{"id":102996,"date":"2026-08-17T23:34:41","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ajayeni.com\/?p=102996"},"modified":"2026-08-17T23:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:34:41","slug":"the-interim-five-years-between-my-first-novel-and-its-sequel-a-j-ayeni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ajayeni.com\/?p=102996","title":{"rendered":"The Interim: Five Years Between My First Novel and Its Sequel | A.J. Ayeni"},"content":{"rendered":"

A.J. Ayeni is the author of the dark academia fantasy series <\/span>The Zaragoza Chronicles<\/span><\/i>, including <\/span>Beginnings<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span> and its forthcoming sequel, <\/span>Brainwashed<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I published my debut novel, <\/span>The Zaragoza Chronicles: Beginnings<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span>,<\/span> in February 2021. That date was especially momentous to me because it marked the culmination of about four years of basically becoming a novelist\u2014and all that that entails.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As I write this blog entry, it is August 2026, approximately five years and seven months since <\/span>Beginnings<\/span><\/i> was formally released.<\/span> In that time, I\u2019ve returned to the U.S. after living abroad in Europe and Asia for a while; stumbled my way into a career in UX research; founded a UX research department at a startup; got laid off at said startup due to, well, being a tech worker in the 2020s (oh, don\u2019t worry, that part is coming); worked as a contractor at an even bigger tech company\u2014rhymes with Hicroploft\u2014in a role that involved Responsible AI; quit said job to \u201creturn to my research roots\u201d; accepted a UX research role at a financial services company (big mistake); and quit that job, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Intertwined with all of that, I managed a long-distance relationship of five years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, on this hotter-than-should-be-acceptable Sunday afternoon, I sit here in my backyard, three days out from completing the second draft of my second novel, <\/span>The Zaragoza Chronicles: Brainwashed<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whew! That was a mouthful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still with me? Awesome!<\/span><\/p>\n

Suffice it to say, these past five years since the release of <\/span>Beginnings<\/span><\/i> have been a whirlwind, coupled with the macroeconomic changes we\u2019ve seen since the advent of mass AI, along with all the other nasties that have been spewed out in conjunction with the rapid proliferation of AI in our day-to-day lives.<\/span> Need I mention the increasing cost of anything that has a chip in it, or data centers that ruin neighborhoods not just physically, but health-wise, too?<\/span><\/p>\n

But I digress!<\/span><\/p>\n

This post isn\u2019t supposed to be a doom-and-gloom story about what happened to the world if you were frozen in a block of ice in 2021, only to emerge in 2026. No, not at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though all of the above is true, this post was always going to be about me, the future of my writing, and anything else that hasn\u2019t made its way out of my gob and thus has to be released in the best way I know how: through writing.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Writing<\/b><\/h2>\n

In between all of the massive life events that have occurred since the release of <\/span>Beginnings<\/span><\/i>, the one thing that has never left me is the urge to continue writing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though there were days, weeks, and even months when my fingers weren\u2019t locked away creating something fantastical, my mind was still churning out ideas nonstop. <\/span>During an unexpected tech layoff in 2024, I dedicated that time to expedite the drafting of my second novel, <\/span>The Zaragoza Chronicles: Brainwashed<\/span><\/i>.<\/span> What was supposed to be a two-week-to-two-month break between the first and second drafts somehow became two years.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But again, like a lion that hadn\u2019t eaten in days, the hunger gnawed at me.<\/span><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the hunger for a fresh baby gazelle or an innocent elephant calf, but the hunger to write\u2014the hunger to add to these tales I\u2019ve been spinning for almost a decade now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Between <\/span>Beginnings<\/span><\/i>, the two short stories that followed that debut (<\/span>Femi & The Rival<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Alfred\u2019s Tales<\/span><\/i>), and the lead-up to my second novel,<\/span>\u00a0I was neck-deep in trying to advance my \u201creal career.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

You know, the one that\u2019s baked into you since grade school. The one that tells you that upon completion of roughly 12 to 20 years of formal schooling, you\u2019ll have amassed such an extraordinary knowledge base in your field of expertise, that you won\u2019t have to worry about re-establishing yourself in any other field, as long as you work hard and stay diligent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, AI put up a big fat digital middle finger to that idea.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I was still living in Singapore, I had an innocuous conversation about what I would want to do if money weren\u2019t an issue. That conversation kept replaying in my mind years after it happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

My answer was obvious: become a full-time novelist.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then there\u2019s that part of your brain that tells you, <\/span>That\u2019s impractical. Stick to your real job. Becoming a novelist is a pipe dream.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

And what sounds like good, practical advice starts to quiet down those other voices\u2014the ones that run on creative juices.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean to keep harping on the perils of AI, but ironically, those perils, alongside what AI was <\/span>supposed<\/span><\/i> to be\u2014a way for us humans to focus on the things that fascinate us while machines do the monotonous, humdrum work they excel at\u2014became a driving force behind me wanting to get back in the saddle and begin getting these novel ideas out of my head and onto paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or screen.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s really funny because when I started the UX research gig at the financial services company, something told me it wasn\u2019t the right call. Sure, on paper it sounded good, and it was more money than I had ever earned up until that point. Though that motivated me for maybe the first month or two, the novelty quickly wore off, and I was stuck with a realization:<\/span><\/p>\n

