tempest's book and fic progress tracker

[digitaldreams]

cracks my knuckles. welcome to my corner of hell and also mental illness and probably a third thing too. i like writing on the internet. i might like writing on the internet too much. it's a bit of a problem. but i have decided that the best way to handle looking insane every time i post on ao3 is to set up a place where i can talk about my insanity in excruciating detail. so welcome to my blog post where i talk about the progress i am making on the various pieces of fiction i am writing.

introduction

there are going to be two parts to this: book and fic progress. if you can believe it, these are two separate things. book progress refers to my progress on my self-published book series, "a road never walked alone." fic progress is for everything that goes up on my archive of our own. i have a routine of stuff i write each day, and this is a place for me to... talk about it. yeah. i'm going to start off by introducing stuff about my book though, and i'll introduce the fic progress tracker after that. hopefully, regular posts on this thread will just be semi-regular checks where i talk about the stuff i wrote on a given day and how it is distributed across my various work in progress stories.

but in order to get there, i have to get through the introductory posts explaining everything that is going on here. or i guess it would be more accurate to say that i need to explain everything i write. and that is... a challenge. because i write too much. that is the reason i am making this thread in the first place. so the first few posts aren't going to necessarily be progress checks and more just me talking about what is wrong with me and my ridiculous writing process. because there is quite a bit wrong with both, i think.

the writing schedule

i have a writing schedule. i may not do everything in any given day, but i still like to work on at least some of it on a daily basis. some things are high priority and required while other things are a lower priority and can be skipped if i run out of energy or just decide i don't want to do it. monday-thursday generally follow the same schedule with minor tweaks, and the same is true of friday-sunday. so let me break it down for you. every section is 1,200-1,300 words long, and i schedule seven of them per day even though i might not always write all of them. "how do you do that?" 130 words per minute typing speed. i told you i was insane.
monday and tuesday

monday and tuesday have the same schedule. i start off the day with alitia, my magical girl fantasy series. this story updates every week on tuesday, so on monday and tuesday, i write 2,500 words of the 5,000 word chapter and then just go on and hit post on tuesday once it's done. after that, i have four other things i can work on: a road never walked alone (or as i am going to call it in this thread, arnwa), eight interwoven (my octopath traveler ii novelization), free fall (a pokémon horizons AU where liko has DID), and a free write. all four of these are one section each except for the free write which is two. eight interwoven and free fall are first on the chopping block here since i am over three months ahead on writing content for both of them. insanity.

wednesday and thursday

wednesday and thursday also have the same schedule, and it's identical to monday and tuesday's schedule except for one thing. alitia gets replaced with morix, my ace attorney inspired murder mystery universe. so it's two segments of morix (2,500 words of the 5,000 word chapter) and then posting on thursday. the rest of the day is arnwa, eight interwoven, free fall, and free write. same thing. so the schedule for monday through thursday looks like this:

Alitia (M/Tu) / Morix (W/Th) 1 (1,200-1,300)
Alitia (M/Tu) / Morix (W/Th) 2 (1,200-1,300)
Eight Interwoven (1,200-1,300)
Free Fall (1,200-1,300)
A Road Never Walked Alone (1,200-1,300*)
Free Write (1,200-1,300)
Free Write (1,200-1,300)

Total: 8,400-9,100

*sometimes, i don't write arnwa and edit it instead. in which case these words are replaced with ten pages of editing the story.

friday, saturday, and sunday

the schedule for the weekend is different and looser so that i have more room to... have a life. it's the same stories i write every day, just at slightly different concentrations. once again, i can skip eight interwoven and free fall as necessary to break things up if i need a little bit more time to have a life. there are more chunks of it though so that i can have a life more than usual. so it looks like this instead:

Eight Interwoven 1 (1,200-1,300)
Eight Interwoven 2 (1,200-1,300)
Free Fall (1,200-1,300)
A Road Never Walked Alone 1 (1,200-1,300*)
A Road Never Walked Alone 2 ((1,200-1,300*)
Free Write (1,200-1,300)
Free Write (1,200-1,300)

