“And you want my help?” Natchua perched on the edge of the chair, tense with nervous energy. Nothing in here should have been unnerving to Natchua of all people, but given everything else going on in her life right now it seemed fair for her to be congenitally on edge. &n...
2023-07-25 00:08:05 +0000 UTC View PostAfter tacking aimlessly back and forth across miles of barren terrain, the monster finally spotted a goal whose existence seemed to drive it into a rage. Far out at the edge of its perception, at the very border of the Badlands, an old town huddled against the foothills of the Stalrange—m...
2023-07-20 22:39:49 +0000 UTC View PostAll right, I'm fully back and ready to launch into what's next. I have three things to announce:
- Book 17 of The Gods are Bastards begins now. I've been looking forward to this and working toward it for a long time now, and while I regret that it has to come as a resul...
2023-07-20 21:40:26 +0000 UTC View PostWell, I wouldn't call that experiment a success. I did not manage to finish the chapter; I made progress, managed to break through the initial block I had and get about half the chapter done, but at that point I hit real burnout and it started spiraling into a pretty bad depression so I'm p...
2023-07-18 00:36:59 +0000 UTC View PostHi everyone, it's the middle of July and I am reporting in as promised.
Progress has been very good. I feel...honestly, pretty well recovered. I'm fully recuperated from the exhaustion, the stress and emotional breakdowns I was experiencing have faded, and I have my energy and f...
2023-07-17 02:14:27 +0000 UTC View PostHi everybody, it's now the end of the month and the end of the break period announced in my last post due to mental illness. I'm here to update everyone on my progress and plans, as promised.
I'll go into more detail below but if you don't care for the fine print, the tl;dr is that I'...
2023-06-30 22:34:58 +0000 UTC View PostThe Avenists, my highest tier and most appreciated backers, did not get their regular Tuesday update because I couldn't get the work done. And this was after I had to extend my usual monthly writing break because I had the same problem the week before. Today... I woke up plannin...
2023-06-15 23:32:03 +0000 UTC View PostI strode directly across the stand in center stage, close enough to the “performers” to see their glum, frightened expressions and address them without having to raise my voice.
“Excuse me!” blustered Mr. Smug, while his seven competitors hovered in the background, watching me upsta...
2023-06-11 02:41:38 +0000 UTC View PostI hadn’t forgotten what I’d said to Aster back then. The last the highborn had seen of the enigmatic Lord Seiji, he was vanishing into the dark of the forest right after confronting Archlord Caludon at Caer Ardyllen. Now, it was from the forest that he suddenly reappeared, right o...
2023-06-05 23:40:26 +0000 UTC View PostI hate this...
Okay, as the Avenists know, their chapter is late because I hit a really bad brain episode two days before it was due and hadn't pulled out of it in time to finish by the Friday deadline. Since it had already been a couple of days, I figured (what with my usual rhythm o...
2023-06-04 17:21:37 +0000 UTC View PostBecause nothing could ever go smoothly, we got a last minute warning through Gizmit’s network, who thankfully knew to send important messages straight to North Watch via the tunnels in the spymaster’s absence. Giz herself was just about to head out with Naz on their rumor-sniffing tour ...
2023-05-23 01:11:41 +0000 UTC View Post“We can afford drinks and fried wedges! It was a successful quest, we should celebrate!”
“Just because we have enough money to buy something doesn’t mean we can afford it.”
“That is the literal definition of the word!” Flaethwyn retorted, narrowin...
2023-05-19 00:30:06 +0000 UTC View PostAfter that, I could at least scratch “spend the night in a haunted house” off my bucket list.
Caer Gwylhaithe didn’t have actual ghosts, but it definitely had that vibe. I was shown to a guest room by a giant undead spider, which returned several minutes later to offer me a comp...
2023-05-15 20:43:43 +0000 UTC View PostAni-mam asks:
"I've always loved how lively your characters and dialogue are, are any of your characters based on/inspired by real people you know, or do your character concepts come from other sources? (IE Other literature, television, pulled-straight-from-the-depths-o...
2023-05-14 19:46:32 +0000 UTC View PostGonna be a small schedule interruption.
For those who haven't been following the unfolding saga on discord, I had to take my cat back to the emergency vet, so that's how I spent all of Tuesday from 3AM to dinner time, which is how long it took to get the final verdict. To summarize, she is ...
