We got OVER 50 APPLICATIONS to Beta Read Daughter of Origin.

Fifty.

I genuinely did not expect that many of you to volunteer to read 124,000+ words of my emotional damage and then willingly sign up to tell me everything I did wrong. 😂

And let me tell you—choosing seven was HARD.

There were so many applications I loved. People who have Beta Read for other authors, people who have never Beta Read a book in their lives but gave incredibly thoughtful answers, mothers who saw themselves in Aelyra before they’d even met her, voracious romantasy readers, emotional readers, analytical readers, and people who basically said, “Give me the book and let me rip you a new one.”

Which, unfortunately for my feelings, is exactly what I asked for.

I didn’t choose seven people because I thought they’d tell me Daughter of Origin is amazing. I chose seven people because I think they’ll each read this book a little differently—and because I trust them to tell me when something isn’t working.

So...

THE SEVEN BETA READERS FOR DAUGHTER OF ORIGIN ARE:

Nicole — nryerson17•••
Suzanna Lee — Suzilitalee•••
Lisette — lfv0921•••
Brittany Hartmann — blh43089•••
Heather Olsen — heatherolsen2442•••
Kyle — Oddmanout25•••
Tegan — tegankdoe•••

YOU’RE IN. 😭🔥

If your name and partial email are listed above, check your inbox! I am sending each of you instructions privately.

Your Beta Reading window begins TODAY and ends September 1 at 8:00 PM ET.

You’ll be reading Daughter of Origin through BetaReader.io, where you’ll be able to highlight the actual manuscript and leave your reactions directly on the places that caused them.

And PLEASE use that feature.

I want the unhinged reader thoughts.

I want “OH MY GOD.”

I want “FUCK THIS MAN.”

I want “Wait... what?”

I want “I KNEW IT.”

I want “Lauren, absolutely fucking not.”

I also want “I’m confused,” “This dragged,” “I don’t believe she’d do this,” “I skimmed here,” and “Something about this isn’t working for me.”

I want you to fall in love with it.

And I want you to rip me a new one wherever it needs it.

Because this is the last window where I get to hand Daughter of Origin to people whose literal job is to find the weak spots before the rest of the world gets it.

Which brings me to the slightly terrifying part.

I was up until 2:00 this morning working through last-minute edits before getting this manuscript ready for you.

I’ve wanted this day for months.

And now that it’s here?

I’m fucking terrified. 😂

Because seven people are about to read the WHOLE THING.

Not Chapter One.

Not a carefully chosen quote on TikTok.

Not an aesthetic Reel with pretty music where I get to control exactly what you see.

The book.

My weird little world. My characters. My twists. My secrets. My favorite lines. The scenes that made me cry while writing them. The things I’ve been biting my tongue trying not to spoil for months.

You’re about to know all of it.

And I desperately hope you love it.

But more importantly, I hope you tell me the truth.

Because when Daughter of Origin goes out into the world on February 8, I don’t want to wonder whether I could have made it better.

I want to know we fucking tried.

So, to my seven:

Welcome to Nythara.

Please be gentle with my heart.

And absolutely ruthless with my manuscript.

Let’s make this book incredible. 🖤

Love always,

L.L. Schmid

Yesterday, the brand-new Instagram account just 4 days prior, I made specifically for Daughter of Origin, had something like 32 followers. As I’m writing this, it has more than 1,350. My TikTok is creeping toward 3,000.

And I know I’m supposed to be feeling like I’m riding high on excitement right now…

But……….Holy shit.

And don’t get me wrong—I am riding high emotionally. Because holy shit...

I mean…this is what I wanted. I wanted people to find Aelyra. I wanted women to hear that there was a 33-year-old mother of three walking into a romantasy story and say, Wait. What? I want to read about her. I wanted readers. I wanted people talking about this book. I wanted preorders. I wanted strangers on the internet to care about something that, for a very long time, existed only inside my head.

And now they’re starting to.

So naturally, my brain has responded to this objectively wonderful development by going, “oh fuck.”

Because something strange happened in my brain recently… it’s almost as if I knew I was marketing it and sharing it but now it suddenly gets an audience and I have to admit I feel a bit queasy. The stakes change. When thirty people are watching, it’s relatively easy to be brave. When hundreds of thousands of people are watching, suddenly I’m clutching my manuscript wondering: What if this book isn’t actually good?

What if all of this attention turns into anticipation I can’t live up to? What if people preorder it because the premise sounds incredible, and then February comes and they actually read it and...

