Weekly Update - What has been put in motion cannot be undone (Patreon)

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a good start to your week. I'm waking up this morning to pings at work after a long ass night of writing, so I'm waking a bit on the grumpy side. But my wife took the dog in for an appointment this morning, so that means she's bringing coffee on the way back. I've some pretty big news to share this week, so hold on to your butts.

Writing update:
Things are progressing well. I had a slight delay in September due to a pipe bursting in our home. We had to tear out the brand new carpet and pad we just put in our master bedroom. When it rains, it pours, I guess. But after getting all that fixed by a remediation company, I was able to get back on track of everything. Right now I am still planning to have Warhawk 2's alpha being finished by the first week of November. I have to have it in the editor's hand by November 7th. Lauren will take her typical four weeks for editing and then get it back to me. So we're looking like an early December release. I will upload a flurry of chapters this upcoming Sunday.

Art Update:
I cancelled a commission I had with a new artist because they were several weeks behind. They were at least professional enough to refund me my initial deposit. I'll be sourcing some more artists to try to get some upcoming covers out. In the mean time, Jclea will be working on character sheets for two of the "new" characters in Warhawk 2. Those will be coming out over the next few weeks. I'm also considering turning Monster girl gym into something like a light novel with some interior art. So, let me know if that's something you'd like to see.

Audio update:
Rebecca's recording of Aspect 4 has been delayed a few weeks. There was construction that happened near her studio, and if you know anything about audio recording, it's that ambient noise can be a killer. I'm supposed to start receiving files in the next week or so. Unfortunately, that means we're looking more like a November/December release instead of an October one. However, I'll share some snippets once I get them to hopefully make the wait a bit more bearable. I was thinking we could start doing listening parties in the discord if you guys would be into that? Let me know in the comments.

Life Update:
So here's the big news. After speaking with my CPA, getting my wife's support, and number crunching everything, I've confirmed the viability of jumping head first into full time authoring with a year long runway. And as of last Friday I have turned in my resignation at my job. However, this may or may not be an immediate change. The "suggestion" I have made to my company is to allow me to finish out my role through December, and pay me a severance after the first of the year. I'm honestly not sure how they'll respond. They could say "Fuck you Ajax, pack your bags and gtfo!" In which case, that's totally fine. That just means I can jump into things a little quicker.

So what does this mean?
This means more production. My plan is to ramp things up ten fold. The mental burden of my current job will no longer shackle me. At the start, I'll need to ramp things up to the point where the Ajax Lygan name is a staple in the genre. I'm shooting for a new book every 4-6 weeks. This seems doable if I am writing 5-6 days a week for 10 hours a day. It's just a shift in mindset, but one that I can easily accomplish. However, the last thing I want to do is suffer in quality for production. So this will be a balancing act and I will need all of you fine folks' input. If you see things wane, give me a shout. Looking at the greats like Bruce S, David B, and Ceb, I don't think this is going to be a problem. But you guys are my top fans, so be open and honest with me about how things are going.

Right now, I am getting affairs in order to make all of this happen. I've already signed a contract to put my editor on retainer for all of next year. This means I won't have to wait on her and will give me additional flexibility if I want to take more time with a book. However, I still need to work on similar agreements with various artists, typographists, and narrators. On the last part, I will be sourcing some new narrators. For those of you who are fans from "A Romp." I'm looking to pull the male voice actor, and a few of the female voice actors from that side of the house to bring with me into the fold. They would be my "B" team for Rebecca and whatever male narrator she choices. She's got a lot of work from podium so unfortunately, she won't be able to prioritize this kind of volume. I'll be starting this B team on the monster girl gym book. So you'll get a sample from them in the upcoming months. I'll be hosting auditions, so I'll get everyone's input on your favorites

How does this change my goals for 2023?
With just about everything I do, I am shooting big. So this is what I am aiming for:
-8-10 releases with no compromises on quality. If anything, it should increase given it becoming my focus.
-An orange tag - Basically an Amazon number 1 seller in a particular category
-1000 reviews on a single novel with at least a 4.5 star rating.
-A book that reaches top 500 in the store (Warhawk hit ~950)
-Do at least one con appearance. Either gen con or dragon con.

Woo, that was a lot, but I hope you all are as excited as I am. Let me know what your thoughts are on all the news. And as always, I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead!