Well, that didn't go like I thought it would.

I'm not going to lie, as my first attempt at writing basically anything I expected this to fail. I've gotten plenty of criticism (valid and otherwise) over the course of posting this, and I knew with my posting schedule and frequent work conflicts that I'd never make it into any kind of 'viral' success. I deliberately chose a weird monster MC with weirder powers that I'd have difficulty explaining in order to challenge myself to write better. There were several points I had to scrap entire arcs I'd planned because they no longer made sense for the characters. After all that, I tempered my expectations accordingly when I published on Amazon, with my only real goal being to break even for the art I bought to make the cover and the money I gave my incredible editor for putting up with me. My plan was to start writing on a more traditional story (though still a little weird, I can't help myself lol) and maybe pick this back up in a year or two with more experience under my belt.

Then I published, and y'all actually liked it.

As of right now, The Deep Hollows has over a hundred ratings on Kindle. People were saying things in the reviews that had me literally tear up in a mall cafeteria because they were so nice and I hadn't expected any of it. I've sold almost a thousand copies of a book I thought would be lucky to sell fifty. It is completely overwhelming, and it makes me hope that someday I can quit my regular job (which I hate) and switch to writing full time. That day won't be for a few years yet in even the best case, but just having that hope has changed so much of my outlook on life.

So. My original plan has been completely scrapped. If people actually like something I've written, then as a reader I know I'd be disappointed of a multi-year break in the content. My other series (which is based around an undead revenant centurion who becomes a lawman in a steampunk fantasy western town, told ya it was weird) is now on hold until I can get this one finished. It will be a trilogy, and I am going to do my absolute best to improve on book 1 (hopefully without losing the script). The last few weeks I have been writing furiously in pretty much every spare minute to get things going. Which brings me neatly to the first of a few improvements I'm making this time around!

Release schedule. Last time, my posting was very erratic. My job is on-call with unlimited overtime, we're not even three months into 2022 and I've already had a two-week period where I put in 163 hours. When I'm working that hard, there is no way for me to write anything worth reading. On top of that, I get depressed and guilty when I miss posting a chapter which means (because brains love making things worse) I procrastinate even more when I actually do have free time. This all meant that there was actually a period of six weeks last year where I posted nothing at all with no update, which is unacceptable for me to put the people who have stuck around all this time through. My fix for this is simple!

Backlog. I'm currently four chapters ahead in writing, and I'll probably build up a little more lead if I can before I re-start the official releases. This means I'm going to be able to keep up with a reliable weekly release schedule, which I'm thinking of setting as mid-day on Saturdays. If I have a bad week or two where I'm totally buried in work, having this safety net will let me keep my brain from freaking out and making everything worse.

Speaking of re-starting... I'm thinking of posting the first chapter of book 2 on either the 26th of Feb, or the 5th of March. Dates are subject to change depending on how much I panic about that backlog, but either way it should be good to go in the next few weeks here.

I'm going to try and slow down the pacing on book 2 a little bit. It's been one of the most commonly cited issues (along with power creep) people have with the story, and with book 2's greater dependence on actual dialogue I'm hoping things won't feel so rushed. I'll be honest, I'm ADD as hell, so my natural impulse is "mustmoveplotforward! If the plots' not moving forward the readers are getting bored and COMEONHURRYLETSGO!!!" But I'll try to reign that in for the time being. If it turns out that everyone hates the new pacing, I will adjust accordingly and stomp that pedal to the floor!!!

*ahem*

Anyway, that's enough of a ramble from me. Just wanted to let you guys know what was happening, and that book 2 is on the way. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask!

Cheers!