About that exciting news :) (Patreon)

I'm writing from PatreCon in LA.  I hope you guys are doing well!  It's November 2, and I promised y'all I'd announce a thing today, didn't I?  So, here it is!

The short version: I'm gonna be having some books published in 2019 and onward!

And now the long version, where I give all the details and explain what it means for DOTU and my Patreon.  (Don't worry, it's all good stuff and nothing's getting canceled or hiatus'd!)

My oldest DOTU readers know that I had some prose novels published under a pen name 6 or 7 years ago.  I referred to it as my Undead Series (basically gay urban fantasy/paranormal/mystery/romantic suspense).  I'd put out the first two books and was in the middle of working on the third when I had my super long illness.

After getting better, I had to focus on work that produced steadier income.  But as my Merritt's Story readers know, I never actually stopped writing. :)

In September, I went to my publisher's annual conference for the first time in 6 or 7 years.  I'm sitting on a whole lot of unpublished written material, and I wanted to see if I could get back into the publishing world, even if it meant starting from scratch.

After a great meeting with the publisher, I was kind of stunned to find out that I don't have to start from scratch, and they basically had an answer to everything I thought was a problem.

My Undead Series, which I assumed was dead in the water, is coming back to life! (I mean, what else would an undead book series do? ^_^)

The publisher is helping me to address the two major problems that prevented me from working on the series before.  Problem 1: There were issues with the storytelling in the first two books that I felt I couldn't build on without fixing, and Problem 2: The (female) pen name I chose gave me dysphoria and also made it difficult to cross-promote with my art, and I don't really have time to promote multiple identities.

Well, Dreamspinner is letting me fix what I don't like, and take books 1 and 2 through their comprehensive content editing process - something that wasn't really available back in 2011 when the company was only a couple years old.  And they're letting me change my pen name!  Books 1 and 2 will be put out as new-and-improved 2nd editions, and book 3 will be a shiny new 1st edition, all under the name Bob Appavu.  And the re-release of this series will then segue into my newer writing!

What this means in the short term is that I have a lot of tight deadlines, and the Undead Series might occasionally have to jump the line in front of DOTU.  But as per the current milestone goal, I'll still be doing 2 DOTU pages per month, and Merritt's Story might come out a little slower but it's definitely still coming out!

But what that means in the long term is very exciting!  New books mean new promo opportunities and a publisher helping to get eyes on my work, which mean more readers for both the books and DOTU.  There was a good amount of overlap even when I had separate pen names, but now should be much easier.  I was also invited to DSP Publications, their LGBTQ genre fiction imprint where I could potentially submit Merritt's Story (after revising it to fit the needs of professional publication).

What ELSE that means is that DOTU will be able to return to the public sooner than originally planned!  I'll be able to share more details about this once I have firm release dates set for my books, but I'm expecting public pages to resume around spring 2019.  DOTU will return to the public about 3 months before my books are released, and if we're able to hit that 350-patron goal, then the comic will stay public even after I exhaust my buffer pages!  In the lead-up to my book releases, the comic will also be returning to all mirror sites (Smack Jeeves, Tapas, and Webtoon).

I will also be posting excerpts, character sketches, and even a few comic page adaptations for the Undead Series here too!  And you can bet there will be at least a few free books and/or signed copies I'll be able to give out to patrons too!

So, lots of stuff is happening, and I'll keep you guys informed along the way!

And by the way, the 1st editions of my books will be taken off the market in advance of the new releases.  If you happen to track the 1st editions down before they're discontinued, please don't read them!  The 2nd editions will be a better reading experience and a better reflection of the type of storyteller I am now, and sales of the 2nd editions will be much more beneficial in terms of exposure and visibility of the series!

This post will go public in 14 days.

Questions? Comments? Let me know!