Total: 8,400-9,100

*same asterisk as before where sometimes i edit in which case these words are swapped for ten pages of reading my own stuff.

the posting schedule

if you have noticed that this looks like a lot of nonsense, you would be a little correct. i feel like i'm losing it every time i try to explain it to someone. so let me put it in simpler terms and just share when i update everything:

Tuesday: Alitia
Thursday: Morix & Eight Interwoven
Alternating Fridays: Free Fall
Whenever I Want: Free Writes
Book Chapters: Eighth of Every Month

i promise there is a method to my madness. i swear. it all makes sense somehow.

what does free write mean?

fantastic question! this just means i write whatever i want. right now, i am switching between three things whenever i want to. the first is diamond light, an oc band i made for a bandori/bang dream oc universe. the second is another bandori series where i ship my favorite character (mutsumi) with every member of the main cast for fun. and then the last is my backlog of ideas that i have had for ages but have never done anything about for some reason. currently, i am writing stuff for octopath traveler 0. i will pick any one of these three things depending on how i feel on a given day. it's called free write because i do whatever i want forever. and sometimes that means playing russian roulette with which wip is begging for my attention on any given day and what fictional characters i feel like tormenting. we have fun here.

conclusion

if you read through all of this, you have the patience of a saint. i am aware i look and sound like i have completely lost my mind when i bring out a calendar scheduling out everything i will post for the next six months. but also i like keeping track of things. and maybe i want to keep track of what i write in a public place so people can see it and understand just how much is wrong with me. please think of me as the meme of the guy with the pinboard who looks like he is losing both sleep and his mind. you know, but for fan fiction. anyway, before i get into the regular checks, i'm going to go into a little more detail on my fics and my book, starting with the latter. so keep your eyes peeled for me to scream about the weirdest way a book series has ever been structured in the history of forever. i do not expect anyone to keep up with this in detail. godspeed to anyone who does. i have something wrong with me. thank you.

 

[digitaldreams]

you passed the first test of reading the introductory post to the entire thread. now it's time for the number one question i think people have right now...

what is "a road never walked alone"?

fantastic question, reader whose words i am stealing! "a road never walked alone," or as i abbreviate it, arnwa, is my self-published book series. it is currently being published in monthly installments on amazon kindle. the series is a fantasy, action, and adventure saga set in the fictional continent of freyoria during the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. or... a fantasy equivalent? something like that. there's magic, fight sequences, world travel, deep character building, and gay people. lots of gay people. it has a pretty heavy focus on queerness, found family, and the power of friendship thematically. the title of the series comes from its premise: a group of people who have never met before start traveling together. they all have their own goals and reasons for traveling, but they're doing it together. so no road is ever walked alone because they are making friends with each other even though they come from completely different places in life.

what about those characters?

there are eight members of the main cast, and each of them are on the road for their own reasons. it's largely coincidence and convenience that brings them together in the first place, but they decide to stay together because it's helpful. and because they all get to make friends when they're together. so for this next section, i'm going to rapid fire through the eight cast members and what they're trying to accomplish with their journeys.

Ezra Petras

22 - He/They - Gay

Ezra is an aspiring merchant from a poverty-stricken town in the Freyorian wildlands. Throughout his childhood, he idolized his mother Vivian, and he wanted nothing more than to follow in her footsteps... Until the day she abruptly disappeared. All Ezra has to remember her by now is the story she told him throughout her childhood about the merchant god Pinith granting treasures to humanity that brought infinite joy. In an effort to bring light back to his father's life, Ezra sets out to find the Four Treasures of Joy and maybe find his mother along the way.

Evyn Thrinn

26 - They/Them - Pansexual

Evyn is a pirate who has been living the dream for the last few years. They spend their days traveling the world on a ship with their partner, Aether. The two are deeply in love, but tragedy strikes when Aether falls ill with a strange necrotic disease that rots at their body and soul. Evyn is forced to leave Aether behind to find a cure, but the sickness is far more dangerous than they ever could have anticipated. Still, Evyn refuses to give up, and they are determined to return to their lover's side to continue their adventures once more.

