THE DRIFT EDITING

THE DRIFT EDITING IS DONE! PREPARING FOR PUBLISHING

THE LONG ROAD THROUGH THE DRIFT

There is a dangerous thing that happens when you spend years living inside a story.

You stop seeing it.

When we finished writing The Drift, it was our favorite novel of the Warriors of the Last Days series, at least when it was only supposed to be four books and twelve short stories…

It had everything we loved: the journey west, the growing mystery, the isolation, the evolving creatures, the most of any Warriors novels so far, and what we believed was Una’s strongest adventure. Whenever we talked about the series, The Drift was always “the good one.” The one we couldn’t wait for readers to discover.

Then came editing. We expected it to be easy.

It wasn’t.

THE PROCESS

After all, we’d spent months polishing The Refusal until every page had been rewritten multiple times. The Exodus, which we originally feared might be the weakest entry in the series, surprised us completely. Editing revealed a much stronger novel than we remembered, and every pass made it sharper, faster, and more emotionally satisfying. We even added a few more creatures beats that were not planned and several new chapters while leaning out the excess and the fat. It was a hard but not difficult edit.

So naturally, we assumed The Drift (already our favorite) would need very little work.

We couldn’t have been more wrong.

THE NIGHTMARE OF EDITING THE DRIFT

What followed was, by far, the most demanding editorial process we’ve experienced on the series so far.

Entire acts had to be rebuilt. It was for the better, but still.

Character motivations had to be strengthened. It was too static, so action was added and stakes where raised.

Sequences we once loved simply didn’t work anymore and had to be rewritten from the ground up.

Some chapters were dismantled and reconstructed piece by piece.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was how much the world itself grew during the process.

Several new creatures found their way into the novel, species that hadn’t even existed during the original draft but now feel essential to the ecosystem of the post-apocalyptic West Island and Montreal itself in the eastern section.

We also spent countless hours studying the geography of Montreal’s western edge, making every river, woodland, abandoned road, and forgotten community feel more authentic and interconnected.

We even found a way to add the infamous, almost extinct infamous Montreal Melon in that story! Something we are not not proud of… 🙂

Most importantly, Una changed.

THE EVOLUTION OF UNA

Don’t get us wrong: we love Una.

Her emotional journey became clearer, stronger, and far more satisfying than the version we originally wrote. Every difficult rewrite pushed her arc closer to what it had always been trying to become.

That was the absolute irony: it was all there, we just never saw it, blinded by the pursuit of finishing the novel up, we had forgotten about our main protagonist own story.

There were days when editing felt less like writing and more like pulling teeth.

The manuscript fought us at every turn.

But something remarkable happened during that struggle.

Clarity emerged.

Scenes that once felt merely interesting became meaningful. Relationships became more believable. Other characters, mostly there to deliver a dramatic beat, actually become more important to Una, more human, not just walking plot points. The pacing tightened. Tremendously. So much so that the editors pushed back, fearing we were losing the novel. Then they read the new stuff and relented. Themes that had been buried beneath layers of prose finally surfaced naturally.

Sometimes a novel doesn’t need more words.

It needs better ones. And that is on us.

With the manuscript now complete, our attention turns to production.

The digital edition is currently being prepared in Vellum, where the final ePUB is receiving its finishing touches for eBook retailers. At the same time, we’re assembling the print edition Apple Pages, for eventual publication through through BookVault, ensuring that, for the first time in the series, readers should be able to choose between digital and paperback on launch day.

That has been one of our goals since the beginning.

If everything continues according to plan, The Drift will release on time, as advertised, this September 28, 2026, with both editions available simultaneously.

THE CONCLUSION:

The road to get here wasn’t easy.

It was frustrating.

It was exhausting.

It forced us to question scenes we once thought untouchable.

But looking back now, we wouldn’t change a thing.

Sometimes the novels you love the most are the ones that demand the most from you before they’re ready to meet the world.

The companion short story, Heading West, is already out! Do not miss it! Join our newsletter to read it for free!

If The Drift leaves readers with even a fraction of the satisfaction we feel now that it’s finished, every painful rewrite, every deleted page, and every late-night editorial battle will have been worth it.

If you did, and even if you did not, tell us in a review of as a comment.

EDIT: WE DID IT! The story will be released both as ePub and Print version on the day of the launch!