Hi'a, all.

  It’s looking like I'll be able to keep to the schedule I talked about last week. I have a full outline for the upcoming “short” story, which will be more like a novella at 23ish chapters.

  I also started outlining for the next chunk of Nick's story, but have not gone too far with that. I'm still on the fence about what I want to cut from the story so far, which is why I'm using the side story to buy me some time to make those decisions before I continue the main plot.

  I'll admit, motivation has been a little low with this whole nerve issue I've been dealing with the past month. I'm pretty much pain free now but it's still difficult for me to sit at my desk for more than an hour or so without it leading to pain coming back, so I'm stuck typing things up on my phone or chromebook for the time being. While it's not ideal, I'll be starting my drafting process and plan to post the first chapter of Ella's side story next Friday (May 2nd). I'll be keeping it under the same “Story” and starting a new Volume to keep it contained but still make sure it reaches all of you following this world's tale.

  Also, I've been trying not to ask too often, but any rates or reviews from those of you who have enjoyed the story so far but held back would be really appreciated. They're the best way to help me get more eyes on my story, other than by recommending it to other people directly, and strengthen any chance I have to turn this into something I can consider pursuing more seriously.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Elaborating on the subject of pursuing this more seriously, I wanted to float an idea to the crowd to gauge interest.

  I've been planning to launch a discord and patreon along with the restart of Nick's story, and think I have come up with a tier reward that I haven't seen anyone else attempting.

  Would there be any interest in a high tier supporter reward of a monthly, or perhaps twice monthly TTRPG game written and run by me? I'm familiar with a few different systems and have run games for most of the last two decades. I think it could be a fun way to build community and provide more value while also securing the financial viability of this whole indie writer thing I'm attempting to do here.

  I don't think it would start out as me running a game in the world of my books, but if there's enough interest I'm open to it eventually (on the scale of multiple years) turning into something like that. Otherwise I'd be happy with running some D&D, Traveller, or a universal system like BRP and kicking off a fresh story for the group. I'd want to keep it to 6 people at most, so it wouldn't take a whole lot of interest to get going. Please leave a comment or send me a DM if that's something you'd be interested in.

  If there's a handful of you who like the idea at a price point somewhere between 30-50$ monthly (including all of the other standard patreon perks like advanced chapters, discord Titles, and exclusive polls), I'll start incorporating that into my plans as well.

  Anyway, as always, thank you for reading. Next week's post will be the first chapter from a new perspective!