Did I want to slog away at a job I didn\u2019t really care for, working with people I didn\u2019t give a shit about, making an already incredibly profitable company even more profit?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, if you\u2019re reading this post, then the answer is already crystal clear.<\/span><\/p>\n

No. It wasn\u2019t something I wanted to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Somewhere along the line\u2014getting the degrees, landing the interviews, excelling at the jobs\u2014something awoke in me that said there was another way. This didn\u2019t have to be my existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. If I hadn\u2019t stayed diligent and secured work that paid the bills, I wouldn\u2019t even be in the financial position to write this blog post in my backyard, one month out from being a salaryman.<\/span><\/p>\n

The starving writer is an ever-enduring trope, isn\u2019t it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Ha! I laugh about that now, but I do hope it doesn\u2019t become tears later!<\/span><\/p>\n

Long story short, I\u2019m not writing this to tell people to drop whatever they\u2019re pursuing because it was based on practicality, reason, or research. Do not quit your day jobs and pursue that passion project blindly.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, if that passion project hums louder and louder in your mind\u2019s ear, eventually becoming a roar that can\u2019t be ignored any longer, perhaps that hum was really the bell to your life\u2014ringing for you to wake up and claim your destiny.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s what completing <\/span>The Zaragoza Chronicles<\/span><\/i> trilogy will be for me, or what will come of any of the future novels I\u2019ve thought about.<\/span><\/p>\n

All I know is that I think we\u2019ve reached a point in history where <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> pursuing these dreams that gnaw at us at night could, for the first time in a long time, be more impractical than anything else.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a world where machines increase their capabilities every second to replace us in the white-collar jobs we\u2019ve spent over a third of our lives preparing for, what if that frees us to accomplish what we were put on this earth to do?<\/span><\/p>\n

To create art and music. To sing and dance to our hearts\u2019 content as we remember what it means to be human. Not just a human slogging away at some job you hate, but a functioning member of society charged with the spirit of life itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should that be the future of our world, perhaps this moment of uncertainty and despair will have been worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

If this momentary forgetting of the things that truly make us who we are as a species is suddenly reversed, ushering in a new cultural renaissance of sorts, then of course it all would have been worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

If not, though\u2026well, that would be truly unfortunate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, I think I\u2019m in a period of my life where I don\u2019t want to play it small anymore. My desire to become a novelist, to chart out my own path on my own terms, has become a roar too loud to ignore.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you feel the same way about something\u2014anything!\u2014I would implore you to give it a go.<\/span><\/p>\n

At worst, you fail and pivot back to the thing that provided comfort anyway. I just pray that whatever that may be, your future in it is as secure as you think.<\/span><\/p>\n

But conversely, if you dream that big, audacious dream, follow it as far and as well as you can, and then maybe\u2014just maybe\u2014you\u2019ll succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then what?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, then you\u2019ll be living in your dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

And wouldn\u2019t that be worth its weight in gold<\/strong><\/span> and more?<\/span><\/p>\n

I surely think so. \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

The Future<\/b><\/h2>\n

As for the future, my priority is completing <\/span>The Zaragoza Chronicles<\/span><\/i> trilogy as soon as humanly possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

The third draft of <\/span>Brainwashed<\/span><\/i> will commence sometime next month, and this will be the draft where I\u2019ll attempt to read the sophomore novel as a reader and not as the author.<\/span> This allows me to review the pacing, character arcs, and how the tension escalates. It\u2019s personally my favorite draft because it allows you to see the story you\u2019ve crafted without all the muck and in-line sentence variations that my second drafts are known for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond that, I\u2019ll be using the near future to promote <\/span>Beginnings<\/span><\/i> again, including the audiobook<\/a><\/span>, which was narrated by yours truly!<\/span> If you know me, then you know how much I detest marketing, but I have to get the word out somehow, right?!<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside of the main trilogy, I have some short story ideas for the rest of the characters in my ragtag group of super-powered grad students. And outside of my writing, I\u2019ll be using the rest of the summer to ideate on some side hustles that have been on my mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more by following this blog\u2014I promise to post more! Or, if you\u2019d rather engage via social media, you can find me on Instagram<\/a><\/span>, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks for reading this far, you\u2019re a real one!<\/span><\/p>\n

Best,<\/span><\/p>\n

A.J. <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A.J. Ayeni is the author of the dark academia fantasy series The Zaragoza Chronicles, including Beginnings and its forthcoming sequel, Brainwashed.   I published my debut novel, The Zaragoza Chronicles: Beginnings, in February 2021. That date was especially momentous to me because it marked the culmination of about four years of basically becoming a novelist\u2014and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[116],"tags":[117,119,161,160,158,163,159,133,154,155,162,156,157],"class_list":["post-102996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-content","tag-a-j-ayeni","tag-author-blog","tag-dark-academia-fantasy","tag-fantasy-author","tag-indie-author","tag-life-after-publishing-a-book","tag-self-published-author","tag-the-zaragoza-chronicles","tag-the-zaragoza-chronicles-beginnings","tag-the-zaragoza-chronicles-brainwashed","tag-writing-a-novel","tag-writing-a-sequel","tag-writing-journey"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t