Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Four Score of Years in the Rear

That's right, it's that time again. The time where I misuse words for titles in a recurring theme relating to but one thing!

Anniversary post!

Yes, as of March 1st, 2017 it has now been four years since I opened up to the world and tried my hand. Four interesting years that have seen highs and lows, new systems rise, spontaneously burst into flames then crash and die. This past year alone saw one of our storefronts go offline entirely, slashing and running with 90% of every author's contractually due royalty payments in broad daylight, because that's a-okay.

Things like this are why Amazon has the monopoly when the alternatives are shady trash like AllRomance eBooks or low effort cashgrab portals trying to mimic a system without considering the actual figures. Sometimes it can't be helped.

So suffice to say it's been an interesting time. It's been a turbulent time for me that I don't really care to talk much about. I ran a post at the end of 2016 to cut and remove most of the year, so I'm not going to drag that in again. Instead, I'm going to try and keep it succinct, in sections!

--- The Past
As mentioned, the past sucks and I'm glad it's in the past where it can stay. Deaths in close family and the financial issues that creates are not something to wish on anyone, but they happen. They're bound to. Having large sums of money and purchased content stolen by a supposedly legitimate storefront isn't something to wish on anyone either and not something that should happen, but does.

The past sucked, let's forget about that.

--- The Present
To reiterate on the past sucking a bit, the recent past has been a bit of a shamble. In short; February was a mistake.

Presently, I have two or three things due to be published soon. At least one to two should have been
published in February, but in the spirit of bad calculations, my expectations have not panned out and instead piled up like a bad train wreck, but that's how we roll. Maybe one day things will be different and I'll have that train drifting along on multiple tracks, but that day is not today. Getting too caught up in those failures and troubles is a surefire way to bury myself in depression again.

Quick note: Depression is not a useful tool of motivation, nor does it aid in understanding how you're supposed to "just do it".

But it's not all bad! As we are in the present, and not the past, which is a pretty bad place as of late, it means there's a lot to look forward to coming "Soon*". March soon. It'll be a great month.
*Copyright 2004-2017 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved.

In addition to my standard publications, I have the pleasure of writing for some private commission work, so things are certainly in a state of improvement. It may not be looking down from the top, might not be better than everyone I or you know, but it's what it is. I'm not dead, and still here, so it could be worse?

--- The Future
So after the immediate future, what do I have in store? In the short-term, I have the affirmation that I'm stubborn to a fault, and will be finishing what I've started. Every story deserves a proper ending, proper closure and to fully fit as its part in my world. For the near-future, that means finishing the Hide, Soulflame and Shoes of Glass series'. After those two contemporary and one historic works are finished, it's full focus back to high fantasy, the Daemonique, Umbral Coil and Dhampyre.

Once things have been sorted out some, I may do some work retouching the blog some more. I think an active log of just what I'm working on and where I'm going next could work out. I may be bad with estimates, but a show of workflow and life like that could work out.

Last year I said there'd be things you might not expect and unfortunately there was never an opportunity to make good on them, so I'm just going to go come out and say this time. Once things have settled down and my backlog isn't as depressing, one thing I'd like to try my hand at is creating an RPG through my world.

It's a big endeavor, certainly, but one I've wanted to apply my love of fiction and writing to for a long time. As I develop my world through stories purely in books, it strikes me more and more as something that just needs to be. I need to have a Meirport and Sarandin Isle that can be walked around in person. I need the Ciras Isles, the Zo'Qeth deserts and frigid Northlands as places on a map that can be visited, with their cultures marked out naturally in the feel of people.

From the start, I've been writing with the intention of creating a big, breathing world with tales that span whole eras of time, and while I may barely know how to start with projecting it into a visual game environment, that's the sort of scope and desire I have to pick this all up and push forward.

That's the sort of passion your support will always give me. For these last four years and from here on, I will always be immensely grateful to my readers and everyone who has supported me. It's for all of you that I want to make things amazing.

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