It's Been a While
I bet you're singing the Staind song now aren't you
It seems like it’s been some time since I last posted on here. A few months ago I was gearing up for the Kaiju Nation #0 launch and then things went a bit off the rails. I’ll be honest with everyone, having a Kickstarter not go the distance sucks but for some reason the Kaiju Nation campaign not making the goal hit pretty hard. Don’t get me wrong, all of the ALICE setbacks still sucked, but those campaigns had pretty lofty goals and I expected them to be a slog fest.
I was pretty excited to bring Kaiju Nation to the world, and so was Rom and Danilo. I think we invested a lot of our hearts into that project and we wanted to create something special. It was going to be something like us 80’s and 90’s kids remember growing up with. I’m not sure if it was just the state of the world and economic times, or if it was our passion for the story wasn’t as contagious as we thought. After the campaign ended, I did what I always do, I went over a Kickstarter post mortem.
Every time I run a Kickstarter, I always go over what worked and didn’t work to see if there are things I can tweak for the next one. I do this regardless of the success of the campaign, but usually I failed campaign will teach me more than a successful one. I went over the Kaiju Nation project and for the life of me, this time I cannot figure out what to do that change the outcome of a relaunch (yet). The goal is fairly conservative, the tiers are as affordable as I can make them right now and I think the premise is a lot of fun. With any luck, I can figure something out.
In the meantime, I’ve been working on the skills side of things during this busy summer rather than the production side of things. Henry is busy working away at the last pages of Long Dark Winter #3, so I have some time to just write. I’ve also been doing the other half of the work that writers often forget, consume. Usually writers get so busy trying to write, we forget that one of the best ways to level up is reading and consuming other media. I’ve taken time catching up on the stack of comics I backed on Kickstarter and haven’t read yet. I’ve also been listening to audiobooks while I drive. The Dungeon Crawler Carl series has been great and I also cannot recommend the Project Hail Mary audiobook enough. If you’ve already seen the movie, don’t worry, the book goes a lot deeper and covers a ton that the movie had to glaze over.
I’ve also been experimenting with some LitRPG stories on Royal Road. I’m kind of on a break from those too right now while I focus on input rather than output. The latest chapters of my 2 ongoing series right now have a poll in each story that allows readers to help decide the course of the story. I think it’s a fun and interactive way to connect with readers. Both polls need votes though so if you think this sounds interesting, check them out and read the stories. Once I get some votes, I’ll start pumping out some new chapters!
They survived dungeons, dragons, and certain death.
Retirement nearly killed them.The plan was simple:
1) Retire
2) Do absolutely nothing dangerous
3) Definitely do not buy a tavern
They failed step three almost immediately.
After a night of poor decisions and even worse financial judgment, five retired adventurers wake up as the proud owners of a tavern in the quiet town of Sprite Sprint.
Shortly after, they also become the former owners of that tavern.
Now broke, in debt, and somehow banned from their own property, the Infernal Five are forced to do the one thing they swore they’d never do again:
Take a job.
What follows is a spectacular chain of bad choices, questionable heroics, and the growing realization that they may have been better at fighting monsters than managing their own lives.
Because saving the world is one thing.
Fixing your own mess? That’s a real challenge.
When I woke up, I didn’t know my name.
I didn’t know who the people around me were.
I didn’t even know what planet we had launched from.
All I knew was this:
The ship was dying.
The oxygen reserves were dropping.
And the AI running the vessel was hiding something.
Now our crew must repair a spacecraft we don’t remember boarding, complete missions assigned by a System that shouldn’t exist, and piece together the fragments of our stolen memories before the darkness outside becomes our tomb.
Because every answer we uncover raises a worse question:
If we were sent to Mars...
Why are we nowhere near Mars?
And what happened to Earth?
A LitRPG space survival mystery inspired by hard-science adventures, featuring ship upgrades, crew progression, exploration, action, and a deepening cosmic mystery.