Haze & Chaos - Introduction
Cover | Reunion A Part 1
Master Post - Patreon
This book was a royal pain in the rear to work on, and good lord, I am never attempting another anthology book as a part of the main series again. Yes, I know ULTRAMagic Compendium is something I started, but that is not intended to be done all in one go. First let us address what ULTRAMagic Haze & Chaos is. This book will be an anthology of nine short stories all taking place after several stories in the series including ULTRAMagic Eon 1, ULTRAMagic Eon 2, ULTRAMagic Intermission, and ULTRAMagic Interval (Bonus Chapters). As of writing this introduction I have not written ULTRAMagic Intermission, so that is fun… On the bright side, one of the stories in this anthology made me write the plot for that book. And Interval BC will be a thing eventually, exploring what happened right after ULTRAMagic Interval and right before ULTRAMagic Intermission. It goes without saying that this should not be your first ULTRAMagic Alternate book.
This book will be focusing on Will, Sam, and Earth-23 as there is a lot of lore I need to establish right now that will be important for the Overkill Arc when we finally get to it. If you do not know what I mean by that, the series is split into arcs. Books 1 through 5 (Prelude to Chaos) were “The Descendant Arc,” focusing on the finale of the Descendant’s story. Books 7 through 12 (Eon 1 to Intermission, some books excluded) is “The Eon Arc,” focusing on The ULTRAMagic Guild and how they came to be. Books 6, 9.5, 9.6, and 14 through 18 (Interval, Haze & Chaos, the so far unnamed book 9.6, Interval BC, and Phantasm to Beyond) are “The Overkill Arc,” focusing on the battle with Audoin Dethbrand and Ultinn Lacksuss. Book 19 and beyond (Crescendo and several books I have planned) will be “The Epilogue Arc,” focusing on what happens after ULTRAMagic Beyond. And a quick funny aside, things have changed a little bit since I wrote ULTRAMagic (Before) Prelude. Originally book 18 was going to be ULTRAMagic Crescendo, but then I realized the Overkill Arc needs another book, so the new book 18 will be ULTRAMagic Beyond. I need a proper send off to ULTRAMagic Crescendo and let’s just say the trajectory of The Sepulcher God’s character has changed a bit.
Haze & Chaos is going to be a fun book. The stories are full of wit, my commentary is sharper than ever, and there will be plenty of callbacks to the previous books. I am psyched to start working on this book, but I wish I was 100% happy at the moment. The push to censor the internet and control humanity from our overarching, authoritarian-ass governments is still going on, but funnily enough they are losing more and more steam as they go on, contrary to what the doomers would have you believe. Mr. Kier Starmer is delaying his under-16 social media ban plans by up to three years, but somehow that means WE’RE LOSING EVEN HARDER!!! Gee, it’s almost like no one actually supports Digital ID, so a vocal minority of megalomaniacal psychopaths have to force it through at any cost… except that is not how the government works, and that is not how society works. Also Tim Walz, a supporter of laws like KOSA, just had his career and reputation ruined…. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED?
The other side of my frustration was the kind of work that went into this book. This took nearly 3 months to work on because I had to keep going back and writing new outlines. It is not that these stories are terribly long, they are just dense. I did not expect things to take as long as they did, I was delusional to think I could get the whole book planned out in the last 3 weeks of January, and it is a good thing I worked on ULTRAMagic (Before) Prelude in the meantime. And guess what? I had an ice dam situation over my bed… The January cold snap in the American Northeast got so bad that it exploited a design quirk of my roof. The temperatures were consistently in the single digits and teens for roughly three weeks and caused two main issues. The first issue is that the roof ice THAT IS NORMALLY SUPPOSED TO MELT froze all the way up the roof. The second issue is that concrete supports for the house got pushed up because the ground had frozen that much. This exploited an abandoned heat vent design in my roof, causing ice melt to get in through the screws lining the vent area (I believe), and melt water leaked into my room. So many times I thought I had the situation taken care of until finally I said screw it and climbed up on top of the roof and removed the ice wholesale. It was warm enough and I had had enough. Thankfully things quickly went back to normal as we had a warm February and there does not seem to be any issues with the roof. I am planning to take some form of sealant up there and cover the screws I think are the problem before next fall.
BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET! Surprisingly I was still able to work on ULTRAMagic (Before) Prelude and finish that without too much of a hitch. So once I was done with (Before) Prelude I went back to working on Haze & Chaos. Things were going great up until we had a severe thunderstorm during the end of March… It was pretty bad, bringing high winds and hail… and it was so bad that it actually caused a part of the roof that does not normally leak to start leaking. Let me repeat that: The rain, wind, and hair were so bad that it made a part of the house that has NOT leaked SINCE IT WAS BUILT NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO to start leaking. Thankfully there is nothing actually wrong with the roof, but it does need proper flashing… Basically if you read a certain story in this book and notice it is eerily familiar to what I just described, THERE YOU GO. Also the clouds were potentially rotating as could be seen and heard by the wind… Yeah, I’m getting really tired of the extreme weather we have been having… that coincidentally kicked up after 2020… Hmmm, curious…
Another issue is my arm… yes, I messed it up a little bit. I even called it quits on writing physical rough drafts during ULTRAMagic Eon 2… and then I went on to plan out Haze & Chaos which is arguably more than I normally write for the books… Do not worry, my arm is recovering and I was taking generous breaks during each week. And either way I told my doctor about it, so I should eventually be seeing someone about it. Although I did not go to my doctor to talk about my arm, I was actually going to get the ball rolling on getting my autism reevaluated… Okay, stop! Stop worrying about me saying that, I do not care if people know I’m autistic and am going to get my autism reevaluated because it has been roughly 20 years since I was diagnosed and Asperger’s Syndrome was retired in 2013. ANYWAYS, did you know that the last time I had left my house prior to that appointment was 7 years ago? I have been getting out of the house and going for nature walks, but stuff in my personal life (that I will not disclose unless I need to) made me so paranoid that I felt I had to guard the house and land. Yeah, no, I do not want to EVER hear people say I have it “too easy.” You think I have it easy? That being an author is the easiest job in the world? That I do not deal with issues in my personal life that get in the way of my writing? Buddy, you need a reality check.
Regardless of the issues I face, we are here now and that is what matters. Thank you for making it this far and hearing me out as I ramble about this and that. ULTRAMagic Alternate will continue no matter what gets in my way. As Spiritus Magni Drusa always says: If there is a problem, there is always a solution. Again, thank you for making it this far with me. ULTRAMagic Alternate is only going to get bigger and better as time goes on, and I cannot wait to share with you what I have in mind.
I hope you enjoy ULTRAMagic Haze & Chaos!
Sincerely,
William Ford II (5/1/2026)
Master Post - Patreon
This book was a royal pain in the rear to work on, and good lord, I am never attempting another anthology book as a part of the main series again. Yes, I know ULTRAMagic Compendium is something I started, but that is not intended to be done all in one go. First let us address what ULTRAMagic Haze & Chaos is. This book will be an anthology of nine short stories all taking place after several stories in the series including ULTRAMagic Eon 1, ULTRAMagic Eon 2, ULTRAMagic Intermission, and ULTRAMagic Interval (Bonus Chapters). As of writing this introduction I have not written ULTRAMagic Intermission, so that is fun… On the bright side, one of the stories in this anthology made me write the plot for that book. And Interval BC will be a thing eventually, exploring what happened right after ULTRAMagic Interval and right before ULTRAMagic Intermission. It goes without saying that this should not be your first ULTRAMagic Alternate book.
This book will be focusing on Will, Sam, and Earth-23 as there is a lot of lore I need to establish right now that will be important for the Overkill Arc when we finally get to it. If you do not know what I mean by that, the series is split into arcs. Books 1 through 5 (Prelude to Chaos) were “The Descendant Arc,” focusing on the finale of the Descendant’s story. Books 7 through 12 (Eon 1 to Intermission, some books excluded) is “The Eon Arc,” focusing on The ULTRAMagic Guild and how they came to be. Books 6, 9.5, 9.6, and 14 through 18 (Interval, Haze & Chaos, the so far unnamed book 9.6, Interval BC, and Phantasm to Beyond) are “The Overkill Arc,” focusing on the battle with Audoin Dethbrand and Ultinn Lacksuss. Book 19 and beyond (Crescendo and several books I have planned) will be “The Epilogue Arc,” focusing on what happens after ULTRAMagic Beyond. And a quick funny aside, things have changed a little bit since I wrote ULTRAMagic (Before) Prelude. Originally book 18 was going to be ULTRAMagic Crescendo, but then I realized the Overkill Arc needs another book, so the new book 18 will be ULTRAMagic Beyond. I need a proper send off to ULTRAMagic Crescendo and let’s just say the trajectory of The Sepulcher God’s character has changed a bit.
