April Progress Report: Traveling Far (Little by Little)
Added 2018-05-01 13:24:18 +0000 UTCApril was busy! Mostly Day Hobby busy, but for those of you who missed the announcement, my last day there is in June! I am looking forward to freeing up those mental cycles. In the mean-time, though⌠letâs talk about what I was up to in April, and therefore, what you can look forward to soon!
Writing Progress
With Dreamstorm done (and launched!) last month, I turned my attention to other projects. Coracle, as my main aim, doubled in size; I estimate that project should be done by the end of May/beginning of June, unless it keeps spawning scenes not in my outline (*eyes it severely*). Also, Sediryl jumped from 8000 words to 15000 as my side-project. I even managed some work on Kherishdarâs Exception, though itâs idling while I finish the other two pushes.
Here this month (and gone again next) is the short story âHealing Waters,â which I wrote as a Kickstarter stretch-goal gift. For those of you who arenât participating in the Kickstarter, you can get that bonus in one of two ways: if youâve bought âFamily,â Book 5 of Dreamhealers, then ping your retailer at the end of May for the new edition, which includes it; or wait until the end of May and Iâll post it on Patreon as a freebie for the $5+ coffee cup tier.
Many thanks to my enthusiastic Kickstarter backers, who not only got us that $5000 stretch goal, but banded together to make the Dreamhealers KS the most successful Iâve done: at $6400, it just beat out the next highest grossing KS in my roster, Black Blossom ($6221).
Writing-wise, Iâm still on schedule for all my Q2 goals. Weâre in good shape! If all continues as planned, youâll have a new Pelted book (Sedirylâs âorigin storyâ novel) and Coracle 1 by the end of the summer, to go with the Kherishdar serial.
Just a reminder: Coffee cup patrons are able to read Coracle now, serialized, in advance of its publication. The Kherishdar serial will be available for everyone to read.
Other Stuff
April was much used up with Kickstarter activities and administrivia, but thatâs good: within a couple of weeks, the remaining Dreamhealers books (Dreamhearth, Dreamstorm, and Family) will be available for sale as paperbacks at retailers, which is a thing many people have been asking for! Iâve also been handling a lot of extra tasks involving ebook box sets for Princesâ Game and the Jokka audiobooks (the Bloom audiobook will begin serializing here on Patreon at the end of this month). I havenât gotten as much accomplished as I wanted (see: Day Hobby suddenly exploding), but Iâm satisfied that weâre still moving forward, and that Iâll soon be less distracted.
In art news, I got new sketchbooks I really love, and Iâm enjoying drawing on them immensely. About a week and a half of my drawing time got knocked down for assorted reasons, but Iâm piecing myself back together and getting back to it. For those of you who asked, here's a link to the new sketchbooks with amazing paper: https://www.strathmoreartist.com/vision/vision-mixed-media.html
Several people on the Discord server ordered one based on my recommendation and agree that itâs spiff.
In Patreon news, we gained three new people! Welcome, new folks! I wonât call you out because thatâs often embarrassing, but weâre glad to have you. The Discord server is also doing some re-organizing, based on its increasing size⌠weâre discussing scheduling events, like a weekly book club talk, or kitchen cooking chat, or a monthly âletâs all make something based on a themeâ day. Once weâve got that organized, Iâll post the monthly schedules here so people can decide what theyâd like to attend. I know the serverâs now large enough that it can be daunting to just show up and figure out whatâs going on! Hopefully having the events will make that less of a problem.
Finally, the monthly reminders. First, All Fan Chat Day is tentatively scheduled for Friday the 18th! I will be drawing, and there will be Q&A and silliness. Join us, we'd love to see you! And as always, a link for all the freebies. These freebies were made available before I moved free stuff to the $5 tier, but I donât believe in taking away stuff Iâve already given! So go grab these if you havenât already! https://www.patreon.com/posts/link-to-all-14489113
As always, questions and observations welcome. Y'all are the bestest. <3
Comments
Welcome new people! Thank you for joining! Thank you, Jaguar, for the updates and clear explanation of what's going on. Having these reviews are so helpful in keeping everything straight. Things too easily get lost in the rush and having time to slow and and see what's been done, Thank you. Congratulations on the Kickstarter and finally being able to leave the Day Hobby. Looking forward to all the new print books that are coming out.
Tygepc
2018-05-03 22:54:53 +0000 UTCOh goodness, I somehow confused cover weight as another paper weight. Sheesh!
2018-05-01 16:00:31 +0000 UTCI'll take it under consideration! Last I checked the economics were way against physical box sets, but that doesn't mean that things might not change in the future. I'll keep an eye on it. :)
M.C.A. Hogarth
2018-05-01 14:57:09 +0000 UTC*blushes* *clears throat* So, there's only one paper weight? What I see is the paper weight, and then the cover weight. But there are different sizes, and I got the 11x14 and 9x12, and there are several other Vision 'styles', including the sketch, the drawing, and the watercolor. I linked the one I'm using, the mixed-media. :)
M.C.A. Hogarth
2018-05-01 14:37:00 +0000 UTCI just want to say that I am SO happy and thrilled at everything! I remember the LJ days, and when you started working the Day Hobby, and all of the conversation around self-publishing and I think it's just so marvelous that you built your career YOUR way. You really are amazing and I hope that future generations of writers point to you as someone who really pioneered a new way of having a career as a writer. (ETA: oh! Which weight of paper are you using? I see two on that link)
2018-05-01 14:11:49 +0000 UTCWould you ever consider doing print omnibus editions of completed series? I prefer to read fiction in digital format; however, I enjoy buying print omnibus editions of series I love, just to *Have It*. A good example is Ursula Vernon's Digger omnibus...I <3 it so much! Maybe another Kickstarter project for the future?
Kelsey French
2018-05-01 14:09:19 +0000 UTC
