Weekly Update - 2/1/23 (Patreon)

I actually feel pretty good about where I'm at right now, and how much I got done last month. I'm late on a few remaining commissions, but should have those done within the next week, will probably be late on Friday's post because of other obligations (I'm a judge for local Magic: The Gathering prereleases which will take up my Friday night and all of my Saturday) so if I don't have it done by mid-day Friday, it'll be posted on Sunday. Still, I've been writing at a pretty good clip lately, so it's entirely possible I might get everything done within the next few days. We'll see how that goes. 

The plan with releasing commissions to the Patreon moving forward is going to be like this - when the next chapter is being sent to the commissioner, the previous chapter will be released to Patrons. So, for example, I sent off the newest chapter of Devil's Details to its commissioner a couple of days ago, and will release that chapter to Patrons when I'm sending the next one to them, so that if the commissioner has notes or revisions, I can do them. As such I may be spacing out deliverables to commissioners for a little bit, just to set a better time frame, so I'm not scrambling to do them all at the beginning/end of the month. 

Some people have asked about how much revision work I do to commissioned works once I deliver a first draft and my answer is that it varies from commissioner to commissioner. Sometimes they're basically just glad to have it and have just minor editing notes or tweaks, which don't take a lot of time. Others have very specific visions for their project, and can sometimes need multiple revisions, which will use up their commission slot for the next month. Which is fine! Honestly, I understand when people get heavily invested in their project and want to see it go through lots of changes to get it just right. I've been working on the first chapter of a commission for three months in a row now, but that's because I'm taking over a project with a long and complicated history and the commissioner wants to be sure all the details line up and fit in with their vision. Also, the later you get your revision notes to me, the more it may push out the timeline a little. The most important thing to me is always going to be the quality of the work, not how quickly it was delivered. I want everyone to be happy with the work at the end of the day, and believe me, I'm trying my best to make sure everyone's satisfied with what they're paying for. So if you're thinking about commissioning something, keep all that in mind.

Just dropped the new chapter of QTB2 earlier today, and starting either this month or next month, I'm hoping to post 2 chapters of that each month. We will see how it all flows, but considering I have much of the next two chapters actually mapped out in my head (and I'm sure those of you who've already read QTB2C3 can guess at what's going to be in each) I may be able to just keep on working heads down and getting new content out. I do, however, have to carve out 2 hours tomorrow to engage in my yearly tradition. (No kidding, every year on Groundhog Day, I rewatch Groundhog Day, the movie that to me is both peak Bill Murray and peak enlightenment.) But otherwise I'll try and keep my head down and keep writing during all my free moments.  

Also, someone asked me a little bit ago how to spot a wild Devin McTaggart in the field, roaming around in the world, and I'll tell you this -- for most of the last decade, I have worn the same necklace day in and day out, that of a guillotine. It's the thing I own that I've gotten more compliments and comments on, more than anything else I've worn, driven or carried around. So if you see a guy with a guillotine hanging around his neck, you may, in fact, be seeing me in the wild, especially if you're the SF Bay Area.

Right now, I'm thinking since I'm on a roll, I may just continue with QTB2 work and try to get QTB2C4 done for this weekend. (Oh, weird question -- which is easier to understand as a shortened version, QTB2C4 or QT2:4? I kind of like the second one, but worry that maybe it's a little too... Biblical? Maybe that's okay, though.) And I've currently got Brewster's Brood 26 on the calendar for next Tuesday with a poll up for what I'm writing for 2/10 (which is currently being led by Morgana's Gift with Before The Storm hot on its heels). Some point in the top half of the month I'll drop QT: McCallister's Madness 4 when I get the final part of that off to the commissioner. There's also another surprise that'll start either this month or next month, but that's all the information you're going to get from me until it starts happening.

And for Valentine's Day, I'm torn between putting out 7 Secrets 6 or a Silversmith Valentine's Day standalone story. Not an official poll, but what do you think I should do? So far the Silversmith stories have been basically just our Halloween tradition, but I could also add in a caveat that I'm going to do one on any holiday that falls on a release date that hasn't gotten one before. Or we can just stick with seeing ol' Jonas once a year on Halloween. 

This week has been my first using the new laptop exclusively. (I have the old one still here at the ready, in case I need to get anything off of it, but it was time to just force myself to be using the new one all the time.) There's still some weird growing pains and adaptation shifts, but I'll get the kinks worked out in time and introduce my own kinks as needed. (See: Village Green Preservation Society and other hit songs.) (Also, if you are old enough and/or musically aware enough to get that joke, God bless you for being here.) The new one is using the latest version of Windows and now that I've set it to a night theme, I'm getting weirdness of some Google spreadsheets defaulting to white type in existing spreadsheets where I have loads of black type. I'll figure it out eventually.

The public release schedule currently looks like: 2/4 - Before The Storm 2, 2/11 - Morgana's Gift 12, 2/18 - Quaranteam: McCallister's Madness 2, 2/25 - Quaranteam 50 & Janus Coins: John's Story 4, 3/4 - Quaranteam: Phil's Tale 11.

That should wrap us up for this week. As always, remember I read all the comments, all the emails and am generally around on Discord much of the time, and I love interacting with you folks. See you all again in a few days.