whimsyandmetaphor Blog Posts

Blog Update January 2021

So

Uh

2020, huh?

Wow.

And call me cynical, but I’m not holding out hope for 2021 to get much less chaotic.

But I am at least holding out hope that I can be … as productive this year as I was last year, if not a little more so.

I never named the year this year, so I’m going to start with that, and then a quick update on the blog, the stories, and some of the extracurriculars.

This year is officially the Year of Backlog. This one’s a bit more of a reference to personal stuff, but it’s relevant to my writing as well. I, like everyone else, put a lot of stuff on hold last year, and I’m going to be working through it this year. I’ve also, due to changing work commitments, had to change my priorities a bit, and put some things on the back burner. So in addition to everything else, I’m going to be trying to work through some of my backlog this year, to catch up on the things that I wanted to do last year or should have organised already but didn’t have time, or that other things got in the way of.

Now — the blog. Astute readers (aka any readers at all, if I still have any) will notice that this blog kind of went on hiatus at the end of last year, about the time that I hit university commitments. I mentioned a new secondary blog then, and then proceeded to do nothing with it. The next few posts are going to be cross-posts from there, because I think they’re relevant and that gives me a little extra time to recharge the blog batteries, and then I’m going to be back on new content for this blog as much as I can with the time and energy I’m going to have available. I’ll make a decision in the next few weeks, but it’s possible I’ll decide to drop my posting goal from one blog per week to one a fortnight — or perhaps one short story and one post per month — to keep my commitments down this year.

For the writing, I have been on hiatus with that for the last couple of months. People following my Twitter will know that I’ve been working with Arcanacon recently, and I’ve been running their Game Dunk Online event and helping to run their virtual convention this January, so that ate up a lot of my time and creative energy. I’m still working on the next serial for the blog, and it might be a while before I get it done. It’ll also be a while before I can start working on the sequel to Fire Witch, because I can’t start that til I’m finished with the serial. I haven’t entirely figured out what I’m going to do for creative content in the meantime — I have some short stories lined up that I can post, and I am nearly ready to release the third Ferryman’s Apprentice hard copy/e-book, so there will be a few things coming through. However, if it’s creative content you want, it won’t entirely be mine, but it’s probably Cyborg Stories that you want to be looking at (hint hint).

On a personal note, there are a couple of Big Life Things coming up for me this year. I don’t know how much I’ll talk about them here — I do want to start having more of a personality on this blog, and do more than just talk about my Writing Opinions, but I’m still working out the balance. I’ll talk a little bit more about those as and when it becomes relevant, I suppose. For now, what you mostly need to know is that they’re probably going to throw my productivity for a loop, but I’ll keep everyone posted. I’m also looking forward to working more with Arcanacon this year, and although I can’t talk about any of their projects yet, I’ll be sure to mention on the blog when they happen.

And that’s it from me — keep an eye out here and on Cyborg Stories — there’s going to be cool things happening this year in both places, provided I can manage my time right.

whimsyandmetaphor Blog Posts

March 2020 Update

Third in a row! And hopefully I’ll start getting some other content up soon. Not too much of an update today – there’s not a lot that’s super exciting happening, but there are some things just to keep people updated on.

But before we get into that, I just want to say that I hope everyone is keeping safe and being safe – these are scary times and we have to look out for each other. If you haven’t had a thousand people telling you what to do by now, you’re probably not reading this because you aren’t on the Internet, so I won’t go over all the instructions again. I just want to say that the best tool we have is co-operation and community right now. Keep washing your hands. Be kind. Be safe.

I’ll put the soapbox away now.

And now on the updates note. Last week I put out those Patreon and Twitter polls, and some of you have spoken – the rest of you I am just going to go ahead and assume are fine with whatever happens next.

I asked what people wanted to see more of in the blog, and what people wanted to see, fiction-wise, in the story hiatus period. The results are as follows.

Answers on the blog posts topic were pretty split – some people wanted only general blog posts, but more people wanted a combination of all options. So I’ll be doing mostly just my general writing and writercraft posts, with some palate cleansers thrown in every so often about my writing process (rebooting Edit Pass Live, for example, and I’ve got some worldbuilding process posts planned, since that’s what I’m doing at the moment), and some personal, real-life stuff thrown in when something important happens.

The other part of the poll was what to do about the hiatus. Now that The Ferryman’s Apprentice is finished, I need a little time to work on the next project, due to some Technically Difficulties, by which I mean I’m both indecisive and picky when it comes to my writing projects. I have decided which project I want to work on, but unfortunately it is one of the projects I don’t have a previous draft for, so it’s going to take me a while. In the meantime, people have spoken: Overwhelmingly, people want standalone, one-shot stories, that aren’t related either to upcoming or previous stories. So I’ll whip some of those up and post them. But at least one person did also particularly request the idea of a teaser or trailer in written form, and I do want to do at least one of those, because I want to play with the format – thanks to that person for giving me Ideas.

Speaking of writing projects after The Ferryman’s Apprentice, those are still progressing. The King’s City is still on track for its first-half-2020 publishing date, but I’m expecting to announce the date and (and run a cover reveal) within the week.

As mentioned above, I have also set the next project, and while that’s still on hush for now, I’ll have more information about that as I go. I’ll probably give glimpses as I work on it – and for now the working title abbreviation is FB. If I use that abbreviation, I’m definitely talking about the New Project, not Facebook.

Liberation Industries is now also off hiatus, and we’re putting together new content for that. We’ll be cobbling together episodes via stream and voice call for a while, but we’re still playing games. In the meantime, why don’t you check out some of our backlog?

And finally, I do hate to do this, and I want you to know there’s no pressure. But I have had several contracts postponed or vanished entirely, including at least one event management contract, so my income stream is drying up a bit. If you have the means and are willing, please consider giving me a little boost by buying a copy of The Ferryman’s Apprentice Part One (links on the site page, where you can choose your distributor), supporting my Patreon, or even just spreading the word if you liked my stuff – maybe someone else you know will, too.

And that’s about it from me. Blog posts will start in earnest next week. As always, feel free to reach out on Twitter, or in the comments here. Stay safe and take care of yourselves and each other.