Raphal Hodoshima

23 - He/Him - Bisexual

Raphal is the son of the main apothecary in a dusty desert town. He hates his work though, and he would do anything to get away from a career path he never wanted to pursue in the first place. Raphal sees a chance to change his lot in life though when the daughter of his town's noble leader is infected with a dangerous disease. Raphal sets out to find the final ingredient to cure the illness, though his sights are not on saving the girl's life. Instead, he can only think about the fame and funds he will receive from her family once he is able to rescue her.

Tatiana Olwen

24 - She/Her - Bisexual

Tatiana is the star performer of a traveling theatre troupe. She captures the attention of all those who come to see her dance and sing, but no one in the crowd is aware of the dark secrets she hides. Unfortunately, Tatiana cannot keep her past hidden forever, and someone she thought she would never see again attacks her new family. Determined to save those she cares about from the danger she brings, she sets out on a journey to fully sever her ties with her history and find true peace at last.

Rana Celestia

18 - They/Them - Asexual Aromantic Lesbian

Rana is a scholar of magic and the prodigy of the Abyss Hollow Academy's arcane studies department. At only eighteen, they are a professor at the school, but they face resentment from their peers and students alike. Rana begins to hit the point of true burnout just as a pair of book thieves arrive at the school to steal a valuable tome detailing the end of the world. Rana takes a sabbatical to pursue them, though their true goal is very different: find a reason to live before they have to return home.

Veon Ogma

19 - He/Him - Demisexual Panromantic

Veon is the youngest member of an assassin group operated within his family, the Castus Crusaders. After their lives fell to ruin and their hometown was destroyed, the survivors of the Ogma bloodline began plotting their revenge against the man who stole everything from them. However, Veon has come to doubt if the Crusaders' actions truly are justified since their target is still alive after five long years. With his resolve shaken by a mission gone wrong, Veon comes up with a new purpose: to make his family members atone for their crimes against humanity.

Lenore Argyros

25 - She/They - Pansexual

Lenore is a priestess of the dawn goddess, Aylin. However, she knows very little else about herself. She wakes up in the side of a mountain in an abandoned coffin with the last ten years of her memories completely missing. Lenore is certain she has forgotten something important, so she sets out on a journey to recover that which she has lost. Her only clue is an unknown relic known as the Moonlight that was lost in the same area she was found. Even so, Lenore presses on only to realize more is wrong with her now than she ever could have imagined.

Anguis Tushar

27 - She/Her - Pansexual

Anguis is the strongest member of a traveling mercenary company. She is happy with where she is even though her history is marked by the tragic loss of her village ten years prior. Her routine is shattered though when she runs into someone who was responsible for the downfall of her home and the deaths of her family. With newfound rage, Anguis leaves her mercenary company behind to chase after the killers of her people, hiding the truth about who she is and why she was targeted all the while.

i love those characters!

i love these guys. they mean so much to me. sighs dreamily. i think the main appeal of this series is the cast, so i wanted to go into more detail about them here for those who are interested. yay. if you want more information about them, i'll put my author social media later down on this page, and you can scroll through the posts there for other descriptions of the characters and their chapters.

series structure

this book series is a fascinating thing because it might be the least orthodox way to publish a book series of all time. instead of releasing the books together all at once, i will be releasing chapters on a monthly basis on the eighth of every month (get it because eight main characters haha i'm so clever). i imagine your first question when hearing that is "why in the world would you do that?" which is a valid question! and the answer is a simple one: length. each book has been broken up into different chapter arcs for the specific plot thread being followed, and the books have eight to ten chapters each. the problem is with how long each of these chapters are. in book one, the eight chapters are anywhere from 16,000 to 22,000 words long. in book two, this number skyrockets to 26,000 to 38,000. having eight to ten of those in a book adds up very quickly when they are long enough to be novellas all on their own as chapters. so i'm going to release everything in chapter installments for more frequent updates that are easier to digest because i am not dropping a 300,000 word brick on people. that is roughly three times the length of an average novel if not longer. so i might be releasing this series in a very weird way that no one has ever heard of before, but the reason for it is because i fear i would look even more like a lunatic if i didn't do it this way. (please do not critique me on the way i am releasing this series. i have been thinking about it for over two years now and have decided this is the best way to handle it. this is also one reason this series is self-published. i promise i have considered other options. i just find myself in an insane situation.) also, i promise all of the chapters are split up into subsections so you do not have to read that much in one sitting. each chapter has 6-11 subchapters for easy navigation. i'm not that crazy.

