Happy Holidays (and a Plan for the New Year) (Patreon)

Hello everyone. I hope you enjoyed today's bonus chapters and are having a wonderful holiday.

2023 was a good year for me. I went from 6 patrons to over a hundred and my followers on RR/SH went up from 500 to over 8000. It feels great to see the stories I put out there read so often as they take on a life of their own, but more than that, you are now quite literally putting food on my table.

As some of you who hang out in discord might know, I am currently in school to finish my bachelor's degree, and while I do that I write. So, this has been a real help, and I appreciate it. I started this degree program because I needed to reboot my career, so to speak (until now I worked in power generation for years. It's a tough gig, and it can be very hard on the body. So, after back surgery, I decided maybe it was a good idea to try something else.)

Honestly, I'm already more successful as a writer than I ever thought I'd be, and I hope to see that continue in 2024. To that end, I have signed some books with a publisher. I know some of you won't want to hear that, because that means I'll start stubbing books. This will be a slow process done with plenty of warning, so there's no fear that anyone will be left behind. If you want to continue to read for free on RR or SH, nothing will stop that.

However, if I want to give becoming a real professional writer a shot (and get paid enough to live,) I need to take things to the next level. Basically - I have a year and a half to do that before I finish my degree and then start looking for a traditional 9 to 5 again.

Life is really just a series of forks in the road, isn't it?

So, what does my publishing plan look like?

The first book of Broken System will go on Amazon at the end of January. (Note to Broken System readers this will likely result in increasing chapter output from 2 to 3 a week in the near future.)

The first book of Golemancer will follow in February. (After the rewrite, Golemancer will be two books and about 30% longer than it is currently.)

Why are those two being published first and not Tenebroum? Well, they are closer to "normal" as far as the fantasy world and Amazon is concerned. I think we can all agree that Death After Death and Tenebroum might be a little too dark for most people. But we will see.

As much as I love webnovels, I grew up in a world of paper books. I want to get these on my shelf one day. So, one of the things I've been wracking my brain to do is figure out how I can make that book experience more interesting/exclusive for my Patrons. Sometime in the next couple months I plan on getting a little crafty so I can make some extras for you, my dear readers.

Things like Bookmarks, and stickers would be cool, and are definitely on the table, but what I really want to make are bookplates. They're a Victorian thing that aren't really in use anymore but given that I won't be a big enough name to travel the world doing book signings any time soon, I feel like it's the best way I can help readers connect to a book that they really love by giving them signed copies, so to speak. After all, who wouldn't love a Golemancer or Tenebroum faux-magic card, or one of the fae monstrosities done to look like a Pokemon? The possibilities are endless! 

To that end I'm working on the first one. Each one would be themed for the book in question and be a limited-edition work of art for anyone that loves print editions as much as I do.

I am unsure if I will make it black and white or antiqued, and there's still lots of room for improvement, but I like where it's going. (Ex Libris means, "from the Library of") So, we'll see. This is a long, post that will probably be more divisive than I would like it to be, but thank you for reading!