Weekly Update - 8/16/23 (Patreon)

Some weeks are better than others. I know things have been off this past week, and that's on me. Late last week, word came down the pipeline that a former coworker of mine had died, suddenly and quite unexpectedly. He wasn't much older than me, and reports are that it was a stroke. They also aren't sure how long he'd been dead when he'd been found, but it was likely a day or two, which also sort of kicks into things that have plagued my personal nightmares for years, the top of the list of which is dying alone. The former coworker and I weren't friends by any stretch. I hadn't honestly thought about him in years and years as it had been almost twenty years since we'd worked together, but the news coming in out of nowhere, and the fact that we'd come up through the ranks together early on in our careers meant it hit me harder than expected, as did the fact that we are of similar ages.

I'm used to hearing about strokes hitting people twenty or thirty years older than me and being reminded of my own mortality (particularly during this god-awful heatwave) just hit me a little harder than expected. Some of that came out in part of the most recent Morgana's Gift chapter which I posted in the wee hours of the morning, but I get catharsis from writing stuff like that into my fiction sometimes. (I'd also been talking with a musician friend of mine about how the heroin epidemic killed off the Seattle sound within a decade, so all of that had been rattling around in my head as well, which was especially weird, because the ex-coworker of mine was a big grunge fan. Synchronicity's a bitch.)

The MG chapter's been getting a warm reception, which is good, because we're nearing the end of Morgana's Gift. I imagine that story has something like 2-5 more chapters in it, although we could certainly come back to it again later, as you'll see when we get there. I imagine it looking something like Chapter 7, Intermission, Interruption, Chapter 8, Epilogue. And I'll probably insist that I do Ch8/Epilogue together, which is probably going to mean that'll be the only thing I do that week, just to give it the proper closure it needs, so if you're voting for it on a YouDecide!, keep in mind how close we are to the ending.

I've told this story before, but originally Morgana's Gift was meant to be a 9-part story - a prologue, seven chapters titled after the seven days of the week, and an epilogue. But people responded so strongly to it that I found ways to let the story grow around the edges. So, if we hit the end sooner than you'd like, know that I can easily imagine coming back for a sequel (after a break) so don't take it as a finale, so much as an act ending. Also, many of you apparently haven't realized that the titles of each chapter are, in fact, song titles! There's a playlist with everything that's been in Morgana's Gift so far over on Spotify so if you want to know what song I used to set the mood for any individual chapter, have at you.

I'm very pleased to report that we have someone who's stepped up to pick up the Quaranteam: Phil's Tale commission, and as such, QT:PT will be getting a chapter a month every month moving forward. I've already started making notes for Phil's next runaround, and the most recent chapter showed him at the Halloween party, so you can imagine what's coming next for our busy boy. I'm actually very much looking forward to getting back into a rhythm with him again, because it'll let me explore a bit of that period between the end of B1 and the beginning of B2 as well as starting to branch out internationally.

I know I still owe a Breakpoint chapter for last week, so I'm hoping to have that done soonish. As soon as I finish this news update, I'm going to run out, grab myself some Mezzo Mix to throw into the fridge, pick up some lunch (Jesus... dinner at this point?) and then come back to get to work, especially since poker night's not happening tonight.

Expect the next couple of days to be something of a flurry of content, because at the very least, I'll be moving stuff from Alpha level to Patron level for the month, meaning you should expect to see some of the following over the next few days: A Pack Of His Own, Quaranteam: Aisling's Antics, and Neon Stonehenge. What that means is that last month's Alpha content will move to all Patrons, this month's Alpha content will drop to tier 3s and up, and next month's Alpha content will be shipping out to commissioners as First Drafts. I'm hoping to also sneak in Devil's Details and Fertile Grove into the next several days, but there's a lot to do. And for those of you who hate when I do cliffhangers, well, I can only apologize in advance for both Pack and DD, because they are doozies. I think, in particular, Pack's commissioner has encouraged me to do them, so maybe that story's leaning into it a bit. Also, there was something incredibly relieving about writing about a heavy snowstorm during this goddamn heatwave.

I lost a lot of time last month helping everyone who's working on various QT projects, and in next week's news update, I'll try to include links to everything that's gone public that I've had eyes on and approved as part of the QT world. It's turned into quite a lot, but now that most people are up and running, it should hopefully creep into my time a little bit less, despite the fact I dearly love it so. Reading other people doing stuff in the QT-sandbox has been the best unexpected surprise this year, and each time I get to read something there, just getting to experience it as a reader is a fantastic joy. (It also helps that some of the commissioners are some of the people creating some of these spinoffs, so they're understanding about why their commissioned work from me is running a little behind. You have only yourselves to blame, ha ha!)

I can also announce that I'm working in collaboration with BreaktheBar and a number of other writers on an anthology book to which I'm contributing a story that definitely falls smack-dab into my Modern Mythos tales (If I'm Honest, Morgana's Gift, Devil's Details, Pack, the Silversmith stories...) and so I'm hammering away on that. We're all doing something different, and I'd had an idea tingling in the back of my head for a while, so I need to get that finished off within the next month as well. Maybe I announced this already? I don't remember. But know that's in the works as well.

Current plans for the rest of the month, barring this week, look like this:   8/22 - Brewster's Brood, 8/25 - the second You Decide! of the month, 8/29 - QT2:14 (with content warning at the start, see last week's news update). QT2:15 is on my calendar for 9/6, which is a week later, so that the harshness of QT2:14 isn't lingering too long. And, keep in mind, that after QT2:15 comes QT2: Intermission 3, which will be the first international intermission I've done for the QT verse.

Anyway, it was a massive news update, mostly because I wanted everyone to know where we stand, and what's been going on. I appreciate everyone's patience as I'm trying my best to stay safe, both physically and mentally, even though it's been a rough one, but we get through it together, and honestly, the joy of reading other people's QT stuff has helped counteract some of the bleakness, so thanks for that.

Whoops! Public releases! Forgot to include those:  8/19 - Silversmith 3, 8/26 - 7 Secrets 6, 9/2 - QT2:5, 9/9 - QTMM 4, 9/16 - Before The Storm 6.