February 21 Update

Hi everyone!

The air's getting warmer, days longer. 

We're two months into the new year already and spring is right around the corner. What does it bring along? 

New stories, at least.

Side Story C: The Chapel of Sleep will be available to my patrons on March 29.

That's Monday, opening the last week of March.

The first draft for this shorty is already written, so I'm confident I can meet the deadline. 

Of course, there is still a lot of editing to be done before it's worth showing to anyone, but the rough framework exists, for my greedy family to print and sell on the 50th anniversary of my death, if nothing else.

Continuing the story of A Hero Past the 25th, this piece takes place about one week after Finest Hour.

I got the idea for this one already almost two years ago, so it was a fairly straightforward process to write down. The story is roughly the same length as the first one, maybe a bit longer. B got already too long for comfort, so I told myself to keep things simple this time. It sort of defeats the point of a "bonus story", if it's the length of a novel, and hogs too much time from the work on the next main title.

Does that make any sense?

Anyway!

The biggest challenge in every story is usually the cover art.

The only part that's entirely optional, yet it always causes me the biggest headache. 

I draw more than half a dozen versions of every cover, and I'm not happy with any of them (lol). Fortunately, there is always some nice reader who says they like it. If only you could see the abominations that were produced before the final version!

Nevertheless, as embarrassing as it is, I'll try and do my best again.

While we're at it, here's an updated version of the roadmap I posted last year, with the newer works added, to help all newcomers see where we're going.

We've come a looong way.

But a persistent fog still covers the destination.

I've tried to avoid working like Marvel and announcing my projects 5 years in advance. Because that word you see so often these days—"DELAYED"—is pretty damn embarrassing.

First you tell all the world, "Amazing Product X will be released on day Y!", and then, a week from day Y, you tell them: "oh actually, this isn't going to work at all, please forget about it". Now that's a total nightmare.

I think that's still slightly better than forcing out Amazing Product X, which is actually not so amazing at all, but completely broken in every conceivable regard, and evil mockery of everything the audience has come to expect...Yikes. 

How do you get back up from that, as a creator? You just don't.

Not talking about any specific video game here, just in theory.

Yeah, in theory.

I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but above is also the subtitle for Verse 1, which previously had none. It's not really relevant and doesn't show anywhere, but if there happened to be a print version of the book, then that would be the title.

I don't have any real plans to get this series printed at the moment, it's not quite popular enough for the effort, but anything's possible. Never say never, you know? 

Have I rambled enough? I'm starting to think so. 

Go and enjoy your Friday, or whichever day you see this on.

Thank you very much for your patronage.

As usual, if you have any questions, comments, feedback, requests, or such, feel free to share. No need to be shy. I'll do my best to answer your wishes, if possible.

"I hated this and this and that was shit"—I can't say much to feedback like that, but if it makes you feel better, then fire away.

"In the next story, please make the protagonist build a minigun and shoot all the bad guys to pieces"—I'm sorry, but I can't alter plotlines either. Artistic integrity and all that.

Okay, jokes aside, see you again in March!

Sayonara!