# A Phelan Varrant Novel

A fantasy series following Phelan Varrant, a broke, socially reluctant magical problem-solver with an ability no one else has: he can see exactly where magic breaks.

## Series Overview

- **Genre:** Fantasy / Adventure / Humour
- **Voice:** First-person past tense, dry wit, ADD-driven tangents
- **Publishing Target:** Amazon KDP (Kindle Unlimited)
- **Planned length:** 3+ books, ~80,000–100,000 words each

See `outline/series-arc.md` for the full series trajectory.

## Books

### Book 1: *The Floundry Affair* — finalized

Phelan works in an herbal supply shop, counts coppers, and dreams about the house he can't afford to build. When a client arrives through the Guild of Necessary Services with a dying family member cursed by a working every authority says is impossible to break, Phelan takes the case because the fee is significant and the problem is interesting. In that order.

### Book 2: *The Drenwick Drainings* — finalized

Life-force drainings across Drenwick trace back to a pre-Compact focusing crystal and a handler operating from Thorngate. The case that starts as a hunt becomes a rescue, the investigator ends up a builder, and a freelancer's philosophy breaks on five words.

### Book 3: *The Sealed Chamber* — in progress

A pre-Compact ruin on a duchess's territory near Thorngate. A previous guild operative dead. Wards that learn and adapt. Inside, a sealed chamber holding something that should never be used. The man who finds every flaw has to build something without any. Full chapter-by-chapter outline complete; drafting underway.

## Project Structure

```
CLAUDE.md                    # Master writing instructions (always loaded)
chapters/
  chapter-input-template.md  # Shared template for Stage 1 Seed
  book1/ book2/ book3/       # Per-book drafts and book-specific CLAUDE.md
outline/
  series-arc.md              # Series-level trajectory
  book1/2/3-outline.md       # Per-book chapter outlines
world/                       # World bible, magic system, locations, story summaries, timelines
characters/                  # Character bibles (one file per major character + supporting-cast index)
notes/                       # Cut content, research, ideas, KDP publish checklists
docs/                        # Historical design documents and implementation plans
kindle/                      # KDP templates and export artifacts
```

## Writing with Claude Code

This project uses Claude Code as the primary writing assistant. All instructions for voice, world-building, continuity, and formatting are in `CLAUDE.md`. Book-specific orientation lives in each book's `chapters/book{N}/CLAUDE.md`. Chapter-level detail lives in `outline/book{N}-outline.md`. Character detail lives in `characters/*.md`.

Chapter drafting uses the `/chapter-workflow` skill — a 5-stage pipeline (Seed → Scene Breakdown → Draft → Review → Continuity Update) invoked with a chapter number, e.g. `/chapter-workflow 20`.

## License

All rights reserved. Books 1 and 2 published; Book 3 unpublished creative work.