2023-05-11 19:34:27 +0000 UTC View Post“You summoned me, Dark Lord?”
The great hall was a lot busier now, with my people slowly spreading through the place, taking stock under strict orders not to touch any of Khariss’s personal possessions or alchemical equipment, or mess with the spiders. Scary as the spiders were,...
2023-05-08 21:13:07 +0000 UTC View PostKhariss insisted on bringing along a single emotional support necrospider, or at least so I assume its function was as the thing immediately scuttled into one corner of the small parlor to which it had guided us, folded all its legs under itself and hunkered down trying to look as small as possib...
2023-05-04 22:40:23 +0000 UTC View PostOne question per person per month, please. A maximum of five from this tier will be chosen and answered in one week.
2023-05-02 00:40:52 +0000 UTC View PostI got a nice little glimpse into who among my support team had the best poker face. Very little, as I couldn’t turn around to see which of them were gasping or making strangled noises, but I knew Aster would be taking notes. Me, I focused on the eight beady eyes that had ap...
2023-05-01 23:46:15 +0000 UTC View PostContent warning for mental illness.
And I cringe at having to say that, yet again, but here we are. I genuinely do hate how much of my communication is talking about that; I hate feeling like a whiner or like I'm bumming people out when my entire job is literally to entertain people. ...
2023-04-30 22:32:58 +0000 UTC View Post“We’re just about set,” Aster reported as soon as I rejoined her on the ground, without waiting to be asked. “The engineers are even more efficient than I anticipated, so the defensive barricades are fully in place now. Reinforcements in the tunnel are prepared to move forward...
2023-04-29 20:05:20 +0000 UTC View PostI usually do this the last week of the month, so tonight's update would've been the last one before break, but I'm taking it one update early this time. This month and the last have been a downward spiral in terms of my mental health and today I'm in real bad shape, to the point I'm having ...
2023-04-20 20:23:51 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a bit of a hike.
For once, Sneppit’s amazing efficiency had harmed rather than helped; she had very wisely focused reconstruction efforts on the tunnels under the Fflyr territory we mostly needed to move around in, so there wasn’t a convenient tram line that took us all the way t...
2023-04-17 21:27:42 +0000 UTC View Post“Are you quite sure you comprehend what you are asking?” Lady Elidred inquired of me in deadly calm.
“I was present when the Archlord laid out his idiotic scheme,” I said. “Yes, I understand the enforcement methods, and I am prepared to completely obviate them in your case...
2023-04-14 01:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a start.
There were more arrangements to be made, of course, but having gotten the necessary balls rolling, and since I now had the unbelievable luxury of competent subordinates to whom I could delegate details, I indulged in some time to actually recover from my deep forest adventur...
2023-04-10 22:33:39 +0000 UTC View PostNothing like a week spent trudging through the snow to make you appreciate an actual transportation system. Barely an hour after my meeting with the squirrels, I was back in North Watch, sitting at my conference table with a cup of steaming blood tea and my command staff assembled. Go...
2023-04-07 00:43:05 +0000 UTC View PostNoble households were usually swarming with functionaries, guards, and attendants of various kinds, but Aster and I made it the entire way down the corridor, through the big grandiose entry hall Fflyr liked so much, and out into the bracing winter air before we encountered anyone, these being the...
2023-04-04 00:27:44 +0000 UTC View Postjust accidentally published the Avenist chapter for all patrons.
I corrected it but I'm pretty sure the whole thing is in all the notification emails...
Oh, well. Nothing I can do about it now. I guess y'all get a freebie this time.
2023-03-24 01:06:23 +0000 UTC View PostSuddenly, Archlord Caludon rose from his chair and crossed the distance before us in two long, decisive strides, bringing himself to stand precariously on the very lip of the stage upon which we sat. The shift in his demeanor was as absolute as it was abrupt. Everything changed; his p...
2023-03-24 01:04:44 +0000 UTC View Post“Lhadron, you are remiss,” Caludon stated, arching an eyebrow. “Here stands our guest of honor, deprived of introduction in violation of all rules of civilized hospitality.”
“Ah, then you are quite done monopolizing his attention?” Lhadron countered evenly, raising himself...
2023-03-21 18:35:13 +0000 UTC View Post