Haze & Chaos is going to be a fun book. The stories are full of wit, my commentary is sharper than ever, and there will be plenty of callbacks to the previous books. I am psyched to start working on this book, but I wish I was 100% happy at the moment. The push to censor the internet and control humanity from our overarching, authoritarian-ass governments is still going on, but funnily enough they are losing more and more steam as they go on, contrary to what the doomers would have you believe. Mr. Kier Starmer is delaying his under-16 social media ban plans by up to three years, but somehow that means WE’RE LOSING EVEN HARDER!!! Gee, it’s almost like no one actually supports Digital ID, so a vocal minority of megalomaniacal psychopaths have to force it through at any cost… except that is not how the government works, and that is not how society works. Also Tim Walz, a supporter of laws like KOSA, just had his career and reputation ruined…. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED?
The other side of my frustration was the kind of work that went into this book. This took nearly 3 months to work on because I had to keep going back and writing new outlines. It is not that these stories are terribly long, they are just dense. I did not expect things to take as long as they did, I was delusional to think I could get the whole book planned out in the last 3 weeks of January, and it is a good thing I worked on ULTRAMagic (Before) Prelude in the meantime. And guess what? I had an ice dam situation over my bed… The January cold snap in the American Northeast got so bad that it exploited a design quirk of my roof. The temperatures were consistently in the single digits and teens for roughly three weeks and caused two main issues. The first issue is that the roof ice THAT IS NORMALLY SUPPOSED TO MELT froze all the way up the roof. The second issue is that concrete supports for the house got pushed up because the ground had frozen that much. This exploited an abandoned heat vent design in my roof, causing ice melt to get in through the screws lining the vent area (I believe), and melt water leaked into my room. So many times I thought I had the situation taken care of until finally I said screw it and climbed up on top of the roof and removed the ice wholesale. It was warm enough and I had had enough. Thankfully things quickly went back to normal as we had a warm February and there does not seem to be any issues with the roof. I am planning to take some form of sealant up there and cover the screws I think are the problem before next fall.
BUT WE’RE NOT DONE YET! Surprisingly I was still able to work on ULTRAMagic (Before) Prelude and finish that without too much of a hitch. So once I was done with (Before) Prelude I went back to working on Haze & Chaos. Things were going great up until we had a severe thunderstorm during the end of March… It was pretty bad, bringing high winds and hail… and it was so bad that it actually caused a part of the roof that does not normally leak to start leaking. Let me repeat that: The rain, wind, and hair were so bad that it made a part of the house that has NOT leaked SINCE IT WAS BUILT NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO to start leaking. Thankfully there is nothing actually wrong with the roof, but it does need proper flashing… Basically if you read a certain story in this book and notice it is eerily familiar to what I just described, THERE YOU GO. Also the clouds were potentially rotating as could be seen and heard by the wind… Yeah, I’m getting really tired of the extreme weather we have been having… that coincidentally kicked up after 2020… Hmmm, curious…
Another issue is my arm… yes, I messed it up a little bit. I even called it quits on writing physical rough drafts during ULTRAMagic Eon 2… and then I went on to plan out Haze & Chaos which is arguably more than I normally write for the books… Do not worry, my arm is recovering and I was taking generous breaks during each week. And either way I told my doctor about it, so I should eventually be seeing someone about it. Although I did not go to my doctor to talk about my arm, I was actually going to get the ball rolling on getting my autism reevaluated… Okay, stop! Stop worrying about me saying that, I do not care if people know I’m autistic and am going to get my autism reevaluated because it has been roughly 20 years since I was diagnosed and Asperger’s Syndrome was retired in 2013. ANYWAYS, did you know that the last time I had left my house prior to that appointment was 7 years ago? I have been getting out of the house and going for nature walks, but stuff in my personal life (that I will not disclose unless I need to) made me so paranoid that I felt I had to guard the house and land. Yeah, no, I do not want to EVER hear people say I have it “too easy.” You think I have it easy? That being an author is the easiest job in the world? That I do not deal with issues in my personal life that get in the way of my writing? Buddy, you need a reality check.
Regardless of the issues I face, we are here now and that is what matters. Thank you for making it this far and hearing me out as I ramble about this and that. ULTRAMagic Alternate will continue no matter what gets in my way. As Spiritus Magni Drusa always says: If there is a problem, there is always a solution. Again, thank you for making it this far with me. ULTRAMagic Alternate is only going to get bigger and better as time goes on, and I cannot wait to share with you what I have in mind.
I hope you enjoy ULTRAMagic Haze & Chaos!
Sincerely,
William Ford II (5/1/2026)
Reunion A Part 1
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