Hey guys! This ended up being really long, so I put a TLDR at the bottom.

First of all, I wanted to let you all know that my name is Rohan Hublikar. Its nice to greet you with my real name! There's probably some sort of metaphysical significance attached to this, and honestly I'm kind of in a metaphysical mood at the moment (does that even make sense?) In any case, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone reading this.

Writing Nameless for the past year has been a real journey. I've always loved reading and making stories, but like a lot of people I was too scared to put pen to paper. Just like people dive into the deep end of the pool to get over their fear of water, I decided to do the equivalent by putting my first draft out on the internet, free for all the world to see and deride. Imagine my surprise when, instead of dissaproval and dissmissal, I found encouragment and support. You all kindled a love for writing in me that will stay with me forever.

Now then, onto news and updates.

So quite a while ago now, Mr. Dakota Krout (author of the Divine Dungeon series and the Completionist Chronicles, CEO of Mountaindale Press) held a contest for short story submissions to his Divine Dungeon world for an anthology. I mentioned that I participated, and I was fortunate enough to be selected as a winner!

Talking to Mr. Krout was/is really, really, cool, and it was incredible to get my story selected--I was surprised to find that he's read Nameless! But that was only part of the awesomeness. The prize for the contest was to have my story be published in a Divine Dungeon anthology, but Mr Krout offered something else as well: the opportunity to write a full trilogy in his world!

I was and am so excited by the opportunity, as it gave me a chance to expand on characters I really, really liked and grow as a writer in a new direction. I got to learn a whole bunch from Mr. Krout, and use what I learned immediately-- during my long absence, I outlined and wrote the first book in my trilogy, which is currently in editing. It's a story I'm proud of, and so excited to share with you all! Now I'm hard at work on the second and third books working to make sure I really deliver on what I've started.

(Sorry I couldn't share with you all immediately, but due to the nature of the news it took a bit of time before I could).

I'm sure I don't need to tell you how this experiences has impacted my growth as a writer, but I like the sound of my keyboard clacking, so here it is in brief: I have never written a complete story before (considering the way Nameless' arcs panned out, I don't consider any point in it a true ending yet.) I also somewhat got to "try out" a more serious writer's workload (I wrote the actual first draft in about a month), and found that I really enjoyed it. And, of course, I got to broaden my horizons and work to expand the incredible world that Mr. Krout created with his Divine Dungeon series.

What does this mean for Nameless?

Well, to be honest with you guys, I've got other news. For all that I love writing Nameless, it's been getting harder and harder for me in the past few months. Part of that is, of course, this new project that I dropped a lot to work on, and also that the story is approaching the point where most writers face a hump in their progress. However, I also have been feeling for a long time that I want to fix what I've already written before going on.

I could list a lot of problems with this draft of the story. But what it comes down to is that I feel like I can do better. And I want to do better. I probably should have started editing seriously months ago, but I've put it off because I didn't want to stop the story in the middle of an arc. Still, one of the main problems I have with the story as it stands is the lack of direction for nearly every character, and the lack of real, meaningful characterization for each of them. Nothing wrong with that in a first draft (and my first story ever), but it makes pushing the story forward more of a chore than a natural progression, and that is a real problem.

Since I'm being honest, I haven't stopped the story because I was scared to leave it where it was. Completely irrational, I know, but I was afraid of destroying the progress I've made on here too much to fix what was broken.

I've made the decision not to try and crawl over the finish line on this story arc. I'm going to take a little break from Nameless while I work on the second book in the Divine Dungeon Extended Universe trilogy, but when I come back, I'll be working on fixing what I have before continuing forward. In the end, I think this will be better for the story, and better for me as a writer and a person.

I haven't decided whether or not I'll publish the edited version on here or just on Amazon as a book. Right now I think I likely will, but even if I do, I don't know if I'll make it a new story or just delete what I have here and replace it. So, uh, I guess we'll keep in touch!

As always, and more than ever, thank you all for reading.

*Wow that got really long for not being a chapter. * Here's a TLDR:

1. My name's Rohan. Thank you all for being amazing.

2. I am one of the winners of Dakota Krout's Divine Dungeon anthology contest.

3. I will be publishing a Divine Dungeon Extended Universe trilogy with Mountaindale Press.

4. My work on Nameless for now will be focused on editing--the problems with the story are bogging down the writing process for me, and I want to do it real justice.

Edit: Wow, you guys have me tearing up! Really appreciate all the support!