Oh. Meh.

What if it flops?

And I don’t even mean financially. I mean the worst kind imaginable.

What if I disappoint them?

Tomorrow, my beta manuscripts go out.

Seven people are going to get the entire thing. Not a Reel. Not a trope list. Not a carefully selected excerpt or Chapter One sneak peek. They’re getting all 130,000-ish words of Daughter of Origin, and I am specifically asking them to tell me what’s wrong with it.

And I mean that.

I don’t want seven people to come back and tell me I’m brilliant. I don’t want them protecting my feelings. I don’t want, “OMG, I loved it!” followed by nothing useful.

I want them to rip me a new one, I can take it.

Tell me where you got bored. Tell me where you were confused. Tell me where you wanted to skim. Tell me if a character’s decision made absolutely no fucking sense. Tell me if the romance didn’t land. Tell me if you saw something coming from three counties away. Tell me if I thought I explained something and apparently only explained it to myself. Tell me where you wanted more and where, “for the love of God, L.L.”, you needed less.

I want all of it because I still have time to fix it.

I want these seven people to help me find every weak spot I can find before thousands of other readers get their hands on it.

Because to be so for real… I am fucking terrified they’re going to hate it.

Welcome to the author’s brain. There are no adults here.

It doesn’t help that we’re currently putting my editor’s comments into the manuscript, which means I’m rereading the book. Again. And again. And there are sentences I get to and think, I’d write that differently now. And I wind up doing exactly that. There are scenes where I wonder if I should move something, add something, take something away, make this sharper, make that softer, change one word, change twelve, or burn an entire paragraph to the ground.

The book keeps getting better.

That’s the problem.

Because I’m getting better, too. I’ve never done this before to this extent.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been told my many people in my life that I should have been a lawyer or a writer. I’ve been through a lot in my life that has made me eloquent and funny. But, I’ve been through a lot in my life that causes me to over explain and that sometimes makes its flowery way into my writing. Joy!

The writer editing Daughter of Origin today knows things the woman who first sat down to write it didn’t know yet.

Very cool.

Love that for me.

And while I’m doing this, more people keep showing up. Another follower. Another comment. Another preorder. Another person saying they can’t wait until February.

Every preorder is a real person saying, I trust you with my money before I’ve even read the book. Every follow is someone saying, Okay. You’ve got my attention. Every person asking when it’s coming out makes this story a little less like the private world I’ve been living inside and a little more like something that will eventually belong to readers. It’s so scary! It’s so exciting! It’s… just SO!

I desperately hope that the readers who are preordering will love this world and these characters the way I do… and sometimes my neurospicy brain doesnt always think like everyone else’s and I just pray I’m not deluding myself into thinking this book is good.

Maybe that’s why I’m writing this instead of pretending I’m walking around completely confident because a Reel went viral.

Because I am confident.

And I’m terrified.

Two things can be true at the same time.

I believe in this story. I believe in Aelyra. I believe there is a reason I couldn’t leave these characters alone. I believe women who have already lived entire lives deserve to stand at the center of fantasy stories—not conveniently off-page while someone younger gets to have the adventure. I believe mothers can be warriors and lovers and complicated women with rage, regrets, desire, scars and power.

I believe in Daughter of Origin.

And I am still scared you won’t.

Maybe that’s part of making something you actually care about. At some point, you have to accept that you will never reach the magical moment when you look at 130,000 words and think, Yes. Every single one of these is perfect. I shall never touch them again.

You edit it. You question it. You obsess over things no normal human being will ever notice. You hand it to an editor. You hand it to seven beta readers and explicitly ask them to hurt your feelings. You listen. You make it better.

And eventually—God help me—you stop touching it.

Then you hand it to the reader.

I’m not quite at that last part yet.

Tonight, I’m somewhere between holy shit, 300,000 people saw my Reel and maybe I should rewrite Chapter Seven.

But underneath all of this anxiety that has me writing to you all, my beautiful OIC’s at 1:26 in the morning, there is something else.

Gratitude. So much gratitude for it all.

Because 32 followers becoming more than 1,300 overnight is insane. Nearly 3,000 people choosing to follow this journey on TikTok is insane. $2,823 in preorders for a book that doesn’t come out until February is insane.

And tomorrow (well later today I guess actually lol), seven of you (because I couldn’t pick just five) are going to open a manuscript containing people and places that have lived inside my head for months. They’re going to meet all of them. They’re going to know things I’ve been desperately trying not to spoil on the internet.

