Hello Questers! This is going to be a progress and project update, as well as what’s been taking me so darn long.

To start, the project that I’m working on, as many of you already know, is book 1 of a trilogy. It’s been confusing to many as well that I have an already published work under the same series (“Mystactral”) but that’s the prequel, unofficially. I didn’t think I’d have more ideas, and if I did, I wasn’t certain I’d be motivated to write or publish them. Yet here we all are! So, right now, I’m working on book 1 of The Elder Beast Trilogy. This is going to be a soft-apocalypse dystopia meets the fantasy world of Mystactral in an interesting blend of genres and characters. I’ve taken thorough precautions in the world building, so the difference between the world switching isn’t jarring, rest assured.

The trilogy is going to be long. Book 1 (The Island of Flowers and Faeries) is already 148, 160 words and it’s not done yet. It’s taken me over two years to write, and three, officially, in May. The goal is to be somewhere around 180k when book 1 is done, but I’m getting close to the end and I’m not one for uselessly stretching out the plot. My official deadline (that I made a friend give to me because otherwise it would be unofficial) is May 1st to be done with draft 1 and my first wave of edits, and onto finding Alpha Readers. There will be a blog post about that when the time comes.

Some of the reasons it’s taking me an exhaustingly long time to write this:

I started writing this book while finishing up my first year of university (I’m still not sure why I thought it was a good idea).After university I worked at a summer camp with little Wi-Fi, and continued to travel in rural areas the rest of the summer (little Wi-Fi lasted almost 3 months).I got a job working at a library, which inspired me to get out of a reading slump, and I ended up reading like 40 books in five months. When the pandemic hit, I ended up using the time to really rest. I mostly read and played a ton of Animal Crossing, but I think I managed to write at least 20k in the longer weeks of lockdown. I also watched a ton of anime, but that’s not important.My library job allowed me to work once regulations and restrictions were in place, so I went back to work sooner than most, which I’m lucky for.I moved out of my parent’s place over the summer, balancing two jobs to pay the bills. I did participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and got in almost 35k.I picked up new hobbies like longboarding and I spent many hours falling.I lost the library job and replaced it with a bookstore job. Cue more reading. I ended up reading around 70 books in 2020. The last major thing was participating in the official November NaNoWriMo. I did not win but got in another 40k. As you can see, NaNoWriMo is a great way to motivate me to write.

So writing, though very dear to me, is not my only hobby nor my main job. It actually provides an incredibly small amount of my income, if any, so I prioritize it differently than if my writing gave me enough money to pay bills, or even get gas or groceries. But it doesn’t, so I treat it like a hobby.

Some things to look forward to (aside from the new book) in a hopefully chronological order:

My parents got me a Cricut so I can make better stickers! And I’ve been practicing my digital art skills so they look more professional too. So far I have Serina, Kale, and Jack stickers ready to be added to the online shop.The animation I’m working on is a Book Trailer sneak peek for The Island of Flowers and Faeries! It’s 30 seconds long and won’t really make sense unless you read the book (which is bad planning on my behalf) but it looks really cool! I have about 8 more seconds to animate before it’s done. I’m commissioning a different artist to make a cool compilation art for all 12 main characters (Thersel, Serina, Sivin, Higashi, Lyean, Wisteria, Valerian, Jack, Kale, Alexa, Gaelyth, and Scarlette). Hopefully it will be in full color, and in a good enough resolution that I can make them as big as a poster. If not, that’s obviously fine, but how cool would it be?Alpha Reader sign-ups.This year’s Annual Summer Giveaway in celebration for Mystactral’s 3rd anniversary!Updated Character Portraits (Along with 5+ characters introduced into the line-up!).Beta Reader sign-ups.The Island of Flowers and Faeries cover reveal.

So there’s lots of good stuff coming up to combat my laziness in writing fast. Sometimes my creative juju runs low and I get burned out and there’s no cure beyond taking time away from the project. I’ve learned to not feel guilty about taking time away, too, which helps.

Thank you all for understanding, and I hope that as I finish up my draft, edits, am through with Alpha and Beta readers, that I can find a well-known publisher to take on my project.