the chapters also come with a little something extra: a freyorian file. the freyorian files are little lore dumps that aren't entirely necessary to understanding the world but are certainly nice to have. they're written like in-universe passages about various subjects like countries, cities, magic types, the gods, etc. every chapter has one freyorian file except for the first one which has two. i just think it's fun and whimsical to have. everyone must know about the effort i put into building this world because it was a lot.

the first book has eight chapters, and each of them is centered around the members of the main cast starting their journeys. they have their introductory chapters in the same order i listed them out above. the characters don't interact much in their first chapters since they only form as a full group at the end of book one. but then in book two, they start talking to each other, hence the longer chapter lengths. every book will have one chapter from each of the main characters, and starting from book two, there will be a few other chapters too. heehee. just for fun. i will say though that if you are interested in one character's story, it is not advisable to only read their chapters. other characters still do things even in chapters where they are not the focus of the plot, and you'll probably lose track of character threads if you're skipping around. so you have to read everything if you want to. sorry, guys.

there's one other thing to the structure of the series: full book releases. i'm releasing the chapters on a monthly basis, but once all of the chapters in a book have come out, i will release a full book version that has all of the chapters together. buying the full book is definitely a discount, but it's going to take a while to get there. for example, book two is going to start its chaptered releases next month, but the full book won't be coming until after all ten chapters are out, which means you'll be waiting until january 2027 to read the full thing. so if you want me to drop a brick on you, then you can still get the brick dropped on you! it'll just take a while so i can give the chapter releases a little bit of time in the sun first.

what is out right now?

as of this post going out, the series has released its full first book along with all of its chapters on amazon. i was previously selling them out of a personal storefront, but that has been closed temporarily for the amazon release. it'll reopen when i get physical copies hopefully later this year? we will see. so there are currently eight chapters out along with the full book they belong to. book two will begin releases on march 8 and continue through december 8. it contains chapters nine through eighteen of the overall series. i'll probably post about it here when the individual chapters start going up for book two. very exciting stuff.

as for my personal work on it, i have finished writing chapter twenty which is the second chapter of book three. as for editing, i am finished through chapter thirteen. it's kind of a one-man show over here, so i'm writing everything and editing it with a little help from my collaborators. but i love writing, so it's all worth it. i love my book even though it is the monster that eats my time and attention whole.

if you want to check out my social media for the project, you can do so on twitter, bluesky, tumblr, and instagram. i'll be kind of overhauling them soonish to have more content, but for now, this is what i have. i'm also going to overhaul my author's website with the help of my lovely girlfriend, and i'll put that up on this thread once it looks all pretty and stuff. thank you for reading this far. ummm i like my book series. i will probably info dump about it later on but in a different way. for now, i will leave you with a small glimpse into my insanity, aka the word count for the series so far. i'm very normal, i can assure you. also check out the super pretty cover art i commissioned from my friend. yaaaaaaaay.

Spoiler: pretty cover art!

Spoiler: word count. i'm normal

bolded is word count total for a book. all of the unbolded numbers are individual chapter word counts. i am normal.

 

[digitaldreams]

i was originally planning for my next post here to be a breakdown of the fic part of book and fic progress tracker. the one where i explain the various stories i write on the internet and the progress i am making with them. but i have spent most of this week cranking stuff out for arnwa, so instead, this is going to be a big arnwa update post themed around the process of getting the book ready for print publication.

i want to get this book out in print by the end of april since i'm going to an event at my college where i'll be able to share a few copies via a raffle. so i need to lock in and get stuff done. on monday, i formatted the entire book with the help of a program that saved my life and kept me from having to do all of this myself. it was fantastic. and i learned that this book is... 464 pages. wow. that's a lot. i wrote all of that. but there was one problem with it: i had to change the headers on a bunch of the pages. you see, the headers were pulling from something i didn't want them to be pulling from. basically, i have the book split up into different "parts" for all of the chapters of the story. and then the chapters are divided into subchapters for easier navigation. well, the subchapters are considered "chapters" in this program while my actual chapters are considered "parts." so the program was pulling from the subchapter titles (which are just roman numerals), and it looked really lopsided and uneven. so unfortunately, i had to go through every single page in adobe acrobat and edit the headers. this was an entire adventure because adobe didn't want to recognize the font, but i eventually got it working. overall, i would say it looks a lot better now.