They’re going to see the whole thing. I hope they fall in love with it. I hope they rip it apart where it needs to be ripped apart. And I really, really hope those two things can happen at the same time.

Then I’m going to make Daughter of Origin as good as I possibly know how to make it.

And eventually, I’m going to have to do the scariest thing I’ve done with it yet.

Trust it.

Even if everyone is watching.

Pray for me!

Love you all,

L.L. 🖤🖤

Ok…. heres the stipulations:

1. I do NOT want ya’ll to fluff me up and tell me how much you loved it (I mean, yes but also no lol) because I want you to tell me all the parts that are boring, dont make sense, drag on, or need more clarification.

2. If it makes you pause… in a bad way, like “wtf did I just read” and not because the emotions got you good, I need to know. This is my one and only chance to make this thing PERRRRRFECT.

3. If the slow burn isnt burn-y enough, I need to know.

4. If it’s too burn-y, I need to know.

5. If it doesn't feel like enough is happening, I need to know.

Tear me apart, in the best way, because this book and its overall messages deserve to be heard around the world and that can ONLY happen if you guys help me perfect it.

I’ll be choosing beta’s by August 15th. You do have a time clock on this. I need it completed and your feedback returned to me by September 1st, 2026. Thats 17 full days of reading.

If you dont get selected for beta reading, dont worry I have a follow up that will come to teach you how to get arcs.

That being said…… here’s the application:

Beta Application

Love you guys!!

🖤 L.L. Schmid 🖤

And I have been sitting over here watching your comments and reactions like—

👁️👄👁️

Because here’s the thing.

You know nothing yet.

Respectfully. 😂

You have met Aelyra. You’ve met her children. You’ve gotten a glimpse into the life she’s been living and the choices beginning to close in around her.

And some of you already have opinions.

Which I LOVE.

But what is absolutely killing me is knowing what happens after the point where I left you.

Because Chapter One?

Chapter One is me being nice.

Chapter One is me inviting you inside, taking your coat, pouring you a drink, and saying, Welcome! I’m so happy you’re here!

The rest of the book is me locking the door behind you. Ever seen the movie “A Bronx Tale”? Yea… after Chapter One… thats me being like “Now you’s can’t leave.”

😂

And I can’t tell you anything either. Do you understand how DIFFICULT this is for me?! It is literal torture.

There are characters you haven’t met yet who I am genuinely desperate to talk to you about. You will love them, you will hate them, you will cry right alongside them.

There are places in this world I have been living inside my head for months that you haven’t seen. There are conversations I desperately want to quote at you.

There are moments that made me laugh while I was writing them, moments that made me sit back from my computer and go, ohhhhhhh shit, and scenes I wrote while crying like an absolute lunatic.

There are easter eggs inside this book that will come back and slap you right in the gob one day.

But now we’re getting to the REALLY exciting part.

Because Daughter of Origin is officially out of my hands and into professional editing.

Which means we’re getting closer to the moment I’ve been simultaneously dreaming about and absolutely terrified of:

Other people reading the entire book.

Not eleven-second TikToks where I emotionally terrorize you and then refuse to elaborate. 😂

The whole thing.

All 130,000-ish words of it. And everything I have been keeping my big mouth shut about for MONTHS. Well... mostly keeping my mouth shut.

I’m only human. 🤷🏻‍♀️

And because we’re getting close to that stage, I’m going to be opening applications soon for the first beta readers of Daughter of Origin.

These will be a very small number of people who get to read the manuscript before almost anyone else.

And I don’t just need people who will tell me they love it.

Actually, please don’t apply if that’s all you’re willing to tell me. 😂

I need readers.

Romantasy readers.

The people who know when a slow burn is burning and when it’s just taking too damn long.

The people who notice when something doesn’t make sense, and will finish the whole book before saying it didn’t. (Easter eggs remember?)

The people who become irrationally attached to fictional side characters and would like to formally complain when I hurt them.

The people who will message me at 1:47 in the morning with something along the lines of:

LAUREN WHAT THE FUCK.

Those are my people.

And after beta reading comes something even bigger.

ARCs.

Those will go out much closer to publication, when the book is polished, formatted, pretty, and ready to make its way into the world. And THEN...

I’m putting together a Daughter of Origin street team.

And that group?

Ohhhhh, we’re going to have fucking fun. Because I don’t want this launch to feel like me standing on the internet screaming,

“PLEASE BUY MY BOOK!”

