ARC Worlds 2024 Year in Review
A look back and a sneak peek forward
It’s hard to believe we’re at the end of 2024 already!
My goal for 2024 was to be more consistent, especially with this newsletter, and I think I achieved that goal.
All told, I released 26 editions of the newsletter, so about 2 per month. That’s pretty good in my book!
For 2025, I’d like to build up to a weekly cadence, but at least keep it at a minimum to two per month.
I’d also like to publish some more short fiction here, for those of you who enjoy self-contained tales as opposed to years-long serialized stories.
Below I summarize the year that was, both here on ARC Worlds, on the page, and projects shipped out into the world.
Top 3 ARC Worlds posts
Number 3:
Number 2:
Number 1:
Amazing Journey 2024 back issues
Announcing Blood of Atlantis (#16) | Comics marketing 102 (#17) | Comic social media (#18) | The convention scene (#19) | NYCC x BoA (#20)
2024 Productivity Summary
Short Story: The Unstuck Man (Published)
Novella: I’m In Love With My Possessed Demon Sword (Published, see above)
Book: Guild of Magic: The Gauntlet (in progress)
The majority of my prose writing in 2024 was spent on the next installment in the NYC Questing Guild series.
After turning to book 3, Guild of Relics, immediately after finishing Guild of Magic, I realized that it would make more sense to write this story first, which takes place in-between the two. What started as a novella has turned into a short novel (it will clock in around 50-60k words when it’s done).
But I’m glad I started writing book 3 first, because there are some plot elements I have now brought forward (or backward?) into The Gauntlet that will really make for a fun reading experience.
Estimated release date: ?Q 2025 (See below)
Book: I’m In Love With My Possessed Demon Sword (working title, in progress)
If you read chapter 8 of the novella, you can see the seed of a longer story that I have planted. I spent a good part of the year kicking around ideas in my head, until last month, when I published the first part of chapter 1 of this new book. And I just released the back half of that chapter, so now you can read all of chapter 1 on Royal Road. This book assumes you have not read the novella, but of course feel free to go back and read it first.
I don’t have a set release schedule for these chapters, as I am juggling multiple prose projects, so your best bet is to follow the story on Royal Road, so you’ll be alerted when a new chapter is posted.
Start your journey here.
Comic: Blood of Atlantis #1 (Published)
This was the big focus of 2024, getting my first comic produced and published. The Kickstarter campaign exceeded my expectations, and I spent the summer and fall fulfilling everyone’s orders. Which brings us to…
Comic: Blood of Atlantis #2 (Script finished, in production)
With issue 1 Kickstarted, I turned to issue 2 over the summer, after some script-writing leveling up (see below). Fran and I had a Zoom creative summit, where we discussed each page and panel. I then revised the script, and Fran has been cranking out pages ever since.
Estimated release date: ?Q 2025
With this issue and The Gauntlet both looking like they will be done at the same time, I am currently figuring out which to launch first on Kickstarter. If you have any strong opinions on what you want first, let me know!
In the meantime, here is a sneak peek at the unlettered version of page 1:
Comic: 60-day script challenge (Completed)
It’s easier to get better at writing prose because you improve at writing prose by the act of doing it, which is basically free. But getting better at writing comics involves writing more comics, which is also basically free. However, writing a bunch of full-length scripts for different projects that may never get made is not super efficient. And writing issue 2 of Blood of Atlantis when the last thing I wrote was issue 1 does not leave me any chance or opportunity to improve. So instead, I took an idea from comics writer David Pepose and wrote a 5-page script every day for two months straight.
The results of that challenge are sitting in a very long Word document on my computer. Some will never see the light of day, but others might get out into the world as short stories or the beginnings of a longer tale. Stay tuned!
Support ARC Worlds
And that’s a wrap for 2024!
I try to keep as much of my work free as possible, which is why you can read all of my books on this Substack or on Royal Road with no paywall.
If you’d like to support my work, you can grab copies of my books and comics at any of the below:
See you next year!