So, uh…

Yeah!

That's Outliers. As someone who's never completed a major project before, it's hard to describe the feelings I'm experiencing.

I started writing this story when I was fifteen years old. A high school sophomore, kind of an idiot. Now, I’m eighteen; graduated from high school, still an idiot but hopefully less so. Putting it like that, though, really doesn’t do justice to just how much my life has changed in that period of time. How much I’ve changed, actually, but most of that is quite personal. The point is, Outliers has been a constant during some of the most formative years of my life so far, and it’s meant a lot to me in a lot of weird ways. That’s not to say it’s perfect, or great, or even good; again, written by a fifteen-year-old. I don’t think anyone would argue that there were some flaws kind of hard-baked into the story, ones that it was basically impossible to fix as it went on and got better, as I got better. And I also think anyone would agree I’ve gotten better; not that it was a high bar, but looking back I can’t but feel a little proud of how far I’ve come. Outliers was weird and messy and strange, but ultimately, it was fun, for me at least, and honestly I’ll take that over a higher level of technical proficiency.

Of course, if you’re reading this now, I’d like to think you’d agree. More importantly, I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this strange, off-kilter story by some weirdo on the internet. Every single comment, every view and typo correction meant so much to me, and inspired me to keep going when I was dealing with some personal issues. It’s honestly been a blessing, and I feel privileged to have had it.

So… what’s next?

Well, in the short term, Silversmith! If you’ve been around for a bit you probably know about it already, but if you don’t, here’s the blurb:

On a mildly chilly winter’s night in the city of Brisbane, a teenage girl suddenly bursts into flames. This wouldn’t be out of ordinary, except for the part where they then burn her to death, leaving behind a single word in the ashes. Officially, the police think it’s spontaneous combustion. Certain people think otherwise.June Young is trying not to think about it at all. She’s much too busy trying to keep her wardlaying business afloat to get involved in any mysteries, despite her best friend’s efforts to the contrary. She’s not a private eye, or a detective, or a sleuth, so there shouldn’t be any reason for her to get caught up in it all.Right?

Silversmith is an urban fantasy story, and I’m really excited to get to try something different (after all, I’ve been near-exclusively writing the same story for over two years). The first episode is already complete, and the second one begins on Monday! That’s right, we’re diving right in, and in my humble opinion, it’s gonna be a fun one.

Longer term, Outliers is not finished. Not even close! It was probably pretty obvious from all the dangling plot threads and whatnot, but I felt it was safer just to say so. However, when it returns, it’ll probably be a little… different. Like I said, it’s got its flaws, and I have a few ideas for how to fix that. I’m keeping my hands close to my chest for now, but keep an ear to the ground in the near(ish) future. I’ll be revamping my Patreon in the next few days to be more generally about my writing, but if you don’t want to follow that, you can also keep up with what’s going on by following me on Twitter.

Once again, thank you all so much for reading. It’s been a delight, and I’m glad I got to share this weird story with you all.

For now, though, I’m gonna go and comfort eat.