#asoaab spoilers

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Casteel in asoaab when Kieran mention's that Cas has fallen for Poppy

[incorrectfbaaquotes]

Kieran: You know, not every problem can be solved with a sword.

Casteel: That's why I carry two swords.

[elidelochans]

Along with Casteel and Kieran by Poppy's side. I'm happy Delano is by her side.

[daddynektas]

Kieran is my everything.

[katrinegrey]

Notes from Blue Box Press' IG Live w/Jennifer L Armentrout (ASOAAB- 7/20/2023)

These are a culmination of the big notes I made while watching the IG live (which should be on Blue Box Press' IG if you want to watch yourself). This is for my reference going forward, but I thought y'all might enjoy it too.

-Always had planned to do a Casteel POV of From Blood and Ash

-Realized a Cas POV would've been a lot of standing around, guard duty, and bickering w/Vikter so she switched things up.

-Wanted ASOAAB to move the plot forward a bit more than your standard retelling would.

-JLA Always knew that Poppy would go into stasis at some point. We'll learn more about stasis in A Fire in the Flesh in October.

-Tried to put as much new material in ASOAAB as possible. Was difficult to fit more new material in when working within the tight timeline already present in FBAA.

-From the mouth of JLA: If you haven't read TWOTQ, somethings in ASOAAB won't make sense. If you haven't read ASOAAB, some things in the next installment won't make sense.

-The labeling/naming of the chapters was very intentional. "If Cas had to summarize that part of his life..."

-Some of JLA's favorite parts of ASOAAB: The Duke scene, the scene after they arrived at New Haven, and the opening line to the chapter 'Necessary Supplies'.

-Hardest scenes to write were formulating the justifications for Cas' actions onto paper even though she already knew them.

-As for knowing when a book ends "You just know." The story tells you. You might go in with one ending, but the story has a different plan.

-Next book is last with Poppy and Cas as narrators (mentioned briefly that they might not be the ONLY narrators in the next book). There is one more book planned after Poppy and Cas' next book that sounds like a continuation of the plot. It just won't have Poppy and Cas at the helm.

-Male POV's are easier for her to write than female.

-Sera acts first and dwells on her actions and such later whereas Poppy thinks over every little thing first before acting.

-Ash has unhinged moments but is more stable/smooth than Cas. Not a lot of knee jerk reactions from Ash.

-ASOAAB took 3 months to write.

-Readers favorite scenes tend to be the more filler scenes. "Emil's life gets threatened a lot in those scenes." These are used to flesh out secondary characters and provide humor.

-Why honeydew? It was a personal joke she inserted because a lot of older historical romance novels will describe "down there" as 'smelling like peaches'. She thought that was funny and tossed honeydew in and it stuck.

-Delano as a marshmallow started in JLAnders like Casserole and Daddy Nyktos.

-"Why do you like torturing us?" "Because it's fun?"

-Doesn't ever set out to make people cry. Wants people when they get to the last book of a series to feel like they're 'in a good place'. She will always end with a HEA. It's just that the journey to get there will hurt.

-She considers her bonus scenes she writes outside of the books 'partly out of canon'. This applies to Cupcakes & Kisses bonus scene.

-When writing about trauma and mental health, she tries to keep the characters' responses as realistic as possible. Doesn't like characters who always respond perfectly to everything because 'that's just not real!'

-Information for the Visions compendium: A lot of information comparable to an editor's bible. Told in Miss Willa's style. Visions will have diary entries from Miss Willa, information about bloodlines, gods, dieties, wolven, etc., original artwork (characters, crowns, craven, draken, thrones, etc.), bonus scenes (one with Poppy & Tawny among others), JLA interviewing Kieran ("He was a fucking asshole!" "was just not having it!".

-"Who do you plan on killing next?" "Everyone."

-Will there be a B&A/F&F crossover? "Yeah?!" (Sera is awake and when she woke, she also woke all of the other gods and "other things". Upon waking, Sera was immediately "someone's gonna get their ass whooped" and Ash gets her to back off.

-AFITF originally had a different name.

-Went right from writing ASOAAB into writing AFITF.

-"You would've thought Cas descended from Sera." [with how they act sometimes] "Vastly different characters that are sometimes similar in the things they do."

-Cas is many, many, many generations down from Attes. "Not like he's his grandad."

-JLA has a heavy hand in the covers, what she wants to see in them. She made a point of wanting poppies to be featured on ASOAAB's cover because they haven't been featured yet. Originally wanted the Atlantian crest, but that wouldn't have worked with the story. Instead the bloodstone sword and sun were chosen.

-"Pay very close attention to the maps in coming books."

-Kieran doesn't have a middle name. Most don't. It's certain elemental Atlantian's at this point who do.

I'm sorry if I forgot anything major! Let me know if you guys have any theories sparking from anything that was said today!

[theaologies]

Me for years: I mean Casteel isn’t straight lol

Biphobic losers: of COURSE HE IS he is an ALPHA MALE he is HETEROSEXUAL

Casteel in ASOAAB: [out right talks about fucking other men]

Me:

[mistywitcher]

why does no one seem obsessed with the fact Casteel turned into a FUCKING CAVE CAT at the end of ASOAAB because I cannot get over it

[taymartiart]

✨# 1 Stabby Wife ✨

[raven-reads87]

Theory.

SPOILERS FOR A SOUL OF ASH AND BLOOD and A LIGHT IN THE FLAME.

TURN BACK.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Casteel and Malik are descended from Attes.

Supporting evidence:

1. Dimples.

2. Nektas says something along the lines of “you are so much like him” in ASOAAB.

[tothestarsandwhateverend]

ASOAAB SPOILERS

FINALLY FINISHED READING

rereading everything in cas’s POV knowing who he is just makes everything hurt so much more than when i read it first in fbaa. as they got closer and closer to new haven the weight in my chest kept increasing and then when it finally happened i was so sad 😭 also him telling poppy about his self harming and thinking that if they were born differently they could just love each other without all this craziness

cas shifting? bad ass as hellllll 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

also i can’t believe jla really left us hanging with whether or not poppy remembers them dbsidkoskdhcidiw.

anxiously waiting for the next book 😭

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

......

Don't mind me just thinking about how Cas having Poppy in his arms just feels right. And that he doesn't yet know that he was built for this

[incorrectfbaaquotes]

Vikter: *swings at Hawke and misses*

Hawke: Strike one!

Vikter: That's not how this works. *swings again*

Hawke: Strike two!

Vikter: *under breath* fuck.

[elidelochans]

"I'm beginning to think vagueness is a unique ability when it comes to the draken."

Ya know I think Kieran maybe onto something here

[daddynektas]

ASOAAB spoilers:

.

.

So, some of the parts I loved the best from the “Present” sections of the book are Millie and Malik and their interactions with Poppy and Casteel. I just…have a lot of feelings about Millie and Malik. A lot.

Kieran and Delano’s devotion to Poppy is making me into a total marshmallow, similar to Delano.

Casteel turning into a fucking cave cat was so fucking badass! I’m here for it!! And just seeing him and Kieran communicating via telepathy was awesome! Still wondering why the Revenant called him a false Primal, but I am betting it’s because he’s joined to Poppy, and therefore has some of her Primal powers.

Re: all the Casteel POV from the first book, I was mostly reading for the Cas and Kieran interactions and they did NOT disappoint.

Now I just need Book 6 stat! (respectfully)

[katrinegrey]

Kieran keeping it real since book 1.

[theaologies]

lmao an ot3 can be shapeshifting vampire gods