UPDATE (Patreon)

Just a quick note before you dive in: MILD SPOILER ALERT AHEAD! 

Dear Benevolent Monsters and Esteemed Readers,

I wanted to share a brief update on my progress. The journey of crafting these chapters has been slow but entirely positive. Typically, a chapter takes about two days for me to complete. However, I've been dedicating extra time to these first few chapters for Blake book 3 and Birthright, aiming to avoid the issues encountered with Blake's second book. For those curious, the first draft is still available for viewing, despite my decision to overhaul it completely—a decision I'm keen to prevent for book three. Hence, I'm proceeding with caution for now. I believe once I'm settled with its trajectory, the pace will naturally pick up.

Hopefully, once I've navigated past the initial jitters with both Blake and Birthright, I aim to synchronize chapter releases for both stories on the same day. As it stands, achieving that is somewhat challenging. However, rest assured, I'm committed to ensuring that chapters for both tales will be up by the end of this week—or the weekend, at the latest. So honestly, nothing new has changed there.

Regarding Blake’s series as a whole, it's not yet at the stage I envision for attempting publication, which is why I've been refining book one in the background. My ambition remains to publish the first book in Blake's series within the year (I hope), dedicating the necessary time to ensure its quality. While I recognize the importance of not overfixating on minor details, this being my debut, I'm inclined to make my ‘first time’ as memorable as possible (innuendo intended, as always).

I've already pinpointed a few aspects I'm eager to revise, even in some of the newer material. However, I plan to address these changes during the final draft phase. At the moment, I'd like to discuss a significant consideration that's been preoccupying me:

Involving Mara in the epilogue of Blake’s second book was me getting ahead of myself. There's a specific event (or rather, a character) that needs to do a bit of a vanishing act before making a grand reentrance. It's all part of the plan... or, at least, it will be once I figure out how to make it happen without invoking any accidental wizardry or unwelcome time-travel shenanigans.

I'm entertaining the notion of featuring a character from Blake's narrative in "Birthright"—currently, it's a toss-up between Olin and Kadia (though I'm not wedded to either; I'm still mulling over the options). Here's the kicker: meshing their timelines without resorting to wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff is like trying to solve a Rubik's cube in the dark. No way am I touching time travel with a ten-foot pole; it's a can of worms I'd rather leave unopened. Time dilation? Sure, I'm all in. But Scott Brown-style time travel antics? Hard pass.

So, feel free to regard Mara's cameo in the epilogue as either a quirky blip in the space-time continuum or simply a mishap on my part that I'll address later on. Despite this hiccup, rest assured, she continues to be a crucial character in both series. And when I say both, I mean she plays a role in the grand scheme of things, especially with the impending eldritch war that ties all my series together. But you get the gist.

On a sidenote, MidJourney recently rolled out a significant update, and I'm genuinely excited about the fresh content it's been producing for me. That said, Blake's latest renderings turned out a tad more unhinged than I initially envisioned, so it looks like I'll be running another batch. Don't misunderstand me—I'm all for ramping up her level of craziness, and I fully intend to keep these new illustrations. However, there's a specific dramatic pivot planned for later in the narrative where she evolves into an even more chaotic and deranged force. At that juncture, these latest images will be the perfect visual accompaniment for the chapters.

That covers just about everything I wanted to share for now. Of course, the moment I hit the submit button on this update, I'm sure ten more things will pop into my head. Tee-hee!

As always, a HUGE THANK YOU for your unwavering support!

With gleeful regards,

Hereafter