I want it to feel like a bunch of people grabbing their friends by the shoulders and saying, “NO. LISTEN TO ME. YOU DONT UNDERSTAND. YOU NEED TO READ THIS.”

I want inside jokes. I want theories. I want character wars.

I want people arguing about who they would trust with their life and who they would absolutely push into a ravine and relish their screams.

I want readers discovering things I buried in the story and coming back into the Inner Circle screaming because HOW DID WE MISS THAT?! I want this whole thing to feel like what reading has always felt like to me:

Finding people who understand why fictional worlds can somehow become real places in your memory. And if you’ve been here since before Daughter of Origin was even a real book you could hold in your hands... I hope you know how special that is to me. Someday someone is going to tell you they just discovered Daughter of Origin.

And you get to be obnoxious and say:

“Oh, I’ve been here since Chapter One.”

(As you should. 😂🖤)

And to those of you who read the Chapter One preview... I have one major question.

What do you think happens next?

Because I desperately want to hear your theories. And I promise……………. I won’t tell you if you’re right.

😏

—L.L.

Love,

L.L.

For over a year, this story has lived only in my head, on my laptop, and in stacks of printed pages scattered across my house with colored rainbows doodled on the back by my toddlers. I’ve spent countless hours writing, rewriting, questioning my entire premise, my sanity and who I think I am that I could write an actual BOOK…. wondering if this story would ever resonate with anyone besides me.

Then, about a month ago, I finally worked up the courage to start sharing pieces of it on TikTok.

I had no idea what would happen.

I certainly never expected thousands of people to watch, hundreds of women to tell me they finally felt seen, or complete strangers to begin asking where they could buy a book that wasn’t even available yet.

Yesterday...

It finally became real.

Preorders officially opened.

Typing those words still feels surreal.

To every single one of you who has followed this journey over the past month, left a comment, shared a video, joined the Origin Inner Circle, or quietly cheered me on from behind your screen...

Thank you.

I’m genuinely overwhelmed by how interested you’ve become in this story, these characters, and this world. Every message asking, “When can I read this?” or “I need this book!” reminds me that maybe I wasn’t the only person waiting for a heroine like Aelyra after all.

One of the greatest surprises has been the response to her.

A thirty-three-year-old mother.

A woman carrying visible and invisible scars.

A woman who doesnt have the luxury of breaking down when she desperately needs to because there are little eyes watching her.

I’ve lost count of how many women have told me they never realized how much they wanted to see a mother at the center of an epic Romantasy until now.

Those comments have meant more to me than I can adequately express.

Because of that...

I’d love to do something special for the people who have believed in this story before it ever even reached pre-order status and bookstore shelves.

A Gift for the Origin Inner Circle

As a thank-you to the members of the Origin Inner Circle, I’d love to permanently include you in the first edition of Daughter of Origin.

If you’d like your name printed in the acknowledgments, simply send me a private message here on Substack with your full name exactly as you’d like it to appear in print.

Whether that’s your full legal name, a nickname, or another name you’re comfortable being published under is entirely your choice.

I’ll be collecting names over the coming weeks before the acknowledgments are finalized.

Years from now, whenever someone opens a first edition of Daughter of Origin, your name will be there as one of the readers who believed in this story from the very beginning.

I can’t think of a better way to thank you.

From the bottom of my heart...

Thank you for believing in me.

Thank you for believing in Aelyra.

And thank you for helping make a dream I’ve carried for so many years begin to feel wonderfully, impossibly real.

We’re only just getting started.

If you want to pre-order you can click here.

I love you all. 🖤

With love,

L. L. Schmid

I’m deep in self-edits for Daughter of Origin, and somewhere in the middle of rereading everything, I had one of those moments every writer simultaneously dreads and loves:

“Fuck... I need to give better context here.”

Not because I wanted to make the book longer (it’s already becoming the hefty Romantasy it was always destined to be), but because I realized readers needed more context before one of the major story beats. Once I saw the gap, I couldn’t unsee it.

So instead of pretending it wasn’t there, I stopped. I planned. I plotted. I mused.

Hell, I even asked my teens and husband about what I should do.

Turns out— I really needed to add it. Sooo……..

I outlined an entirely new chapter, wove it into the manuscript, and now I’m continuing my edits. But now because I added that context I’m finding more things to edit as the book goes LOL!!

As frustrating as it can be to feel like I’m taking a step backward, I’ve learned that’s usually where the biggest improvements usually happen for me. Every edit brings me closer to the story I wanted to tell from the beginning—not just a finished book, but one worthy of the readers who will eventually trust me with their time.

