Weekly Update - 6/1/22 (Patreon)

I know the new chapter of Quaranteam certainly has people talking, but one thing I can tell you is that you ain't seen nothing yet. I was part way into writing that chapter when it occurred to me that I could make a few adjustments and stick to the original Book One ending I had planned. Still on track to end book one with Chapter 50, and then take a bit of a mainline QT break to get the first book cleaned and prepped for physical publication and then get started in on book two. That means we will probably have a month or two without main storyline updates from the House of Rook, but Phil's Tale will likely still be running through that. I'll still be putting out content during those months, don't you worry - it'll just be different stuff. The editing brain is a very different part of my writing toolkit than the creative brain.

The next thing up on our release schedule is Brewster's Brood 17, which is on the docket for Friday, but at this point, I don't have great confidence in making that, simply because the next several days are packed with other things, so while it's planned for 6/3, there is a very good chance you won't see it until 6/5. I'll do what I can, but I still owe a commission from last month that is ahead of it in the queue, and I'm going to get that done first.

I should be able to get back on track for next Tuesday's release of Quaranteam 45 however (so expect that on 6/7), because it's already partially written - I started writing a bit of it when I was doing 44, and just set it aside for when I get to it.

I seem to be doing a lot of that in strange moments, while waiting for food or sitting at the bar. I've scribbled a bunch of outline and notes for my eventual sci-fi/space opera story I'm going to start at some point. I take great joy in world building, and the backstory for this piece has been a lot of fun to develop. I find myself thinking a lot about this new character in my spare moments. 

Picasso once said "good artists borrow, great artists steal" and I'm taking a lot from some of my favorite sci-fi touchstones while completely changing tons of things about them. The end result is a little bit of Star Wars, a touch of Dune, some shades of Farscape, a dash of Firefly, a few ideas from Alien, some echoes of Star Trek, a bunch of Cowboy Bebop, a touch of the Odyssey (yes, Homer's classic sci-fi story... heh), some stripes of Blade Runner, a few drops of Macross, and a couple of key elements from one of my favorite sci-fi authors, a guy named Walter Jon Williams. 

It's not currently on the schedule, but maybe it'll get voted on, or maybe it'll just be something I slowly chip away at for a few months until there's an empty slot on the schedule, at which point I dump a massive opening chapter on you guys without warning. The sex won't be quite as often or prominent in that, but it's still going to be spicy and just because there won't be as much sex doesn't mean it won't have plenty in it. I know where my bread is buttered, and in the words of the Tom Stoppard's player, "We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else." I like to think of myself as a writer whose fiction simply has the sex scenes not swept under the rug. 

There's still two days left in the poll for tier 4 and above subscribers, but right now it looks like Morgana's Gift will be what's the schedule for 6/10. 6/14 will either be QT: Phil's Tale or QT: Piper's Prelude. It depends on how my schedule's been going for the month. QT:PP3 is already written and has gone through multiple drafts with the commissioner of that piece, all of which have been massively helpful. From first draft to second draft, I added an entire section. Piper's story gets pretty dark, and 3 is a good step towards that, but 4 will be one of the hardest things I've ever written, I expect, and I've got to get that done sometime this month for Patreon release next month. That's gonna take a bit of a toll on me. I have to decide exactly how much of the horror I want to have on display, but I think it's probably gonna be all of it...

Also, so nobody can say I didn't give plenty of warning, I will be taking 7/5 off for American Independence Day, and there will be no release on that day. This isn't to say I won't be working on material around then, but by skipping a single release, I'll be able to get a little bit ahead on the schedule. I figure taking a day off every three months or so seems fair, yeah?

For those of you looking to see what's coming to the public sites, here's the next month or so:  6/4 - Threadbinders 3, 6/11 - If I'm Honest 9, 6/18 - Quarantream 41, 6/25 - Morgana's Gift 10, 7/2 - Quaranteam: Piper's Prelude 1. That's right, July marks the start of the release of Piper's Prelude to the public, just around the time I'm starting to write the final chapter of that. July will also be the public's first exposure to Mr. Magpie (which I just realized I forgot on the poll... Doh!) Aren't you glad you're here reading well before them?

I've been on a goth rock kick for the last few weeks, so I'll leave you with a bit of that. Thanks for being here! Have  a cookie! You've earned it!

The Mission UK - Wasteland (Extended Video) - YouTube