September 1st, 2022
It’s hard to believe I’ve been home for more than three weeks, but August is behind us and the summer is waning. Gone are 9:00 PM sunsets and the mid-summer heat, and gone is the vacation I loved so much. That all might sound bleak and I certainly yearn for some of the places I left behind, but there is some good news to share in this blog.
August marked my return to work and I am relatively happy with how my first few weeks back have gone. I had hoped for a faster start upon my homecoming, but it turns out that when you’re gone for six weeks, lots of things need seeing to. Combine that with a plethora of meetings to further my own inquiries and my first week back home was all but swallowed. I had very little time for writing that first week, but I have recovered well since then.
Fans of Conjoining of Paragons can rejoice because this past month marks my personal record for most CoP chapters posted in one month. I would say setting that bar despite having less time than expected marks this month as a win for me, something I am quite pleased about.
Outside of writing, I think my favourite part of August was returning to the community. I had little time for it while travelling, but things like the Discord server brighten my day on a regular basis and talking to all the folks on there again has been lovely. Monthly server events returned, some long-standing plans were finally carried out, and people seem more excited than ever about what is to come. The activity is slowly ramping up each week and I hope to have it buzzing again before too long.
I normally talk about the last month and then elaborate about the next, but this really is the best time to talk about upcoming plans for the Discord server.
There was a time when, every time I released a chapter, I would jump into a voice call and be joined by half a dozen or more members who would read and react live. It gave me a chance to better engage with readers and gave them a chance to ask questions, hatch theories, and form friendships with other members. Those are some of my fondest memories on the server and it’s something I would love to do again. The interest has to be there, but those days were a credit to the community and I would love to see their like return. I plan on getting into a voice call for at least one of the two scheduled CoP releases for Discord members this month. I encourage people to join the call. We can all discuss the chapter, other fanfiction, or whatever strikes your fancy, but I think it’s a wonderful community event I would like to bring back, and that process will hopefully start this month.
There wasn’t all that much from August to talk about outside the stories, so let’s cover those now:
My outlook on Ashes of Chaos these past couple of months has probably seemed quite bleak and I stand by what I said. Gone are the days when I could write this story each week, or even every other week, but that does not mean my interest is lost. I have been so flooded with questions about this fic lately that I have tentative plans to dedicate an entire blog to explaining things in more detail, that way I can refer the dozens of inquisitors to that; but those people can rest more easily tonight knowing that I finally have some good news regarding Ashes of Chaos.
This story will emerge from its slumber this month, at least if you’re a patron. I plan to write at least a couple of AoC chapters in September. My hope is to get Harry and his friends through the winter holidays, but we’ll see how that goes. It’s been a long time since I’ve written this story and I will probably be bogged down by a vast number of details I may since have forgotten. Only time will tell, but this story will be chugging on in September.
That being said, there will not be any chapters posted on Discord or FFN. My priorities are now so split that keeping straight every bit of minutia in this bloated tale might be a bit beyond me. Because of that, I will not be posting these chapters publicly until I’m much further ahead. I may wait until the entirety of year 3 is finished, I may start posting a little bit sooner than that. I have yet to decide; we’ll see how smoothly my return to this fic goes.
Continuing on with positive news, Conjoining of Paragons has been a blast this month. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had writing this story and each new chapter seems more well-liked than the last. I wrote five CoP chapters in August and the plot is really moving along. I won’t give an exact estimate of how many chapters are left, but the end of this tale is in sight. It still looms down a long and distant tunnel, but I had yet to near that tunnel five chapters ago. What I’m trying to say is that there is still plenty left to write, but the final path is clear and things are slowly moving in its direction.
I may write as many as four CoP chapters in September, but that number could be slightly lower. We’ll see how a couple of other projects go — namely AoC, PoP book 3 revisions, and the one-shot I have still yet to finish. I had planned to put this somewhat on the backburner in September, but I’m having a lot of fun and the people on Patreon really seem to want more, so more they shall receive.
Then there is Perversion of Purity. I have been open in the past in saying this is my favourite fic to write, but it has been my bane this past month. I have committed to these revisions because my style has changed so drastically since the start of book 3 that not making them would be criminal. They have not gone as smoothly as I would have liked so far. Nothing about the edits has been especially challenging, but finding the time has posed its own set of problems. I felt very behind when returning home and really prioritized writing as many chapters as possible. That meant that I really didn’t prioritize these edits the way I wanted to, and that will change in September.
I will be putting out plenty of chapters, like I’ve talked about already, but my primary objective in September is the revision of book 3. I am only about 15% done with that right now, but I would like to be finished or very close by the end of this month. That will take a lot of time and test my patience, as I have never loved editing the way I love writing, but I have now set the goal and I am determined to reach it.
I won’t be writing any PoP book 4 until I have finished revising PoP book 3 since I am adding an entire subplot and heavily revising at least one other. That’s another reason I want these revisions done so badly — I really want to write PoP book 4 and can’t wait to get started on that in October.
I mentioned the one-shot earlier, and I have mentioned it in at least my last two blogs. It wasn’t something I focused on in August since I wanted to return to one of my main stories, but this is actually the next thing I will write. It’s a Percy/Calypso story, like I’ve mentioned before, and I’m hoping to finish it this week. It’s nothing crazy and really just my attempt at giving this pairing a competent story, but it’s a fun little diversion from what I usually write. That will be available for top-tier patrons when complete, and then for all patrons at the $5 tier or higher starting September 21st. It will be publicly posted on December 21st.
September seems like the month of returning to stories that have lacked my attention the past few months. No Fabric of Fate got written in August, but I plan to at least finish the chapter I started while on vacation. I only have a few paragraphs penned, but I will be finishing that chapter this month unless other things take much more time than I plan for them to. I may even write another chapter of this in September — we’ll see, this entire blog is a very ambitious outlook that might prove to be delusional. One way or another, fans of this story should see another chapter this month. This will be the first plan I drop this month if something comes up, so I won’t make any promises, but it is at least in the works.
Then there is my novel, which sadly sat untouched in August. I was so far behind on my stories and so anxious about it that I decided to focus exclusively on fanfiction. That will not be the case in September. I will return to my novel during this month’s final week, and I will actually get to write the first of a character I’ve planned to show for a while now, so I am quite excited for that.
There isn’t much more to say on a writing front. I hope that podcasts will return this month, but we’ll see. I believe that the plan is to at least record a couple, but there is still one that needs editing and has for several months now. It’s almost a meme at this point and is no one’s fault. My editor has been comically busy since returning home and has lacked the time to go over my chapters, let alone podcasts. Hopefully things clear up for her this month — not just for the sake of the podcast, but because we all love Athena and want the best for her — and we can get back to work.
Like I said, this blog is ambitious. I plan to do a lot of things that, when combined, might not all happen. My top priority is PoP revisions; the rest will somewhat hinge on how well that goes, but I hope to make good progress on all fronts.
For those returning to school, I hope your first semester goes well. For those of you working, I hope it goes smoothly and that some time off comes soon.
Thank you guys, as always, and I will hopefully talk to you again soon in another blog.
Cheers,
Ace