Or the lack thereof
I like to pause when appropriate to take stock of what I’ve done and consider what excites me about the future. June is a great month for this. The school year ends (important for those of us with children) along with lots of extracurricular activities, and there are a few weeks of dead time as far as obligations go. It’s also my birth month, and birthdays are another king of thresholds. June is also dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ!
So far this year, things have gone well. I finished a longer book, writing the whole thing live on YouTube and X. I successfully crowdfunded another longer book and delivered the digital goods for it. The physicals have all shipped, so backers should have those shortly as well, if not already. Printing was a much longer process than I am used to, compared to Amazon’s print-on-demand services. I’m used to things getting to me in 3-5 days, but for Ingram Spark (the printer I used for this run of hardbacks), the usual turnaround for any order is 14-21 days. To me, that challenges the idea of “print on demand,” but it is what it is. I like to experiment, and that printer allowed me to price the books reasonably, considering how long King Leper is. There are other printers, and while you may get more, you also pay more.
I hit March very hard on social media, and that generated more than the usual amount of revenue. Same thing for April, as I was able to make some Oblivion content again. I took my foot off the gas for May to focus on finishing the giant map for the King Leper Kickstarter and doing activities with my family.
With most of this behind me, I can look at the next month with an eye toward other projects. I want to return to music and finish off the 100 improvisations I started late in 2023. I have a few ideas for finishing this set with some major pieces that will push the boundaries of what I can do live, similar to the very long Rain piece from the end of 2023. Then, I need to decide what comes after that. Things are wide open. I’ve considered making another studio instrumental album, a “soundtrack to a game that doesn’t exist.” Disasterpiece did this years ago, and I think it’s a very fun idea. Or maybe I’ll do esoteric doom metal. No idea.
On the publishing front, I have Prince of Dusk and Bright Children, which are only available to patrons. I could bring those to the public. I have another Eternal Dream novel planned out. I have several books to add to the Moonsong series, one of which is already ready to go. I have three other books in the fantasy and science fiction genres that I’ve been sitting on for a few years as well that could be quickly polished up for release. What I learned from March is that all these things ought to be set up to coincide with a content blitz. It’s a lot to manage and think about.
For social media, there are a few things that I haven’t fully explored, one of which is YouTube shorts (or TikTok). I don’t love the format as a viewer, so I haven’t committed to it. I tried using services like Opus AI to create clips from my longer-form videos, but they never worked out. I’m convinced that if you want shorts to work, you need to design content for that format specifically. To that end, I might experiment with heavily emphasizing shorts, even on a different channel, to see what works. Perhaps I will resurrect the daily trending or Bantha Fodder format. What holds me back is the desire for efficiency, that is, to do the most with the least. My instinct says that it will be easier to make long-form videos out of short-form (like “best of the week” collections) than to hope that there is a viral 1-minute clip from a longer video. As always, I will report my results.
Lastly, there is the thought that I would like (or would like to have) to do more in the video game realm as a developer. I had thought about making a visual novel a few years ago as a hobby project to learn the business, but I got distracted by things like moving across the country and publishing more books. Gaming is a format that really excites me, as I believe that it is more dynamic and interesting to the younger cohorts compared to the oversaturated indie fiction market. I would just need to find a good artist for a visual novel, as I can do everything else myself. The problem with pursuing a new medium is the focus required to complete a project in a reasonable amount of time. It will be very hard, considering the diverse creative interests I already have. Likely, I would have to abandon everything else to pursue that. But if not now, when, eh?
I’m always happy to get feedback and to know what sort of creative interests you are into yourselves and where your enjoyment as a consumer tends toward. Games? Visual novels? Esoteric heavy metal? Let me know.
I am an independent artist and musician. You can get my books by joining my Patreon, and you can listen to my current music on YouTube or buy my albums at BandCamp.