On another exciting note, my TikTok has reached almost 1000 followers (largely because of you all!) and once that is done, I can get my website up and ready for pre-orders! I don’t think ya’ll really understand how meaningful it is to me to do this, or how much each of your comments, save’s, shares, reposts, and even tagging of your friends has done to help boost this book to more people.

Let me be SUPER clear here. I was talking to a publisher (as some of you already know) and they’re awesome. But one thing that struck me was they said “We’re not in it for the money.”

And I thought to myself… well….. I am. Let me explain why though:

Aelyra’s story isnt just hers. It’s mine and countless other women’s story across the globe.

• Being raised in a home where you feel unwelcome and unwanted.

• Learning to read peoples emotions and people pleasing to keep yourself safe.

• Marrying the wrong man who performed love until he stopped performing.

• Losing part of yourself in motherhood.

• Gaining a whole new part of yourself in motherhood.

• The weight of emotional, physical and social responsibilities being solely on you.

• Abuse in all forms, financial, emotional, psychological, religious, social, physical, and sexual.

• Dreaming of a peaceful existence you’re not sure you’ll ever have.

• Self loathing at the body that changed, guilt over not appreciating every single moment with your children.

And Arrandyrs story isnt just his. Its my husbands and countless other men around the world…

• absentee fathers even if they were still in the home.

• overbearing mothers

• being made to be the problem and filling with anger

• dating the wrong kind of women trying to replace that love you never got at home and didn’t have the words to articulate.

• getting into trouble

• having deep rooted abandonment issues from family never being what you needed them to be for you.

• Being used for financial gain.

• Bearing the incredible mental, physical and emotional responsibility of protecting those you love, even from your own damage and emotions.

So… every single person who buys this book doesn’t just get a copy of a Romantasy. They get a place to feel seen, heard, loved, worthy, and I hope, a piece of healing for themselves as they see these characters battle with their own emotions, their own lived scenarios, and how they are still allowed to become the best version of themselves regardless of their pasts.

So to me… yea, I’m in it for the “money” because it’s a QUANTIFIABLE way for me to see how many people my characters are helping.

And finally...

To everyone who’s joined this little corner of the internet recently—welcome.

Over fifty of you have subscribed since my last post, and I honestly can’t tell you how much that means to me. Every time I get a notification that someone new has decided to follow along, I have a tiny moment of, “Wait... there are actual people excited about this… people who care enough that want to follow the journey from the inside?????” And then in full transparency I do a little dance. 🤣

There are days when writing feels magical, and there are days when it feels like wrestling a dragon armed with nothing but rage and stubbornness— aka a toddler.

Thank you for being here for all of it. I love you guys.

I’m excited to keep bringing you behind the scenes as Daughter of Origin comes to life. There are so many characters, secrets, and moments I can’t wait to share with you.

We’re still at the beginning of this adventure, and I’m so grateful you’re taking it with me.

Until next week,

Lauren

Honestly, that feels appropriate.

Because if there is one thing I’ve learned while writing Daughter of Origin, it’s that freedom is a precious thing. It is worth protecting, defending, and fighting for.

No one in this story understands that better than Arrandyr.

(And if you want to help me settle the debate on how to pronounce his name, leave your guess in the comments first before I tell you how I say it.)

So tonight, while the sky outside bursts with celebration, I want to introduce you to the male who has lived in my head, haunted my thoughts, and quite possibly ruined me for writing any other fictional male.

Meet Arrandyr.

My 514-year-old shadow prince.

(Second pic is just to help you see his face as I pictured him in my head.)

The most feared male in all of Nythara.

He commands shadows that move like they’re alive — because they are.

He’s been feared since the moment he was born.

He was born with shadows bursting from his skin. His own mother looked at her newborn son and called him a monster.

She’d lock him in the dark to try to make the shadows leave him. He was her greatest shame.

He spent days locked in the dark, with no one but the shadows to accompany him as he cried for his mama. He learned to fear himself before he had ever learned to walk.

Over the years, his family learned to exploit the fear he inspired, and desperate to please them and be loved, he leaned into that role. And he was damn good at it.

Then… betrayal.

A century. Alone. In a cell built by the people who were supposed to be his whole world.

But those who knew him and loved him were devoted to him, despite his own belief that he was unlovable.

He built a house with his bare hands when he had nothing—a place that was his. And somehow, impossibly, the house woke up. Grew fond of him. Started caring for him and his found family.

