Weekly Update - 10/25/23

So I'm about halfway through the Breakpoint chapter that was supposed to be out yesterday, but I feel like I'm making decent time on it now, and will have it out today, and can then get started on the massive number of things I feel like I'm behind on, in addition to the stuff I need to wrap up for the month.

The poll for what's coming on Friday went to C.A.R.P., which, thank you folks for being supportive of that story. I know it feels like I'm slowly dropping cliffhanger after cliffhanger, but I promise you, I know what I'm doing with the story, and I've had so much fun writing it, telling a story set in both 1999 and 2008, where the semi-reliable narrator is clearly filled with regret about the mistakes that he made over the course of his unusual college career. I know where the story ends, and it's been great building towards that. Each chapter you get a little bit more of it, and that lingering sense of dread is very intentional.  You know Josh is going to make it to tell you the story, but everyone else? Let's just say this is one of the darker stories I've told. We'll see if I can land the ending in print as well as I feel like it's going to work in my head. 

I'm going to hammer out QT:PT17 somewhere between here and the 31st, as well as a handful of other things I need to get done. (I'm also going to put out QTAA7 in alpha form for those subscribers somewhere along the weekend.) And the thing for 10/31 is going to something truly great, that I've been chipping away at for weeks now. I don't want to say much more about it before it appears, but it's something people have been asking for me to do for a while, and I'll talk more about it next week during the news update after people have read it. It's also going to be a bit bigger than the normal post. I will say that while it isn't a Silversmith story (as would typically be tradition for our Halloween story), Silversmith is in it, and it is a Modern Mythos story.

Getting prepped for the trip up to Seattle tomorrow has taken up a bit more time than I expected, as did a couple DayJob phone call meetings that I was promised would be short that, surprise surprise, weren't. I've barely even gotten a chance to put more than half an hour into Spider-Man 2 for my PS5 that arrived Friday. That said, I'm doing everything I can to get as much done as possible along the way. I'll have some time stuck in the airports tomorrow and Monday, as I spend the weekend in Seattle for the Dota 2 International. I'll have the laptop with me, but we'll see how much actual writing I get done in any place other than the airport. I think I'm getting dropped off Monday several hours before the flight, and I think that's happening tomorrow as well, and that's fine - it'll let me write plenty while I'm hanging around airports. 

I've been getting knocked down a lot lately, mentally and creatively, but all you can do is get back up again. There's nothing wrong with getting knocked down. That's part of life. That's part of being human. But what you do have to do is stand back up, when you're ready, and to keep moving forward. I'm actually in a good headspace, and I'm pretty excited for all of you to see the thing I've been working on for next week, and another related project that I've been working on for a while. 

Public release schedule for the next month and change: 10/28 - QT: McCallister's Madness (finale); 11/4 - QT:PT13; 11/11 - QT2:7; 11/18 - A Pack Of His Own 4; 11/25 - Morgana's Gift 16; 12/2 - The Fertile Grove 1.

Anyway, if I'm late in getting back to you about things, I sincerely apologize and expect to hear from me soon. Take care of yourselves and don't panic - life does this from time to time, but we'll get through it together, or we'll go down swinging.