So about that long silence...

The last quarter of 2019 has been intense, to say the least.

Firstly, I want to apologize for my absence. Those of you who follow me on my personal Facebook account may know that my wife was suddenly admitted to hospital in late October. I don't want to discuss the details of what's happening regarding her health online - her body and mind is hers to talk about - but I will say that it has been a long, painful, difficult and expensive journey for both of us. The prognosis is good, so we expect she will be okay, but I spent the holidays alone and have had a lot of time at home without my best friend at my side. About twelve weeks, in fact. She was just discharged on the 31st of December and is now back home.

In addition to that, there was the 20Booksto50K conference in Vegas. I had a great time, learned and taught a lot, but back-to-back 12-hour days + stressing about my wife thoroughly wrecked my body and triggered a lupus flare. Once autoimmune diseases get going, putting them down is difficult, and your actively compromised immune system leaves you wide open for other kinds of illness. So on top of that, I got bronchitis that morphed into secondary pneumonia. And on top of that, I managed to get heaping great dose of giardiasis. If you don't know what giardiasis is, imagine having gastroenteritis/stomach flu for two weeks. It's pretty gnarly and definitely not something I ever want to go through again considering how nasty it was in combination with coughing all the time.

So given how I've been feeling, I've had some difficult decisions to make regarding my writing career. Anyone under the age of 40 is generally quite aware that one's career now depends on both doing the actual work your job requires, and maintaining a social presence in-person and online. Even plumbers need a website and social media to attract clients these days. Authors definitely do. Ads, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, the works. Between caring for my mortally ill wife and myself, I decided it was more important to do the work of writing the books, and cut my online and social media time to a fraction of what it normally is. My IRL social life has definitely suffered, too - it's hard to be sociable when you're emitting so much fluid you feel like a monster from a John Carpenter movie.

So yes - if you have been frustrated, or wondering if I've ghosted my fans, I apologize for the absence. These last couple of years have been the hardest of my adult life, and I've been battling on through it as best I can. It's not all bad - despite facing many personal setbacks, Archemi Online has sold over 50,000 copies in all formats since Dragon Seed was first published, and I owe that success to my readers and fans. I am grateful to every one of you.

What have I been working on in this time?

I have been switching between three projects: I am almost finished the novella (not short story) for the bad guys in Archemi, Ghosts of the Past. I have been working on Warsinger, the 4th book in the series, and also on the first book in the a semi-secret LitRPG project that sits in the liminal zone between Gamelit and Cyberpunk. I'm excited for these books, as they deal with some philosophical questions about perma-upload that I haven't felt free to address in Archemi. The main character, Vance Brukov, is a Bruce Willis-esque action hero type. I'm considering whether or not to make it porny or keep it clean right now, but I'm a actually leaning toward the latter and having there either be no sex at all or simply keep it 'fade to black'. Please feel free to weigh in on this.

I'm balls-deep into Warsinger, and am currently at the stage of editing that first quarter of the book and refining the contents. The first 20-25K words of a book underpin the entire story, and so I always pause at the End of the Beginning to make sure that the lines are straight, the plot is level, and everything in that crucial foundation is going to lead the reader on the end of that book. So far, so good - but that's why I'm currently incapable of publishing a chapter a week. Once that first ten or so are edited and I'm sure the book is where I want it to be, you will be the first to see it.

So anyway - if you've been worried or frustrated at the radio silence here on my Patreon page, you now at least have an answer. My deepest apologies for the lack of engagement and attention. I value each and every one of you. Those of you who submitted character ideas for inclusion in the series will hopefully be delighted to recognize the characters you submitted as I work on the next books in the Archemi Online Chronicles.