It was as if even the walls in this home could tell: this male deserved to be loved.

As a personal aside, I fell for my husband because he saw a woman, a mother, who had been hurt deeply. He never once asked me to be less, chastised me, or gave me reason to have any fear… and that is how I built Arrandyr.

He is the male I have always dreamed of, and never thought I would ever have.

So I built a male out of that same bone-deep ache I had always had, and the absolute joy I now have in my life.

Because my husband, if we lived in different times and magic like faerie tales existed, would be:

A male who can level a kingdom with a thought and still believes, quietly, that he is not enough, and that being seen fully for himself means being left.

A male who would burn the world down for the people he loves, never fully believing that he is worthy because of what his mother did to him.

Arrandyr is that male. Fearsome. Capable of extreme violence if need be. Protective. Reasonable. Communicative. Gentle. Funny. At his heart, generally happy.

And then I handed him Aelyra.

A human woman. Thirty-three. A mother of three. A woman who spent so many years disappearing beside her mother and inside her own marriage that she never got a chance to become the woman she was always destined to be.

She walks into his life certain she’s the one who needs saving, certain she’s the problem, certain she has too much baggage.

And yet...

The real love story is a five-hundred-year-old male who believed he was unlovable, meeting the one person who looked at him like he always was.

Tonight, while the sky outside bursts with celebration, I’m introducing you to the male who ruined me for writing anyone else, because so much of who he is, is my husband.

Tell me honestly: what makes a fictional male unforgettable? 🖤✨📚

I don’t think we fell in love with Feyre, Aelin, Nesta, Auren, Manon, Bryce, Lysandra, Morrigan, or any of the other women who live rent-free in our heads because they were strong.

I think we love them because they were hurt people who don’t choose to hurt people.

And because, despite everything that happened to them, they still found strength, happiness, purpose, love, friendship, and themselves.

Feyre learned she deserved more and it was ok to seek it.

Aelin carried unimaginable loss and still chose joy. Nesta survived her own deep rooted self loathing and found herself in her family again.

Auren reclaimed her own body back from someone who used it.

Manon chose love over blind loyalty and legacy. Lysandra finally got to become herself, taking her body back in whatever form pleased her most.

Bryce crossed worlds for the people she loved and had faith. Danika loved so fiercely that her love outlived her and helped to save her world.

Jesiba loved in silence. Lehabah gave everything. Lidia sacrificed her joy in order to save the world.

Asterin chose faith in good despite everything that was done to her.

None of these women were beloved because they were perfect, they were flawed, and had struggles. They were beloved because they suffered, and we watched them decide that suffering would not be the end of their story.

And if I’m being honest, I think that’s why so many of us read romantasy in the first place.

Not because we believe in dragons or fae males or magical bonds. (I wish!)

But because we desperately want to believe that our story isn’t over, that mistakes, Orr choosing wrong once doesn’t mean we’ve lost our chance at choosing right.

That surviving something terrible doesn’t mean we’ve forfeited our chance at magic.

That being thirty-three, or divorced, or a mother, or exhausted, or hurt, or afraid doesn’t mean we’ve missed our chance to become the heroine of our own story.

Which brings me to Aelyra.

Aelyra is thirty-three years old.

She’s a mother of three.

She chose the wrong man.

She survived him.

And at the beginning of her story, she believes the best part of her life is already behind her.

I wrote her because when you’re in the throws of abuse it’s easy to believe that you’ll never laugh with your whole heart again, that you’ll never have the confidence you wish you did, or that you’ll ever find the love that you’ve craved your whole life.

I wrote her because I’m what happens when the woman who survived the wrong story finally gets the right one.

And maybe, if you’ve ever wondered whether you missed your chance, then I wrote her for you too.

— L. L. Schmid

What you don’t know is she is also a dog mom to a fierce little Rat Terrier named Emma. Emma is completely unaware of her size, and loves Aelyra more than she loves her own life.

Emma has been with Aelyra through years of abuse and is an excellent judge of character because of it.

Emma is inspired by my very real soul-dog, Emma, who really lived that life with me for sixteen years. I could think of no better way to honor my girl than to immortalize her in my books.

She passed on August 2nd 2023 and I miss her every day. The personality you’ll see her have in my novel is exactly how she was in real life. Funny, personable, loyal, and attached at my hip.

The last picture was her having a heart attack at the vets office. She only had eyes for me and waited until my husband arrived before she let herself pass. I truly believe it’s because she didn’t want me to be alone when she died. She was my fiercest protector and one of the greatest loves of my life.

