Life Update Stuff! (Patreon)

ABSOLUTELY YUGE NGL

TL:DR: Alone will still post 3x per week, a totally new story will also start getting posted with hopefully the same frequency in the coming months. First teaser will go out right after this.

So hey yall! Just thought I'd make a post to keep you in the loop about what's going on, what the plans for the future are, all that good stuff.

First, the bad news: I got laid off from my job recently. It ain't great, but don't worry! It's not world ending. If anything, it's a good opportunity to try something new - especially because I'm INCREDIBLY fortunate. Like seriously, the fact that this is an inconvenience rather than upending my entire life speaks to how lucky ya girl is here.

That being said, I still want to be able to y'know earn income somehow. Yall are already helping with that a ton, and it's hard to overstate how much I appreciate it! Like really. It's not just about the money, the idea that you like the story so much makes me legit happy and proud.

Oh, by the way - this is not a post to guilt you into giving me more money. As I already said, I'm incredibly fortunate and don't "need" Patreon income by any stretch. I legitimately hope that you're here for the stories I write rather than out of some kind of pity. My hopes in building a bigger following and writing more stories is first because I like writing. Second, because the more income I earn off of writing, the more time I can dedicate to it!

SO that brings us to the big question: how does this change things going forward?

For AOM, you should see pretty much no changes whatsoever! I'll still be posting 3x per week on the same schedule until I finish the whole story. However, with the additional time I now have, I'll be prioritizing working on another new story!

Why not just write more AOM? A few reasons:

1. As much as I love writing this thing, I know it's pretty off genre for Royal Road. Also, there are a lot of things I could have  / should have done around launch to bring more people to the story that I just didn't. That means AOM is either pretty close to as big as it'll get there, or it'll take a lot of effort to bring it up more.

2. The next story I think has a REAL chance of going somewhere. It might not, but if it does? I see a much easier path to writing full time off of that than by trying to force AOM to pull all the weight itself.

3. I think I have a good plan to actually pull of juggling multiple stories. This is as good of an opportunity as I'll get to test out whether I can actually do it. If I can, that makes it much easier to keep momentum between stories. If I can't, then at least I'll know!

So I'll be trying to work up and launch this new secret story over the next few months or so. Once it goes live, we'll see how it does. If I can earn a decent amount between that and AOM, then I'll give two big thumbs up and just keep writing full time! If not, then somewhere down the line I'll look into finding another job and adjust posting accordingly. Even at that point though, I should be able to keep AOM posts to 3x per week.

As for what this new story is... well, I'ma post a teaser for it in just a couple minutes here! Feel free to take a look and give feedback if you're interested. I'll open the first chapter up to RR people too later this week, but wanted to give yall a sneak peek.

One last thing - I will keep writing AOM till I finish it. Even if by some miracle I end up writing the next Primal Hunter or something, I ain't dropping this. This story will haunt my dreams otherwise. Plus, it would feel kinda bad to abandon it, y'know? So barring some life-threatening event, these changes just mean more (varied) content rather than less.

So yeah! Thanks for all your support, it means a ton as always. Here's looking forward to the future!