Spoiler: comparison of old headers to new

i also made a fantasy map and put it in the book! so now people can see exactly where everything is in the fantasy continent i have created. i think the map looks pretty cool too. it was a bit of a pain to make, but i got there in the end.

Spoiler: my fantasy map!

after that, the next step was the cover spread. i had to follow very specific proportions for the front and back cover, and i had to remake this three times i think. it was a mess because i didn't do things in a good order. anyway, the point is that i was able to make the paperback and hardback spreads for the book, and they look super good! i'll show the paperback spread below because i think it's very cool and that everyone in the world should see it. the cover art is by my longtime irl friend, and she did such a good job with it.

Spoiler: cover spread!

and with that, i submitted the book for proof copies! so i'm hoping to get those at some point. for some reason, i haven't gotten my confirmation email about the proof copy order having gone through yet, but i am choosing to be positive about it. i will definitely post about it again when i get my proof copies and can show them off in person. fingers crossed it all goes well!

lastly, i decided to go through and overhaul all of the individual chapter covers. i'm not going to share all of them since that would be... a lot, but i'll at least share the first ones from books one and two. this was the original vision i had for them, but i wound up having to go for a placeholder at first because of circumstances out of my control. but i was finally able to get them done in a way i like, and i love them to bits. chapter nine is going to be coming out in a little over a week, so here's a quick preview of it before i release the full summary on social media in a few days:

Spoiler: new chapter covers for chapters one and nine!

and that's it for this long update spree! i have been working on this series... a lot this week. there were a lot of other misadventures in the process of getting this stuff ready for publication, but i'll spare you the tangents about how user unfriendly adobe acrobat is, haha. i like book series. next time, i might actually talk about the fics i am writing on ao3. for now, i am thinking about the beast that eats my attention and my time (arnwa)

 

[digitaldreams]

claps my hands together very loudly. progress has been made! and i am very excited about it!

so since last time, something really cool happened! my proof copies got here! i reviewed them, made a few small tweaks, and then sent off the final version of the book so that it can be printed and published. these proof copies are my entire personality right now. i got a hardback and a paperback. i get them at a reduced cost since i'm writing the book, so i pay half as much as everyone else to get them. i ordered a few books of each type so that i can have my own and then sell a few right away to close family and friends. those are going to be getting here in the next week and a half. very very exciting!

Spoiler: proof copies!!

after getting the main book all ready to rumble, i worked on five other big things in the last week and a half. number one: redoing my website! the current website is... fine, but i don't think it looks super great. i know i can do better. so i decided to swap my hosting service from godaddy to squarespace and remade the entire thing with a fresh coat of paint. it is GORGEOUS now. it's not live just yet since i have to wait for the domain to transfer over to squarespace, but it looks really, really good. i'll definitely make an update post here when it's updated. the transfer should be done soon, and i'm very excited about it.

thing number two: bookmarks. i wanted to include little bookmarks in my orders when i shipped them out and also give it as an option for an extra product for anyone to buy if they felt like it. so i made a bookmark that matches the appearance of my book's spine and then sent it off to be printed! very exciting! i'll share a picture of it when it gets here.

thing three: business cards. a must have for any independent seller. i designed a cute business card and sent it off too. it's in the same order as the bookmarks, so i'll show them together probably. every order on my website will have both of them included as a little bonus.

speaking of ordering from my shop, i decided to overhaul and upgrade my shop. previously, i was running it on bigcartel, but that was when i only had digital products and not physical ones. so now that i have physical stuff and now that i'm preparing for the long term, i decided to move it to squarespace. i hooked up shippo with squarespace to give accurate shipping prices after designing it. i think it looks really nice. it'll go live with the rest of my website whenever the domain transfer goes through. fingers crossed it is soon!

