Twenty-four chapters, an epilogue, and more than 55,555 words later, Rivera's Repairs: Issue #1 is complete. And judging by the comments, ratings, and the fact that some of you apparently went and read Path of the Paladin too, you showed up for it.
Thank you. Seriously. That means more than I can articulate without sounding like I'm fishing for compliments, so I'll just leave it at: thank you.
Now let's talk about the journey.
When I started planning this story, I had one goal: write something completely different. I've spent the last year writing over 700,000 words in first person POV. It works. I'm comfortable there.
Rivera's Repairs was the challenge: third person close, technical competence-focused, lower stakes, cozy(ish), sci-fi, female lead. I outlined the whole thing before the writeathon with the intent to keep danger minimal and focus on repairs, relationships, and found family.
And then I actually started writing.
"This story isn't cozy."
Yeah. I know. I've removed the tag, and the mentions in the blurb.
I had every intention of keeping things lowkey. Tess was going to fix dungeon systems, bond with CORE-B, maybe face some bureaucratic friction, and that was it.
And then everything just sort of . By the time I realized what was happening, Tess was knee-deep in tension and intrigue. I was having way too much fun to stop.
To be honest, I'm happier with how it turned out. The cozy elements are still there of course—some found family, the repair jobs, the warmth between Tess and those around her—but the stakes escalated way beyond what I had set out to write. Turns out I'm not great at writing "nothing goes wrong."
Who knew?
"There are timeline inconsistencies. Character X shouldn't know about Y yet. The tech formatting isn't always consistent."
Yep. You're right.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Third person POV is hard. Writing thousands of words every day is hard.
Keeping track what's going on, and making sure the reader has context without a first-person narrator constantly explaining internal logic? Way more difficult than I expected.
As for the tech formatting, I've switched completely to a Markdown editor and a workflow that plays nice with Royal Road and Patreon editors. So you'll see these improve.
Book 1 is getting a serious editing pass before I do anything official with it. The bones are solid, but it needs serious work before anything happens with it.
If you spotted something that didn't track—you're probably right. I'll fix it. For now, I'm focused on getting Issue #2 written properly.
"How did you write 76,000 words in less than a month?"
I took time off work and treated it like a job. Writing sprints in the morning, editing passes in the afternoon (and sometimes midnights), ProWritingAid and AutoCrit sessions before posting.
Those tools aren't perfect, but they helped me catch the obvious stuff and kept me honest about readability and pacing. I'm still on the fence with some phrasing replacements.
Also, I went cross-eyed staring at my monitor. A lot. Would not recommend for extended periods.
But it worked. I proved to myself I can write at this pace if I have the time and focus. Now I just need to figure out how to sustain it.
"Why 'Issue #2' instead of 'Book #2'? And why aren't you posting tomorrow?"
I can't sustain the Writeathon pace while working full-time. Issue #2 is being written slower, with more attention to detail.
The "Issue" structure is borrowed from old sci-fi serials. Each issue is a complete story arc, but shorter and more focused than traditional serial doorstoppers. Makes them easier to write alongside my other project.
Once Issue #2 is finished, it'll post to Royal Road in short order—probably daily or every other day in 2026 until complete. But I'm not posting chapter-by-chapter as I write it. I've learned my lesson about editing on the fly.
"Why not drop Path of the Paladin and focus on this full-time?"
Two reasons:
- I like writing both. They scratch different creative itches. Switching between them keeps me from burning out on either.
- Path of the Paladin has been signed by a publisher and is currently in final editing passes before launching on Kindle Unlimited and Audible. So—you know—there's that.
I'm not abandoning Tess. But I'm also not abandoning Ben. Both stories matter to me.
Issue #2 is already underway on Patreon. I'm excited about where Tess's story goes next. Once it's done, it'll go live here on Royal Road.
If you have thoughts, criticisms, or suggestions, drop them in the comments below. I'll read them. I can't promise I'll change anything but I'll take your feedback into account for future installments.
One more time: thank you for being here. For reading, commenting, rating, and following this weird little story about a girl who just wants to fix things.
Rivera's Repairs will return. Tess has more work to do, Bee has a lot more to learn about her past, and Tertius-Prime isn't getting any less broken.
Someone's gotta fix it. Might as well be us, right?
—M.S. Davidson