A Thousand Burning Masks

Author's Note

Writing and rewriting ATBM has been both a challenge and a blessing. Last year, I was caught up in rewriting Hall of Games, preparing it for querying, and working myself into exhaustion in my heart project, which ultimately led me nowhere. There was plenty of interest for Hall of Games, but no agent loved it enough to represent the story.

In the week of burnout, I felt like giving up. I have never written another story other than TVC's world. I wanted to give up. The feeling of being unable to write a different story apart from Hall of Games is crushing.

A week after I gave up querying Hall of Games, I went with a friend to watch a local theater performance as part of my assignment for Theater class. It was a Chinese-themed play with stunning dialogue and visuals, and they hired some other non-theater folk to perform during intermission. Among the intermission performances was Sichuan Facechanging. 

I have always loved Facechanging and culture behind it. I turned to my friend and muttered: "this would make a cool story concept". She shrugged and said, "why not write a story about it?"

I reached home around 11 pm. I was tired, but I was buzzing with inspiration. Imagine a story where Gods are able to rip faces from mortals and mortals who wear them will gain the powers of the Gods. I booted my laptop and made a cover. The title came naturally, and I changed my entire Wattpad profile into this new theme. I announced to my followers that I'll be writing this new Wuxia/Chinese myth-inspired story called A Thousand Burning Masks.

My followers and readers reacted enthusiastically. And when I woke up the next day, I was like "Wtf have I done". 

But there was no turning back. I knew I had to write the story.

I prided myself on being a plotter. I plotted every single detail in Cadence's world for Hall of Games, but I pansted A Thousand Burning Masks. Sarna, Biyu, Wulin, and Bowen came to me naturally, as though they had been a part of me the entire time.

I wrote angrily and passionately. I channeled all my frustrations into creating this new story, my anger and dejection that I was ghosted by agents when I was querying HoG. I wanted to write a story that teenagers could resonate with, a MC who kicks ass and loves her family too much, and a world where Chinese teens could relate to. In three month's time, I have finished the first draft. In one month's time, I've edited the story and beat it into draft 3, wrote my query letter, and sent it off to the world.

I cannot thank you, my readers, enough for encouraging me to finish this story. In my deepest and depressed moments as a writer, you pulled me from the trenches and urged me on. 

A lot of exciting and scary things have happened to this story. I participated in #PitMad March on twitter, which is basically a battle royale for unagented writers, all vying for agents' favs so we can query them directly. ATBM's pitch became #1 on #PitMad, beating 15,000 other pitches, and it gained the most favs and RTs and attentions EVER in the history of #PitMad, according to my friend, idk if his data is accurate. Prior #PitMad, I sent out more queries and waited.

Things are happening. Good things, bad things, it's one insane but exciting mess.

So, it all boils down to le questions. Will there be a sequel? Will I post it on WP? What is querying? Will ATBM be published?

The following section is an update in 2020:

I signed with a literary agent in 2018 after Pitmad. I was represented by a good literary agency, and this story had so much potential. However, after being bullied by traditional publishing Twitter, I completely lost motivation. Dejected, I stopped writing and editing and threw myself into other things such as university and my artwork.

Recently, I parted ways with my agent and my agency due to many reasons. Hibernation/inactivity and disagreement in content and edits being the primary reasons. Then, I signed with Wattpad as a Wattpad Star. I believe through them, ATBM may have a different chance. I am restricted to rules that I do not agree with when I was in traditional publishing, and I'm much happier and mentally healthier being on Wattpad or to pursue indie publishing. Perhaps one day I may return to trad, but for now, I'll stick to Wattpad.

On the note of sequels, when I initially wrote this story, I intended it to be standalone. But after revising the story countless times, it evolved from a standalone to a duology. Hence, your favorite characters will be back! You'll get to see more of sassy Donghwa, fussy Biyu, and an angry Bowen.

Book Two, which I have laid down the initial title of "A Thousand Shattered Souls", will focus on Sarna's reign and her struggle with celestial powers.

That's it for now! I've moved my platform to discord. You can find my discord server's link on my bio. There, you can chat with me directly!

Lots of love,

Stef