As much as I love talking about my FMC, MMC, morally gray fae men, devastating plot twists, and the fact that I apparently decided my debut novel should become a seven-book emotional support crisis...

I realized something.

I don’t actually know YOU yet. 😅

And since you’ve officially become founding members of the Origin Inner Circle, I think that needs to change— like, now. 😂

So consider this our first official OIC Roll Call.

Tell me as much or as little as you’d like (for the love of God, please don’t doxx yourselves—we’re trying to survive emotionally devastating fantasy, not identity theft).

I’d love to know:

🖤 Where are you from? (Country, state, general region—whatever you’re comfortable sharing.)

🖤 What stage of life are you in?

• Teen?

• Twenties?

• Thirties?

• Forties?

• Beyond?

• Married?

• Single?

• Parent?

• Dog parent?

• Surviving purely on caffeine and spite?

🖤 What made you fall in love with reading?

🖤 What was the first book that absolutely consumed you?

🖤 Which fictional character permanently altered your brain chemistry?

🖤 What fantasy or romantasy world would you move to tomorrow if given the chance?

🖤 What do you wish fantasy and romantasy had MORE of?

Examples:

• Older protagonists?

• Mothers?

• Better friendships?

• More political intrigue?

• Found family?

• More spice?

• Less spice?

• Better villains?

• More emotional devastation?

🖤 Would you be interested in:

• Book clubs?

• Livestreams?

• Read-alongs?

• Character voting?

• Behind-the-scenes editing sessions?

• Cover reveal events?

• Beta reading opportunities?

• ARC opportunities?

And finally...

🖤 What book, series, scene, or character have you still not emotionally recovered from?

I’ll go first.

I’m Lauren.
I’m a 41 year old girl in her teens that still loves all things whimsical, “romantical” and a sucker for things that make me feel like I’ve stepped back in time.
I’m a wife to the guy who inspired my MMC, mother of five, former police officer, homeschool mom, and apparently someone who decided that writing a 120,000-word romantasy while raising children and running an online sales business (NO, I’m not part of some MLM lol- I own the company myself and built it from nothing.) sounded like a reasonable life choice.

I fell in love with reading because books were the first places I ever felt completely safe. My childhood… left a lot to be desired and books were a way for me to escape it for a while.

And I have still not emotionally recovered from:

• The Thirteen.

• Lehabah.

• Sam Cortland.

• Gavriel

• Aelin screaming “TAKE IT OFF!!!!!!”

• The Suriel.

• Professor Snape “Always”

• Pretty much all of Sarah J. Maas, and Rebecca Yarros, honestly. I feel like they’re my literary hero’s with how immersive they made their worlds.

Now it’s your turn.

Welcome to the Origin Inner Circle.

Let’s get to know each other. 🖤

Ok, you bad ass fire breathing bitch queen lovers…

Welcome to The Origin Inner Circle.

Seriously.

What I love most about the Beta reader content is that you aren’t joining after the book is finished and theres nothing to do but to say whether you liked or disliked it (you better not dislike it! 😂).

You’re joining while it’s still being forged. You get to help it be molded into something as tremendous as Prythian, Terrasen, Navarre, or Midguard. You get to help shape it into the biggest, richest, most unforgettable world I'm capable of creating. Those worlds set the bar for me. That's what I'm chasing.

That makes you part of something incredibly special to me. And, I’m humbled to have you here. Some of your comments on my TikTok have had me crying. Thank you.

I want to tell you exactly what this community is—and what it isn’t, because expectations are important.

This isn’t going to be a newsletter where I disappear for three months and randomly email you when the book launches. Ew. Who TF wants that??

No, you’re getting a front-row seat to the show.

Over the coming months, you’ll watch The Origin Series evolve from a manuscript in editing to finished manuscript and into a published novel.

Side note, I’m 41, you’re going to see an Oxford Comma in my writing. Annnnnd for full transparency, I do love a well placed Em Dash… (it’s this one “—” for anyone who doesn’t know). I grew up playing Oregon Trail and having teachers tell me I would’t have a calculator with me at all times (suck it Mrs. Butler!). I also was the kid who played goalie in soccer because I liked having time to pretend I was at a fancy ball and just dance around until I was needed. So…. yeah.

You’ll see worldbuilding here that won’t appear anywhere else.

You’ll meet your characters before the rest of the world does.

You’ll watch scenes change and morph into something that you want to scream, cry or laugh at.

