Like Orion & Spark is complete. When I look through this book, sometimes I can't really fathom it. Knowing that I finished this is such a weird feeling. I published the first chapter of this story in April, and five months later, I'm done.

When I announced this project, I was doing it to answer all the questions I had about my writing. I looked at my old drafts of this story and realized just how much my writing had changed since then.

Over the years, Like Orion and Spark has gone through many drafts. As a result, most of the original story has changed. The very first draft was lost to time, and if I ever did share any of the old chapters that I still have, it would be practically unrecognizable to current readers.

I never imagined I would want to return to a document from 2017. I never imagined that it would ever be finished, or that it would end up as the series I love so dearly.

If you read this story, thank you. Thank you for clicking on this book, for giving it a chance, and for continuing to believe in me. Because I wouldn't be here without the reassurance that people are actually enjoying what I write, laughing at my jokes, and supporting me even when I was doubting myself.

For the new readers who read this as a stand-alone, thank you. I don't know how you came across this book, but I hope you found some enjoyment from it, even without knowing anything about these characters. For the readers who read this after Starlight, thank you. I promise the sequel will happen. I just needed to finish this first, so that when Starlight in Crystal City is over, that will be the finale to the series. That was always the way it was going to be.

So what is LOAS actually about?
When I started, way back in 2017, I probably would have said something about how not every story is entirely black and white. How Kieran and Riley are just two sides of the same coin, neither heroes nor villains. If you asked me right this second, I'd tell you that this is still a story about what it means to be a superhero (or, in this case, a supervillain, depending on how you look at it).

That's the moral of this series as a whole. Riley is the hero of his own story. For him, being a hero means doing the right thing, even when the right thing is immoral. Do you have to agree with all of his choices? Of course not. But that's the point.

What happens to Kieran and Riley after this?
For new readers: both Kieran and Riley play a role in Starlight, the novel I completed earlier this year. This book is a prequel to that series, so if you liked the lighthearted nature of this story, then you'd probably enjoy it as well. Granted, Kieran and Riley are minor characters in Kacie's story, but they are both there, as perfectly chaotic parents.

What about Phantom?
For old readers: Yes, Phantom is mysteriously absent. In the original drafts, he used to have a large presence here. But I couldn't do that in this version... at least, not without losing some of Riley's agency. He appears as a villain later, after Kieran and Riley are married. This book is about Spark's glory days.

Fun Facts:
Since I had to fix/change a lot about this book, here are a few facts I thought I would share.

* In the original draft, Riley encounters Almighty Orion before he makes his appearance on TV.  (In an alleyway... don't ask me why.)

* Before I decided to combine my idea for a superhero book with Kacie's character, Kieran did not have the last name. It was actually Kacie who I had originally given the last name 'Janacek.' Thus, when the ideas were combined, Kieran adopted this name.

* In the original draft, it's actually Phantom who kidnaps Almighty Orion. Phantom, however, makes no appearance in this version. His appearance as a villain directly correlates to the same time frame when Kacie was adopted, thus making it possible that Riley chose to become his henchman in order to make a better candidate for the adoption agency.

* The surnames Grant (Trevor) and McAubrey (Matt) were both inspired by real people I knew in high school. (Also, I know like three different Comeau families—it's a fairly popular Acadian last name.)

* The first line of the original draft was: The first time I knew fire, I was twelve. I used this line in chapter three.

* In the second iteration of LOAS, one of Nico's character quirks involved an online girlfriend named Arden.

* Riley's personality used to be much abrasive and distant, especially while in the presence of Orion. Conversely, Orion's superhero persona was much more forward/flirty with Spark while they were both in costume. An example of this is the first fight scene, in chapter twelve, where Riley asks for Orion to "put him down." This scene is actually almost identical to its original version.

* The whole scene with the nightlight was where Kieran and Riley originally had their first kiss. Later in that draft, when Orion is kidnapped, (and thus Kieran is nowhere to be found) Riley sadly looks at the gift and agonizes over his decisions (for the angst).

* Phantom's main goal in the original story had more of a manipulative twist. He'd essentially kidnapped Orion to use as bait for Riley, so that he could use them for his evil deeds. The whole debacle with removing powers was added as a "side effect" of this. (You might recognize this plot from Starlight. I shifted it over to that story when I made the switch between having Riley as the main protagonist for this series and using Kacie instead.)

* Gabriel went through the most names changes of any other character. His original draft name was "Sean" which I later changed to: Shawn, Shai, Alexander, Rowan, Ryan, and finally to Gabriel.

* Kieran's backstory used to be much more tragic. Phantom's plans involved taking Kieran's friends hostage, forcing Kieran to make the decision to save himself or let his friends be captured. That was his original motivation for wanting to infiltrate Phantom's base, which led to his kidnapping.

(In case you were wondering, yes, the friends were basically early versions of Nia and Priya. Back then, Nia's hero name was Andromeda, and her power was still iron/steel, just without the glass element added to it. Oh, and her eyes flashed purple when she used her power. It was a whole thing in the original draft. Each power had a certain aura/colour assigned to it. Orion's colour was blue, hence why his telekinesis has a blue hue to it. I did keep this aspect of things, but the aura concept didn't stick.)

* Spark's villain name was Blaise originally, which led to multiple instances of Almighty making fire-related puns. There were just more puns in general, basically.

* At one point, Almighty Orion had the ability to talk to Riley in his dreams. (It was about as overpowered as you'd expect.)

* Kris Ainsley was supposed to have superpowers. The timeline would have made her identity Violet Galactic, but as things changed that eventually became chronologically impossible. I settled for making her a relative of the heroine instead.

* Trevor's old car originally functioned only because Riley's latent electricity powers were keeping it working.

* Gabriel's band, which was called Aline, originally wrote the song called "Like Orion and Spark" that later became the title for this book.

In summary, things change. Some characters changed entirely from where they began and the setting/plot changed a lot. I tried to capture that college feeling in this book, ranging from Riley feeling older than other teenagers despite barely knowing how to be an adult (chapter 21) to Nico changing majors until he eventually decides to leave the university altogether to study law. To be honest, this didn't exist in the original version because I didn't know what college was like. In that sense, returning to this idea helped me fix its issues in a lot of ways.

Figuring out where you belong has always been a theme in Starlight, so it only seems fair to include it here too. In Kacie's story, I made her feel trapped using the glass case in the first chapter. In this book, I incorporated similar themes that eventually come full circle. Riley's narration makes quite a few references to the ocean and the sensation of drowning, something that he eventually finds solace from when he reveals his identity. There are also some notes about fate and circumstance, both fairly important factors in the story of Orion and Spark.

From the beginning, Kieran and Riley were always fated to meet. That is something that will never change. They are two halves of one whole. Villain and hero, yin and yang. Forever and always.

Below this section is the previous and current cover for this book. I don't have the same amount I did for Starlight, but if for some reason, you want to make me a cover, I would be forever grateful. Seriously. I will showcase it here. Try me.

(The first cover, which I made myself.)

(This awesome cover by @lantea- who also made the covers for the rest of the series!!)

If you have any suggestions, or if you just want to talk about this book, feel free. And, if you have made it this far, I appreciate you so much. I hope you enjoyed coming on this journey with me.

With love,
–Kae.