State of the Patreon and Book 3

Hi everyone! It feels like June just flew by, or maybe that's just me. I've been writing away at full tilt, and it dawned on me that I'm in spitting distance of finishing this first draft of Book 3. So I decided I would be transparent about how I see the rest of the year going.

This has been a long process, and a lot of exciting things have happened since then. Second Contact was written, Patchwork Earth was started and abandoned (do you want to see a conclusion? let me know), and Infiltration and Demonkin got their Amazon launches.  

This is not going to be the end of Captain Malthus' story; after all, there's a lot of time to catch up on between 2050 and when he starts writing the confessions in 2123! However, it's the end of what I would call the first phase of the story. 

I started writing Book 3 nearly a year ago (the first post for patrons was on September 5th, 2020, which means I started writing in late July). At its current size, Book 3 is more than 200,000 words long. For reference, a standard novel is between 70,000 and 100,000 words. This is because I wanted to make sure every character got some love, and because I wanted to give the readers the most satisfying conclusion to this arc that I could. (Also I am still not good at judging how long an outline will take to execute, but I'll pretend it was on purpose).

This also means it's going to be a beast to edit for Amazon, especially since the sensible thing is to make it two books and reshuffle a few things. The fight with Haru in the hospital will be the tail end of Book 3, with the Tower Attack as the conclusion of Book 4. To make sure I can keep everything straight and have a canon version of the story to carry forward, that means that I will not be immediately starting Book 5. 

You will most likely start seeing Book 5 chapters in November or December this year, and higher tier patrons will get their complimentary book copies before they jump to Kindle. I plan to take about two weeks off of writing whenever the last chapters of Book 3 go up to recharge my batteries, and then I'll get into writing up the Rose Spinoff novel, which I'm tentatively calling Saga of the Storm Maiden: Book 1: Stranded. Since I will be splitting my time between writing and editing, I plan to keep the same update schedule, but with somewhat shorter updates. Right now I aim for about 5,000 words per update, and here I would probably go for 3,000 or so. This is a shorter story than I'm used to writing, and depending on how things go, it may overlap with the writing and release of Magpie Wizard Book 5.

I also want to get going on the secret project that the witch art I posted her a few months back, codenamed Plaid Knight. However, I know what you're all here for: Magpie and Magpie Accessories.

I may end up freezing the Patreon at some point this summer, if I won't have significant updates for an extended period of time. I will of course let you all know what I decide well in advance.

Also, I know the Discord is a bit of a wasteland. I work a full time job, write and edit, in addition to having some semblance of a personal life. My visions of social events on there has not panned out. I am not certain if I will continue it much longer. 

I appreciate your readership, continued support, and encouragement. Without all of my readers, but especially my Patrons, I wouldn't have ever gotten this far with my writing career. Thank you as always, and I am always open for questions in DM's.