Check-In (10/8/23) (Patreon)

I know I haven't done this in a bit, and for that I apologize.  I've been incredibly busy with splitting what was book five of Death: Genesis into two separate volumes.  To do so, I had to add quite a bit of material.  Most of the new stuff was always going to make it into the story, but I just accelerated the time frame a bit for those chapters.  As a result, I had to write about 100k extra words (over what I've already published here) while trying to keep up with the normal posting schedule for new chapters.  A daunting prospect, but one I finally finished last week.  So, I'm back to a normal workload.  

Thank God, because I was getting really stressed out trying to juggle all of that at once.  But now that it's finished, I'm really proud of the additions I made, and I think they'll really provide some context for the story going forward.  

In other news, I also signed a contract extension with Podium, so the future of Death: Genesis is now assured.  I'm contracted up to fourteen books now (for that series), so that's definitely a load off my mind.  Now, i can just write without having to worry about any of that stuff.

Concerning Mistrunner, the release of book one when about as well as I could have expected.  It didn't do the same sort of numbers Death: Genesis usually does, but I attribute that to two factors.  One, it's science fiction, which is less popular within the LitRPG space than fantasy.  I knew that going in.  Second, it's the first book in a less popular series (at least going by Royal Road numbers).  Again, I knew that, so my expectations were tempered.  Still, it got into the overall top 5000 on Amazon, which I think is a nice achievement.  Hopefully, it'll be enough to keep the series going at least until I tell the story I want to tell.  It's open for more after that, but I'll probably be taking a break from that one after the fourth book.  You'll all see why once it gets published.

As for the current stuff for Death: Genesis (book seven for those counting), I'm really pleased with this dungeon arc.  It does get a bit disturbing, but that's kind of par for the course.  Either way, I'm digging it, and I hope you all will too.

I've been working pretty hard on my third story as well.  I think I've decided to go with the druid story (Path of Dragons), and I'm about forty chapters in now.  I won't start publishing until I've got about seventy finished because I want to structure the Royal Road release for maximum exposure.  In any case, I'm definitely excited about its current iteration, and I'm even more excited about where it's going to end up.

And finally, I've decided to put the Undying story on the back burner for the time being.  Not because I don't like it - I really do - but rather because I recognize that it's a bit more of a gamble, in terms of commercial viability, and I can only afford to pursue one project like that at a time.  Right now, Mistrunner occupies that space (I'm writing as much for me as for anyone else), so when I finish the fourth Mistrunner book, I'll probably start using that newly free time to work on Undying.  

So, that's where I am for right now.  Remember that the chapters for book four of Death: Genesis will be coming down soon because of Kindle's exclusivity requirements.  So, if you're going to re-read those, do it now before I have to remove them.  

Thanks to all of you for your support.  I hope you'll continue to enjoy my stuff!