Happy New Year: Announcements

Hello, my lovelies, and season's greetings!

I hope you're all having some wonderful holidays, if the holidays are your jam. If they aren't, I hope you have some wonderful jam! If jam isn't your jam, well, I don't know what to tell you.

2017 was a pretty amazing year for me. This post is going to concerning three subjects: A brief review of where we've been, an announcement regarding what's left for this month, and some foreshadowing of the trials and joys to come. So, first off—

2017 Retrospective

This year has been pretty rough, as we all know, and my debut as a Patreon artist has been a really bright spot within a long, misty gloam. It's meant a lot on both an emotional and financial level to know that my readers care so much about supporting my work and me.

It's also been pretty hard to maintain, and there've been a lot of wrinkles in implementation! I think I've got those mostly ironed out now, especially with Patreon backpedaling on their Really Bad Idea. We've hit $172 recently, and that is almost overwhelming. I've met some amazing fellow artists thanks to my time on this site and Tumblr, and more people are reading my stories than ever. Hooray!

HOLIDAY HIATUS

Now, some bad news. Because two of the stories written this month—the Labyrinth of Lights and the collab—ended up being so long and challenging to complete, I will not be posting five chapters this month. I'll be taking the last week off, in fact, to focus on tying loose ends and establishing some of that buffer I keep dreaming of.

This will be difficult for me financially, as January is likely to be a dry period, but I really, really need to take this time. As risky as it is to skimp on the last few updates of the month, the risk of burnout is even worse. As such, here's what's coming up over the rest of the holidays:

• The Labyrinth of Lights Alternate Ending.
• The completed collaboration between Carol and I (you've already seen the Early Bird, so this won't involve an additional charge).
• The commission, which will be posted sometime tonight.
• At least one Vault entry.
• Finally, Tumblr updates have made the move to daily! Check 'em out here! 

2018 PROSPECTIVE

I've been looking ahead, and looking back at what has and hasn't worked. Here's what I've concluded:

Chapter Updates: Obviously, we're sticking to five chapters per month. Aside from the monthly Bonus Pairing, these will all be Monstrous Ranch entries until the story completes—barring commissions, of course. Basically, from now on, it'll be one story at a time. For now, Intrepid Pawns is on hold, unless I get a lot of Patron requests to bring it back sooner.

Tumblr Posts: These are good and fun, but with daily posts, it's probably smarter to stick to short entries. There won't be any more big Saturday posts, but there'll be a new post every day. Big lore stuff like what I was doing before will be reserved for the Vault. That stuff has been a thorn in my side for a while, to be honest.

Cabin of Mist Interactive Novel: This is still on my mind, don't worry! Currently, the situation is thus: I'm almost done with the demo, and will release that over the next few months. The Cabin of Mist itself will be a summer project.

Illustrations:  As we approach $200 per update, a monthly illustration pledge goal draws near. I've already gotten one absolutely delicious work of fanart—if anyone else is interested in contributing, let me know! I'm  really floored at how many massively creative people enjoy my stories.  Rest assured, any illustrations would be paid. The only "paid in exposure" you'll see here is of the "tailoring variety". ;)

Future Hiatuses: This is looking ahead a fair ways, but I think from now on I'll be taking the three months of autumn off. It gives me a good "safe zone" to get back into schoolwork and keep up with NaNoWriMo. Other than that, I will try to stay on-schedule from now on!

Well, that's all for now! Good luck in the new year, and watch out for lingering mistlemaids! <3