Weekly Update - 1/22/25

It's not been a great week, so for those of you who just want to know what's happening (and get angry when I talk my personal life and/or politics), there'll be a Breakpoint chapter up as soon as I can get it finished, and Quaranteam: Phil's Tale for probably Saturday or maybe even Sunday, as I'm going to need a little bit of help in proofing it (especially since it's going to set the tone for some upcoming stuff). The What Am I Writing poll for this month currently has Captains' Days one vote ahead of Amor Ex Machina and two votes ahead of The Threadbinders so if you're considering upgrading to vote for this month, you've still got a few days left. Those of you who don't want politics, tap out here. Those of you who are with me for everything, let me tell you a bit more about my last week.

On Wednesday of last week, I got a call from a dear old friend of mine who had some emergency work that needed doing. This person's one of my oldest and closest friends, so I agreed to take the work on, and that consumed a lot of last week, but on the plus sides, I got to help an old friend out and the emergency reserve coffers got filled up a bit.

That brings us to Monday, which was the darkest day this country has had politically in lifetimes. 1500+ people who treasonably attacked our capitol building were set free, people who assaulted the very seat of our government, attacked law enforcement, and generally wanted to disrupt the rule of law. These people attacked cops, and law enforcement is completely against their release, so for those of you trying to argue this is just politics as usual, grow up and see yourself out. And when you have to call the police to protect you from these people raiding your house? I hope you'll let them know how much you were in favor of their release.

Add in the fact that a major project I spent hundreds of hours working on was summarily dismissed on Tuesday, with basically no reason given beyond "I just wasn't feeling it" and that's a little bit crushing. The project is still mine, I can continue to shop it around, but I'd spent a lot of time on this thing, and it felt like it was going to get a greenlight. I still think it's one of the best things I've ever done. The lack of feedback is what really stung the most, though.

So I was drinking quite a bit on Monday and Tuesday and that made focus particularly hard, and I'm sorry for that, but I sort of needed to figure out how to mentally cope with seeing Nazi salutes on my television and that person not being shamed out of existence immediately. That kind of stuff takes a mental toll on even the strongest of us, and the last time I had to deal with all this shit at the beginning of 2017, I was shacking up with a gorgeous brunette who could at least make me sleep a little easier. No such luck these days.

Between all that and the LA fires, 2025 is turning out to be the shittiest of years I've had in decades, and the first month isn't even fucking over yet. Blargh.

Being creative for a living isn't just put X amount of time in and get Y number of words out. Some days I wish that it was. (Other days I totally don't because I'll get on a tear and pour out an insane amount of stuff.)

I'm doing what I can to get a handle on things again, but here's what the rest of the month is going to look like, including a couple of things I'm hoping to cram in, but we'll see. I still need to get this month's QTUM commission done, as well as A Pack Of His Own. (I owe a QTSS as well, but the commissioner of that's very patient with me, thank God.) I'm going to have QT: Phil's Tale ready probably Saturday or Sunday, although maybe a miracle will happen, and it'll be ready Friday. It'll likely be Pack next Tuesday, and then whatever the You Decide! ends up being on Friday.

If I can get my brain ramped back up again, I'll try cramming additional things into the schedule to fill in for other things I owe - QT2:i7, QTSS, BB, probably in that order. I'm fairly certain I'll be able to knock out 2:i7 before the end of the month (mostly because I know exactly what goes in there, and it's something people have been asking for in terms of QT continuity for a long time) and we'll see how things move forward with the rest of it. I just heard back from QTSS's commissioner that they're happy with the first draft of QTSS3, which means I'm good to move on to QTSS4 for them and once that's close to done, I can post QTSS2 to all subscribers and QTSS3 to alphas.

Here's what I should have out to the free sites for the next month or so: 1/25 - QT2:27; 2/1 - Neon Stonehenge 8; 2/8 - QT2:28; 2/15 - Captains' Days 3; 2/22 - NS 9; 3/1 - A Pack Of His Own 14. 

Things'll turn around eventually, and sooner or later, some of these fucking criminals will actually go and serve some jail time. As John Rogers once wrote:

• "Rule One: Where there is value, there is crime.

• Rule Two: A fine is a price.

• Rule Three: Nothing ever stops until a Rich White Guy goes to jail.

• Rule Four: There are no Moriartys.

• Rule Five: Everyone can be conned."

We'll get through this. Remember, you're allowed to have bad days, as long as you pick yourself back up and try and get some good ones to counter it. I'm doing my best to remember that myself.