Not dead! Return timeline and general updates.

Hi all! Incredibly happy to say I'm still here and still writing, and apologies for going AWOL for two and a half months. Life has kept me a bit busier and more stressed in the past few months than I anticipated, mostly for good reasons, partly for bad. I'd hoped to come back on January 1st, but I hadn't managed to write even a little bit all of November and December, and I was feeling a little bogged down after that too. Ultimately got into a bit of a funk where I was struggling to write or respond to messages (sorry if you've commented or reached out and I haven't responded!).

On the good notes: I finally bought a home! It's a tiny one-bed condo, but I'm still feeling pretty ecstatic about it all. Finally moved into it last week. It's in a different state than I'd been living in up till now, so between the constant back and forth trips and all the annoying paperwork parts of it, was finding myself pretty drained after work. Then there was the moving and unpacking, and now there's a lot of new homeowner things (the dishwasher and dryer are broken, there's a hole in the wall, and for some inexplicable reason, there's no toilet-paper holder, etc, etc.)

On the less good notes: Work has been a bit hellish, I had a somewhat messy breakup (maybe TMI? But was definitely a pretty major blow to my writing energy), and then I finally had Covid for the first time, which as one would imagine, sucked.

Now, all of that aside, the main reason I moved states and bought a home in the first place was because I've been gearing up for a long time to hopefully quit my job and start writing full time (the new place is in a much cheaper area/costs less than a third of my previous rent per month and is now something I think I could hopefully manage on a writing salary.) This is ultimately what I love doing the most, and I really do want to do it every day if I'm able. With some of the unexpected costs of things like replacing a broken dishwasher, I'm not quiiiite there yet, but I've finally settled on a quit-my-job date of May 3rd.

Once I do, the hope is to write full-time, permanently. It may take me a month or two to ramp up to full output, but at the very least, I expect to do more than two chapters a week, and there wouldn't be any more serious hiatuses.

Until then, I'm going to work hard to get up a sizable backlog and finally do all the book 3 edits I've been putting off. Kind of wanted to start posting again on April 1st, but while I'm happy to say I've finally started regularly writing again, I don't have enough backlog, and to be honest, I'm still feeling pretty drained. That said, starting May 1st, I'll be posting regularly again. And then god help me, I'm not really planning to stop until the series gets finished! Obviously, I will be keeping the page paused until then so that no one will be billed.

Overall, that's a full 6 month hiatus, which -- while not super long when it comes to published books -- is an eon and a half for books posted chapter by chapter. To that end, I want to say: Thank you all for sticking around! And if anyone wants to drop the Patreon for now, trust that I very much so get it, and rather than any hard feelings, I have the exact opposite: Every one of you who've subscribed to this Patreon is a large part of the reason I've felt able and secure in my choice to try to do this full time, and that means a lot to me!

In any case: TLDR: Things have been a bit hectic for me the past few months, but I'm back on May 1st, new and hopefully improved!

Until then, I hope you're all reading wonderful stories, and know that I'm very wildly excited to show you all what's in store for book 4.

Best,

Whimsy