and last but not least, i started hammering out a budget plan. i was kind of intimidated by this because, well... it's money. scary. but after breaking it all down, i realized that this is going to be a lot more manageable than i thought. my goal for this first year is to just break even on my shop, and i'll be able to do that after selling just eleven hardback books through my website. that doesn't even factor in paperback sales, amazon sales of hard copies, amazon sales of ebooks, or anyone who decides to buy solo bookmarks. so... i'm really starting to think i can pull this off. i've been stressed as hell for the last few weeks, but i think it's all starting to come together.

i'm planning on launching preorders for my physical copies on my shop a little earlier than on amazon. so i'll be opening physical preorders on march 14! this saturday! and then amazon orders will be opening up on march 24! books bought through my shop are a little pricier since they come with the free business cards and bookmarks... and they are all signed! as a thank you to customers for purchasing directly from me, all copies bought through my store will be signed! i'm excited about it, and i'm hoping a few people will choose to buy from me. this small business thing is very nerve-wracking, but i'm making the most out of it.

updates coming again when i get the website up and running, when bookmarks and business cards get here, and when final copies of the book get here! woohoo!!!!!!!!!

 

[TeamCapumon]

ezra on the book cover my beloved..........................

 

[digitaldreams]

ezra on the book cover my beloved..........................

he's the most important guy of all time i adore him...

 

[digitaldreams]

shop went live today!!!!!!!!!!! super super exciting!!!!!!!!!! and here it is!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.crescentzephyr.com/shop

i was honestly kind of losing my mind leading up to this. i got the entire website working through a lot of painstaking work, thought i was finally ready for launch... and then paypal stopped working and i lost it. i thought i had done something wrong and sifted through the internet for ages trying to figure it out... only for it to be an issue on squarespace's end keeping the integration from working for every shop on the entire website. alright. so i launched the shop anyway and just didn't have paypal up on it. squarespace support should fix the problem in the next week or so. i hope. fingers crossed!

anyway, i'm so excited!! i'm going to wait a little bit and then put in an order for however many books i need to get to ship out to people in the US. because that's the other issue. shop is only working in the US right now. well, okay, books are only working in the US right now. because apparently, shipping a three pound book to another country costs over 50 dollars in shipping. that is absurd. so instead of forcing any international fans through that, i'm setting up something else: a signed sticker set. this will be considerably easier to ship internationally since it will be small. i'll sign a little sticker, let people buy the book via print on demand on amazon, and then they can put the sticker inside of it from there. so that will be nice and easy and awesome. it's not the solution i wanted, but it'll work for the time being, and i guess that's all that matters.

sighs. the last month or so has been frantic trying to get everything set up, but i'm hoping to finally be in the clear now. i think i've earned a break after everything i've done. maybe i'll treat myself to one of the frosted animal cookie build a bears. i keep thinking about them. they're adorable.

 

[digitaldreams]

how has it been two and a half weeks since i last posted here? man, time really does find a way of getting away from you.

well, i've already made quite a few sales on the shop! i've sold a small handful of books in the shop, some on amazon, and another batch in person. i've got a second shipment coming in to restock the shop within the week, and i'm very excited about it. i'm hoping i'll be able to sell through the rest of this batch (quite a few of them have already been pre-ordered) since that would have me not only breaking even on shop costs but making ~$250 in profits too, not counting sales on amazon. exciting things are happening in my world. and by that i mean i feel like i am handling this like a shaking chihuahua. i am doing my best though! learning new things all the time!

i've also launched the international option on my ship in the last few weeks: the bookplate set. it comes with a bookmark, stickers with my author signature, and my business card. that way, people outside of the US can still get a copy of the book signed if they want one. i'm going to send out the first set of those later this week since i finally have international stamps to ship them with after they got a little delayed in the mail. exciting, exciting. i'm happy to have a solution to the international problem even if it's not the one i was originally hoping for. happy day.

