ARC Worlds Best of 2023
Year-end reflections
It’s hard to believe that 2023 is almost over!
It has been a productive year for me, but one that definitely had its share of ebbs and flows, especially with respect to this newsletter.
I revamped my comics column and Friday fiction drops in the spring, but while I kept up the momentum with the former, the latter lapsed fairly quickly.
So one of my goals for 2024 is to be consistent.
I want to be consistent in my fiction & comic writing, and consistent in delivering this newsletter. When I started this newsletter two years ago, I wanted to grow a community of readers who would be interested in my books and interested in discussing comics, books, the writing process, and more.
What will ARC Worlds look like in 2024?
To be honest, right now, I’m not sure.
My tentative thought is to release one newsletter each week, with two about comics and two about something else (ranging from behind-the-scenes fiction content, interviews pop culture thoughts, or anything else I happen to be interested in). And as I write more fiction to build up a backlog again, I’ll start dropping weekly or bi-weekly chapters as well.
But I’d love your thoughts as I noodle over this during the holidays.
What would you like to see from ARC Worlds in 2024?
Next month, I’ll preview what I have on tap for the year in terms of my fiction and comics releases.
And also stay tuned next month for my annual survey, where I’ll be asking for your help and feedback for my upcoming Kickstarter campaigns!
Before I sign off for the year, here’s a look back at my 2023, followed by my Best Of 2023 lists for books, comics, and manga.
ARC Worlds Highlights
I finished writing Guild of Magic and fulfilled the GoM Kickstarter campaign before launching the book on retailers over the summer. It felt awesome to release my second book after four years and release the next chapter of Jen's story while building out the wider NYC Questing Guild world. You can get your copy of Guild of Magic from my online store via the button below.
I relaunched my YouTube channel as the home of the audiobooks for the NYC Questing Guild series, releasing all of the audiobooks over the summer, along with some fun short videos. The reception has been great so far, with over 10K “views” and thousands of watch hours. The channel is climbing toward the 1000-subscriber mark, and when I hit that, I’ll be able to start monetizing the channel and getting book 2 into audiobook production. You can help me get there by clicking the button below, and also check out my latest short.
I relaunched my comics column, Amazing Journey, last spring. I wrote about a bevy of topics, including comic book spoilers, taking Kieron Gillen’s comics masterclass a second time, comics marketing 101, designing memorable characters, and the importance of comic shops. I topped it all off with a big piece on writing advice for first issues from some of today’s top comic writers.
I finished the script for issue 1 of Project Plato, my first comic series, and am currently working with the artist to start production early next year. Hopefully in a few emails, I will be ready to share more details about this project!
Best books I read
On Lavender Tides, by Travis M. Riddle (review here)
However Many Must Die, by Phil Williams (review here)
Arm of the Sphinx, by Josiah Bancroft
Best comics/manga I read
Daredevil, by Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto
White Ash, by Charlie Stickney and Conor Hughes
Dr. Stone, by Riichiro Inagaki and Boici
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, by Tony Cliff
Friday, by Ed Brubaker and Marcos Martin
Sins of Sinister
Hellfire Gala
Meet the Skrulls, by Robbie Thompson and Niko Henrichon
Eight Billion Genies, by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne
Thanks as always for being an ARC Worlds subscriber and for coming along this journey with me. I appreciate your support and look forward to bringing you more awesome stories in 2024!