Writing: Therapist book 3 seems to be stuck in limbo; I haven’t heard from the cover artist in three weeks. I’m going to reach out one more time before I try to commission someone else. Fingers crossed. [Edit: It worked! I feel kinda bad, but at least it’s concluded! So we’re one step closer.]

Otherwise, I’m noodling along on a) a side story for Therapist, which is almost finished at novella length; and b) a long-running side project in the Healers universe.

I honestly don’t know what to ~do~ with the side story, because I’d kind of rather drop a dictionary on my foot than venture into commissioning another cover artwork right now. I’ll probably stick it in a proverbial drawer for a while, and focus on getting the main series out there.

Also beta-read another novel draft, which makes 4 within the last year. I really enjoy that process. And if you’re thinking “yay, time to send SE my first chapter,” I love your enthusiasm, but hold up. I only want to read finished drafts, and even then, only in a couple of genres. Shoot me an email or a Reddit PM if you have a finished draft in light-ish/non-grimdark fantasy or science fiction that is NOT, I repeat, NOT a power fantasy aimed at teenage boys. There are plenty of other people who can help with that. Like…the entire rest of the internet. Good luck.

Gaming: Finished Cult of the Lamb and started Harvestella.

Writing:
Therapist 3’s text is a wrap; waiting on the cover artist now. The actual release date depends on the cover timing, plus an attempt to space out 2 and 3 semi-similarly to 1 and 2. (i.e. a couple of months, contrary to every recommendation for indie publishing ever*) Book 4 is in the beta reading phase, after which we’ll move onto more edits and another cover commission.

After that, I plan to bundle them into a print edition (which will involve a more complex cover commission, so there’s time involved in that) as well as an ebook omnibus. Then, maybe a trial run on Kindle Unlimited instead of Gumroad. We’ll see.

* That said, Healers goes against every maxim of indie publishing [it’s long, it’s slow, the books were released far apart, it isn’t based on any genre rules, I have zero social media presence], and yet it’s still chugging along 8.5 years later. So either I hacked the Matrix, or the hard-and-fast rules aren’t hard or fast.

Ongoing background health stuff is resolved. Verdict is “it might get worse at any point, but until then, you’re worrying too much.” That does sound like me.

Gaming:
During a spate of (non-COVID) flu this past week, I started and got distressingly hooked on Cult of the Lamb. This is a video game that is a little like Don’t Starve‘s base-building combined with a rogue-lite, with a tongue-in-cheekishly over-the-top Lovecraft/metal tone (eldritch gods! ritual sacrifice! cannibalism!) starring cute little cartoon animals.

Let’s recall that I am bad at roguelikes — and basically any game with active combat — and yet I keep trying. My management style falls mostly on the “benevolent overlord” side, except that I took a perk that incentivizes a Logan’s Run-style culling of every critter that gets too old to work. That might have been a mistake. But it adds to the extremely dark humor, too.