces that makes up Runebinding. Time to get everyone on the same page.

Which brings me to the timeline question that everyone keeps asking: when does Book 2 start posting after that?

The honest answer is that it depends entirely on how things go with Aethon and Book 1. The book has been with their editing team since August 1st, so I should have more concrete details soon about what changes they're requesting and how extensive the revision process is going to be. If they come back with minor suggestions and formatting tweaks, we're golden. If they want me to completely restructure the magic system or rewrite half the character interactions, well... that's going to take considerably longer.

It's going to be quite difficult to maintain my current writing pace if I suddenly have to make 7,800 changes to Book 1 while simultaneously trying to produce new content for Book 2. It happened to Mark of the Fool!

I'm good, but I'm not "completely overhaul a published novel while writing its sequel" good. At least, I don't think I am? We might find out together.

The good news is that Book 2 is already half-written and continues to grow every day. The better news is that I'm genuinely excited about what's coming next, which usually means the writing flows more naturally and the story ends up being more engaging.

Now, for the fun stuff: extras!

Could I host a poll about what kind of additional content you'd like to see? Absolutely, and I will soon. But I'm curious what you're thinking even before the official poll goes live. Want a few chapters of Audiobook? I used to dabble in VA work; I’ll give it a shot. Interested in side stories that explore the world beyond Ben's increasingly hectic situation? Yay more writing! Live Q&A sessions where you can ask questions about the writing process or the magic system? Writing streams? Game Nights? Cooking streams?

I'm down for pretty much anything that sounds fun and doesn't require me to develop talents I don't have. At least not yet.

The poll will be coming soon, but feel free to start dropping suggestions in the comments or Discord. I'm keeping a running list of ideas, and some of them are weird enough that they just might work.

Seriously, thank you all again for making this wild experiment possible. Every comment, every review makes this whole process feel collaborative in the best possible way. You're not just readers—you're part of the creative process now, whether you intended to be or not.

I'm looking forward to sharing more details about when the final product will be ready, especially for those of you who, like me, are audiobook addicts. There's something magical about hearing your own characters come to life through a skilled narrator's voice, and I can't wait for you to experience that.

More updates coming soon, probably accompanied by my usual mixture of excitement and mild panic.

Stay amazing,
M.S. Davidson

TLDR (AI Generated);

• Beta Reading is Here: I'm looking for beta readers for Path of the Paladin: Book 2. This is open to Aspirant-tier Patrons and three Acolytes.

• What to Expect: Beta chapters will be unpolished, contain spoilers, and may change drastically or be cut entirely from the final version.

• Book 2 Beta Timeline: The first batch of beta chapters (10-20k words) will be available around October 3rd, right after Book 1's daily chapters conclude. I'll be A/B testing some narrative approaches.

• Book 2 Official Start Date: The official launch of Book 2 depends on the edits for Book 1 from my publisher, Aethon Books. The timeline is uncertain until I know how heavy the revisions will be.

• More Perks Coming: I'll be putting up a poll soon for what kind of extra content you'd like to see (audiobook samples, side stories, Q&As, game nights, etc.). Feel free to start dropping suggestions now