New Reward Unlocked, Music Poll, and Small Update (Patreon)

Hi everyone - wow, a lot of polls to share with you this month! (I hope it hasn't been too overwhelming! 😅)

I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you all from the bottom of my heart, because thanks to your support, we unlocked the next reward for this Patreon! 🎉🎉🎉

This is so incredible!!! When I first started this Patreon, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that we would get this far. All of this--the extra content and goodies, the wonderful fan community and expansions to the world of Blest--it's all thanks to you and your awesomeness! So thank you so very much! ❤️💖❤️

For as long as this reward is unlocked, I'll add Shepherds of Haven music and voice clips to the goodies and content that you already receive as thanks for being members of this Patreon! Just like with our commissioned art polls (another unlocked reward), you'll be given the opportunity to vote on the subject of our next audio commission--and of course, PLEASE feel free to give your input, suggestions, and recommendations! I am a hopelessly un-musical and visually-based person (you can probably tell with how I struggle to assign songs or playlists to characters, my brain sort of doesn't work that way), so any suggestions for vibes, instruments, or anything you might want to contribute would be very much appreciated!

We've already had some music created for the game; here are the list of songs so far in order of recency (you won't be able to access these unless you're an Officer or higher):

• The Sword of Haven (battle music)
• Let's Take a Break (day off music)
• Haven's Theme (the city of Haven's theme music - probably needs a better title)
• Shepherds of Haven (credits music - probably needs a better title)

I do plan on adding voice clips and voice actors to the mix eventually, but that will take some time to get off the ground and running, and in the meantime, I've really enjoyed working with our current composer, Irene Chan! So let's decide on the next piece of Shepherds of Haven music below!

As an aside, this is also my little progress update for this week. I'm plugging away at Chapter 7, but some complications slowed down my progress at the beginning of the month. I won't go into details now, but a lot has been happening, and I've been trying to wrap my head around that while taking care of all of the work I need to do. This month also feels extra busy because I'm also running my first in-person author event at our big local bookstore on the 22nd! I'll be going on the local NPR radio station and our local news channel to talk about it, which is... ❗️And it will be a little nerve-wracking to talk about my book in front of people I actually know, in person, which I never do--my closest friends and family didn't even know what the book was about until after it was published--but I'm... trying not to think about it! I much prefer talking to people online; I get easily nervous when it's in person, because I overthink what to say! 😅 But it will be fun!

Anyway, all that to say: I did intend to update the short story I had to delay at the end of last month; but the prospect of writing two parts of the short story, plus the update, plus all of the other stuff, in four weeks was really overwhelming. I'd have had to write about 8,000-10,000 words in those first few days, then again at the end of the month to get us back on track.

So I decided to make it simple for myself and just stick to our regular schedule: the short story series will be updated, as per usual, at the end of this month! You have my word! 😤

Other than that, everything is proceeding as normal! Thanks for reading this quick little update, and again, thank you so much for your patience and support!

Now: what music would you like to see made next? 🎶🎼This will be the first of a series of polls, just like with our art commissions!

Key: 

Character theme songs - these will be songs for individual characters; for example, "Prihine's song" would be a theme song for Prihine and might feature harps and flutes, while "Chandry's song" might be goofier and feature something like trumpets. 

Location theme songs - these will be songs for specific locations and settings; some might be for places like the Bleakmoor Marsh or Lockwood, while others might be for specific areas of Haven, like the church or temple when you go to pray on days off.

Event theme songs - these will be songs for specific events; for example, the Lovelace Day dance, the Ascension festival, the day off music, or transitions like general camping or traveling music.