i'm working on a lot of things behind the scenes too. for example, i went through and reformatted chapters for amazon releases since i wasn't entirely happy with the spacing on the ebook releases previously. so i'm going to slide those changes into effect within the next week. i also finished writing chapter 21 (third chapter of the third book) and... i finished editing book two! so i'm all set for the rest of the year on those releases. very exciting. and as of today, i have started writing chapter 22. i've got an event lined up in person at the end of the month too where i'm going back to my college and raffling off a few copies at the annual drag show. queer literature and all that. it's overwhelming in a lot of ways, but i'm also happy with it. follow your dreams since they might be more in reach than you thought.

i still want to do a post in here about my stories on ao3 so i can start giving progress updates on those too as i want to. unfortunately, i have forgetting disorder and keep not doing it. i'll get there soon enough, haha. just need a little more patience. in my defense, shop has been eating up a lot of my attention. oops. i'll get there.

 

[digitaldreams]

another update after a few weeks of not being online. uh... oops? at least i got back to it!

this last weekend, i went back to my college (i graduated in may of 2025) to help with an event on campus! i used to be the secretary for the school's LGBT organization for three years, so i came back to help out with the annual drag show. i performed in the show and read two original poems. i also managed the raffle table, and i donated a signed hardback and a signed paperback copy to the raffle! i also sold three copies outside of the raffle to various professors on campus, so that was really exciting too. i had a great time with it, and i've been feeling awesome.

at this point, i've made about 300 dollars from selling books since physical copies dropped at the end of march, and that is... crazy to me. i don't know if this trend is going to continue into the end of the year or anything since it'll be a while before i have any other physical books to sell, but i'm still excited with the progress i've made. i've fully paid off the website subscription, and i've made 100 dollars that can contribute to paying my cover artist for the second book's cover. kicking my feet so excited. i'm very much looking forward to it.

i'll be able to drop another physical product before the end of the year too! i'm going to have to split up all future book releases into two parts because of the length of them. you're never going to believe this, but making a book that's formatted similarly to a JRPG means that it is as long as a JRPG and is therefore massive. so book two is going to be broken into two parts. one will come out in the second half of 2026 while the second part will come out in january of 2027. all future books will work like this too. um... i'm normal? yeah.

i've been making good progress on writing too, and i'm up through chapter 22 of writing out drafts. considering the fact that chapter 11 is the next one coming out in early may, that's pretty damn good. book two has been entirely edited, and all that's left is for me to add in the afterwords to parts one and two before they will be essentially ready to rumble whenever the cover art is finished up. i've been outlining the last few chapters that need it too, and i should have everything through the sixth book in the series outlined by the end of next month if all goes according to plan. the grind never stops, but i really do love working on this project. i can't wait to see where it takes me in the future!! here's to 300 more dollars i think!! that'd be awesome!!

 

[digitaldreams]

new update time for the book series! yippee!

i still have been too busy to talk about fic progress but i will get there one day. not today though. i've been making more progress on selling copies of my book. i am almost entirely out of my first wave of books that i ordered for my shop (i have two paperbacks left out of the 25 books i ordered), so i ordered a second batch, and they are on their way to my house. if i can sell all of the books i have ordered from the second wave (15 total), then i'll officially break even on paying for both my website and cover artist. even if this isn't going to be an immediate career for me since it is Not making enough money to pay full time, i am hoping i'll at least be able to cover basic business expenses, and i am over 70% of the way there! so that's very exciting. fingers are crossed i can sell all of these books when they get here!

i'm also gearing up for something else to expand my horizons: putting the book up on ingramspark. this is a book distributor that will get the book available on international websites and in other countries i previously was not able to reach. i'm working on the last few steps of getting it set up right now by editing the cover, and after that, i should be ready for everything to come? i am hoping? i want to have this organized by the end of july at the absolute latest, ideally sooner than that. and then i'll know to just do it from the jump when it comes to any future books.

i think those are my major updates. i keep looking at copies of my book sitting around my room and feeling so Weird about the fact that it's my real actual book in real actual print. it's crazy to me. but i think it's cool too. so here is to hoping that i can sell my remaining stock, break even, and then gear up for my next release!