New year, new creations
2025's first Three Things Friday
I find that the start of the school year really feels like the true “new” year, with the calendar year flipping over marking the halfway point. (But did you know that in Australia, the school year follows the calendar year? My whole worldview would have to change if I moved there).
Anyway, with 2025 now here, it’s a good time for planning what I want to release out into the world. More on that below.
I don’t want to be a pirate!
With my recent foray in Royal Road publishing, I came across the new webcomic adapted from pirateaba’s long-running serial The Wandering Inn:
In a dangerous world where magic is real and people can level up and gain classes, Erin Solstice must battle somewhat evil Goblins, deadly Rock Crabs, and hungry [Necromancers]. She is no warrior, no mage. Erin Solstice runs an inn.
She’s an [Innkeeper].
The series has been collected into 14 books so far (each clocking at over 1000 pages), with no signs of ending anytime soon. pirateaba chooses to remain anonymous, but they did an interview with Matt’s Fantasy Reviews where The Wandering Inn audiobook narrator narrated the answers. It’s definitely worth a watch:
Social media is tots the best
I’ve written about how to use the various social media platforms as a comic writer and the challenges of building an audience. We’d all rather be creating new work than algorithm-chasing, but this is the world we live in.
The effects of this are also being felt in the stand-up comedy world, where comics are now forced to balance time writing and honing jokes with creating video clips to share online.
addressed the subject in a recent essay on her Substack, which was then expanded upon in the New York Times:
On the one hand, these social media platforms allow comics to be discovered more easily, but as is often the case, it soon becomes a race to the bottom, where people are pressured to create clips and posts to gain engagement, and hopefully a following, rather than creating work for creation’s sake.
I’ve had to stop myself multiple times from sinking long hours into creating a short-form video that would do nothing other than maybe build my following. Sometimes I am not successful, and the result is a not-as-exciting-as-I’d-thought video. Other times a video idea surfaces that both hits and takes minimal time to create. And still other times, you are in a toy store and see a talking Sorting Hat.
Hopefully Godzilla doesn’t attack Silicon Island
I always like reading about efforts to jumpstart technology hubs. The US is trying to grow its domestic chip manufacturing base with the CHIPS Act, and in Japan, they are betting big on fabs in the northern and southern islands. Will it work? That remains to be seen. Will this be what finally awakens the Greatest of All Titans? Hopefully not.
Adventures in cooking
It’s another double-header of cooking. First, my son has been obsessed with an Instagram chef/spice purveyor, who makes insane-looking meat creations, often outside in the snow. So he wanted to make a burger covered in the “Dirt” seasoning that we ended up buying, with avocado and secret sauce. Next up is a steak sandwich, which will be covered in more detail next week.
For myself, I whipped up a batch of protein breakfast biscuits. These are made from Greek yogurt, with peppers, chives, eggs, and cheese. They taste good on their own (or with a bit of chive cream cheese), but need a bit more protein for a full breakfast. So I tried to make a nicely folded egg, because I didn’t have one of those circular Egg McMuffin molds but it mostly fell apart.
Tales from the Creative Mines
I continued writing on my phone over the holiday break, and the result was several more chapters in my new book I’m In Love With My Possessed Demon Sword. You can now read the first three chapters over on Royal Road. Each chapter features a different POV character. After you’re done reading, drop a comment or review over there to tell the entire RR readership that this story is the best thing written since Poor Richard’s Almanack.
And because I don’t know any better, I’m going to attempt to do the “Post advance chapters on Patreon” strategy to see if I can bring in eager and engaged Royal Road readers.
The first advance chapter will be up next week, but you can head to my Patreon page now and decide to give me money based purely on your faith in me!
What else do I have cooking for 2025 and beyond? Here is my planned release slate:
Blood of Atlantis #2: 1st half 2025
Guild of Magic: The Gauntlet (NYC Questing Guild Book 2.5): 1st half 2025
Blood of Atlantis #3: Fall 2025
I’m In Love With My Possessed Demon Sword: Fall 2025
Guild of Relics (NYC Questing Guild Book 3): Winter 2026
In the meantime, if you want another way to help support ARC Worlds and my work, pick up a copy of my books from my online shop and Blood of Atlantis #1 and stickers at my all-new Etsy shop!