You’ll see artwork as it’s commissioned— and yes, I do plan on using real artists. My oldest is helping me find creators to work with because she’s artsy like that.

You’ll witness the cover come to life… I already have a vision for it in my head and it’s fucking gorgeous.

One thing that is incredibly important to me:

I’m committed to working with real people. That means hiring talented artists to create original character art and a cover worthy of this story… because when it comes to books, let’s be honest a lot of us judge them by the cover.

It means working with professional editors to make this book the strongest version of itself.

It means investing in quality instead of cutting corners.

And here’s where you come in.

Your thoughts matter to me.

Your excitement matters… more than you could ever know.

Your feedback has the potential to shape this story before it reaches thousands of readers… and as a thank you, our OIC will get its own mention in ALL of my books… because this bitch is about to be a planned 7 part series because its that epic of a tale.

In the next few weeks I’ll be selecting a small group of beta readers.

Rather than simply picking names from applications, I’m planning something a little more fun.

Members of the Origin Inner Circle who submit their applications will have the opportunity to enter a live Zoom drawing where I’ll randomly select the first beta readers out of a pool of the most qualified (aka biggest readers!) applications.

If your name isn’t chosen, don’t panic!! (Completely hypocritical of me to say because if I was on the other end of this I 100% would absolutely panic)

You’ll still have opportunities to join the ARC Team and read the book before publication in exchange for an honest review.

I’m also beginning to dream bigger than just “publishing a novel.”

I’d love to create character content, cinematic teasers, and eventually audiobook experiences.

If you’re an artist, illustrator, graphic designer, actor, actress, voice actor, composer, musician, or another creative who believes you’d be a great fit for this world—but understands this is an indie debut with a carefully managed budget—I would genuinely love to hear from you.

Sometimes the best collaborations begin long before anyone is famous.

Thank you for believing in this story before it exists on a bookstore shelf.

Someday, when thousands of people are reading The Origin Series, you’ll be able to say:

“I was there from the beginning.”

And I don’t plan on forgetting that.

Welcome to the Origin Inner Circle.

— L.L. 🖤

Actually….. before you go...

Hit reply and tell me one thing.

What’s the last fantasy world that completely consumed you?

Was it Prythian?

Terrasen?

Navarre?

Middle-earth?

Something else?

I read every single reply, and I can’t wait to get to know you.

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Not all FMC’s are made equal.

My name is L.L. Schmid, and I'm currently writing The Origin Series, an epic romantasy centered on a heroine who is a little older than most fantasy protagonists—a 33-year-old mother of three whose life is turned upside down by ancient magic, dangerous politics, impossible choices, and a destiny she never asked for. If you need a comparison she’s a little like if Violet Sorrengail, Aelin Galanthynis, Bryce, Feyre & Nesta were all rolled into one person, shoved into motherhood and had to overcome intense abuse while being a parent to three small kids.

1. The first half of my life kinda sucked in all the ways that really matter…

As an only child with a disruptive home life, books were some of my first friends. My characters weren’t fictional people on pages. They were real people with real lives I was invested in so I could escape the hurt of my own life for a while. For years stories have lived in my head. Worlds. Characters. Conversations. Entire scenes that I never felt good enough to put to the page. This Substack is where I'll be sharing that journey as The Origin Series comes to life like.

Here you’ll find:

• Exclusive excerpts from upcoming chapters

• Character introductions and lore

• World-building notes

• Behind-the-scenes writing updates

• Deleted scenes and bonus content

• Occasional thoughts from me, the author, trying to keep all of this organized as a mom of five kids who also has ADHD.

I’m currently working on Book One, and while I don’t know exactly where this road will lead, I do know two things- this story is too big for just one book and stories are better when they’re shared.

2. If you’re here its because you love Romantasy with intense world building, characters you can adore and

Some you can love to hate too. The spice will be there, the world building is epic, and the FMC and MMC are not your average main characters.

3. If you’ve been through trauma…

You’ll love this series. I do cover some pretty serious topics like domestic abuse, sexual abuse, narcissism, gaslighting, manipulation, physical abuse, reputation smearing while also giving my characters the space to find healing, finding their power and ultimately becoming the absolute fucking badasses they are despite what others tried to do to break them.

4. I will be posting 1-2x per week.

Listen, I’m a mom of five kids. Some weeks it will be one and others it will be two- and my vow to you on this journey is to not only to give you the inside scoops on what is happening in the Origin world… but to also take your feedback.

For now, meet your FMC. Aelyra Nightengale.