Writing Update: October 2023 (Patreon)

Not sure I even did a proper September update, so this one is going to be a big update. Lots to talk about here, and I'll try to cover it as best I can.

Holiday Over & Dragoncon and Conventions!

As many of you might know, I took a few months off to visit my family in Malaysia. Got lots of inspiration for the Hidden Dishes works in the future as well as Climbing the Ranks, ate way too much and, of course saw family. I also visited a few locations that might make its way into the books. I also had a chacne to listen to people once more use Manglish, though one thing did happen that surprised me. Will talk more about it in the Climbing the Ranks Update.

Biggest thing after the holiday was flying in to do Dragoncon. I seem to have managed to dodge the Coronavirus that was making its way through all the LitRPG people, but that was probably because I missed the LitRPG Under the Sea event. That kind of sucked, but I had 11 or so panels and signings and other events during Dragoncon, so that couldn't be helped.

Lots of fun though, and the biggest surprise was how well the Nameless Restaurant sold. Everyone was super interested in the work when I talked about it, and I even signed a few books for it during the signing. Really, overall, I had a great time at Dragoncon like I always do.

After that, I got back for a bit, and then I had to go to NinC. I'm back for a bit now, but next week I'm off to Can-Con which is in Ottawa. I have a signing there so Canadians, come by! And a few panels. It'll be interesting since I've never done the convention before but with it being close by, it makes it really easy to visit. I'm hoping it's a good convention and I get to meet lots of Canadian readers and writers!

Lastly, I have one last convention down in Vegas this year after which I'm (finally) done with conventions. I swear, I want to have fewer conventions next year and the plan is to do so, though I kind of think that's not going to happen. Heh. At least, more fan focused conventions perhaps?

We shall see.

System Apocalypse

Lots to update in terms of books for the System Apocalypse! We just finished the Kickstarter for the first book in System Apocalypse: Kismet - Fool's Play. That's up on pre-order now and we'll have it released soon enough. The books are already with the narrator so we're hoping to be able to simultaneous release it, but no guarantees. In either case, pre-orders are being taken!

Just as exciting, we just released System Apocalypse: Relentless 3 - Apocalypse Grit! It's out, and getting great reviews. Really excited to see it out in the wild. Audiobook will take a little longer to arrive, but it should be with us in a few months.

Other than that, we have one other new series planned that should release in late Q1 next year or early Q2 for the System Apocalypse universe.

KT's hit a roadblock in her writing for Kyrra so we're hoping she clears up on that and gets back to SA:Australia. I know she wants to write, but sometimes, the damn muse doesn't co-operate.

As for me? Well, I don't have any specific plans right now. I know one story I want to tell at some point (well, a few); but finding time in my writing schedule is a pain.

Climbing the Ranks

So, Climbing the Ranks is still releasing for free and you can subscribe to be informed when new chapters come out. I'm actually very far ahead of current releases but the paid subscribers get over twenty plus chapters ahead of the current release schedule. That might increase further, but I'm trying to make sure I don't run out while writing other things.

The actual book release is scheduled for next month on Starlit Publishing, December in Amazon. It won't be a Kindle Unlimited release though, because we're keeping the book free.

One interesting observation after visitng Malaysia.

Where Manglish used to be the default language when people talked to one another, basically switching to English if you didn't know what they spoke; these days it's Malay. So there's a LOT less English spoken everywhere comparatively. A big change from my memories 20 years ago, or even in the last 5 years since I went back.

It's strange, and certainly means that all that English in Climbing the Ranks is actually wrong. On the other hand, it's a close second world urban fantasy. And if I wrote it in Malay, no one would understand. So... it's staying as it stands.

Hidden Dishes

Hidden Dishes 2 (unamed as yet) is done. I finished the novella but I know there are some significant changes in the text I need to work. I just have to find the time to write it, which is always a pain. There's at least two more books that will be written (total 3); but I actually have like a six or seven book arc for the series that I want to do. We'll see how the book does, but I'm having fun with the series so I can't complain.

Hopefully we'll have a release in the first half of next year, I just have to find the brainpower to do more editing so that we can lock the timing down.

Anyone have suggestions for a title?

A Thousand Li

Alright, next up - A Thousand Li updates. Book 9 came out recently, as you all know. It marks the end of Wu Ying's period away from the Verdant Green Waters sect and book ten will begin the final aspect of his journey, the approach to immortality. Book ten is already publishing (and close to finishing up soon) on Patreon.

That'll release sometime next year in February or March I think.

I'm writing book eleven right now, which will release to Patreon's in a few weeks after book ten is finished up. There'll be a 6 month gap between 10 and 11 so the Patreon is going to get further and further ahead of public releases. There's a few reasons for that, but mostly because I'm trying not to rush the editing process.

Book 10 already had 20,000 words added between the first drafts and the final. While I don't expect that to happen all the time, having the freedom to do this is so important. So yeah, it's likely by February or March next year, we'll start on book 12 or so.

And then, well... there's something I'm working on in the ATL universe after that. :) Let's just say my stack of research books keeps growing.

Other Projects

If all that isn't enough, I have some other projects in the work. Some are just random plot bunnies briefly escaping the corral as I try to get words down in the day, any words. You might see them appear magically (like the next Eternal Night novellete or a new Power, Masks & Capes work); but mostly I'm trying to be good.

I do have one big LitRPG project started, but it's a 'heavy' project that I can't write concurrent with ATL. So that has to wait while I take breaks between.

And there's the Magic Kingdom series, which I believe I finally have someone helping with editing the numbers. Hopefully if these numbers coincide, I'll finally be able to get back to writing it. There's nearly a 100k words there that just got stuck...

And that's really about it. Got suggestions for the title for the second Hidden Dishes book? Questions about any of the projects? Shoot it out below.