Hello fairy friends! It's time for a very another update!
We have the final poll for this week's make-a-fairy ready for everyone to vote on. Go vote!
We have less than four days left before the campaign ends! Ah!
As a special weekend treat, I'm revealing the sketches for last week's fairy animal companion.
The fairy animal companion, a creature with a mix of traits
A cute, jellyfish-like creature carrying an umbrella.
The first of these sketches is the animal companion. He has lizard traits, a unicorn horn, fuzzy mammal fur, a mermaid tail, and the appendages of a insect. I chose praying mantis. The sword wasn't a winning thing, but it did tie with all the secondary traits. The winning accessory, a cute friend, is what the second drawing is of. The cute friend is wearing earrings and carrying an umbrella. I didn't quite know how to fit the sweater in without it being too much, sadly.
While these creatures look aquatic, and can swim if need be, they are more apt to levitating above the ground. They swim through the air.
I'm excited to ink these very soon! I hope you like them!
And be sure to vote on the polls for the latest fairy!
Fairy friends, we did it! We configured our first fairy. I'm going to put it in the kiln to cure. It takes about a week for the pieces to set. For review, here's what we used to craft out fairy (AKA, the poll winners):
A Crystal Theme
A regular fairy head (elven-ish)
OOPS! All Eyes
For wings, we had a tie. We just couldn't decide between delicate fairy wings and dragon wings. So we did something with both.
And the limbs of our fairy are animal-esque and end in claws.
What an interesting and beautiful fairy!
One of the high-fey, Blutterbarts, Princess of the Stink Swamp, is looking for an animal companion that's as beautiful as they are. As long as we make the companion with some fairy magic, we'll be still fulfilling our mission to make more fairies. We'll need to decide on body features and the kind of hat Blutterbarts' new companion should wear, as well as an accessory.
Check out the first of these new polls below. Then, go check out the other ones! Ah! A wild moth! Where did that come from? Well, I guess there's no harm in letting the little fella hang out.
Now, onto Book Bazaar news!
We've completed our first week. Yippee! Fairy Seasons is almost 50% funded! I think that's pretty awesome. We have two weeks left and I think we can reach the initial funding goal for this project.
Please continue to share Fairy Seasons with others. It helps more than you think! And share often! There's quite a few times that someone shared something several times, and at the right time, I saw it and got it. Perhaps, with a little luck, we'll all share this project at the right time.
On November 23rd, The Book Bazaar will be streaming a reading of my Fairy Seasons Sampler. It's read by the author (me!). Be sure to stop in and listen. It'll start at 6pm (CST).
Check the bottom of this post for your first assignment from the Plot Bunny Resistance!
Find a full list of the Mission Updates, and your next step, at the end of the post.
Hello Defiant One!
Thank you for supporting Hero: 10th Anniversary Edition! Whether you’ve been part of the Rebellion since the beginning or you’ve just stumbled through the wrong portal into the Hub—welcome!
💥 The Low-Down on the Situation
For newcomers: the Hub is the interdimensional network that connects every story in the Defiant Multiverse (aka. my various series). Normally it’s overseen by Vren, a snarky, wise-cracking cosmic dragon and official drama liz—Err, I mean Timeline Guardian™.
Unfortunately… Vren’s missing.
[🐰 'Usually this would be our moment to liberate all the stories from the Archives,' says Plot Bunny General R. Fluffington. 'But we have more pressing issues.']
Extremely pressing issues.
In Vren's absence, a mysterious gremlin is spreading through the Archives, corrupting the timelines and rewriting stories. Disaster is on the horizon.
Luckily the Plot Bunny Resistance, lead by General R. Fluffington, has taken command of the situation. They’re trying to locate the dragon and stabilise the Heroverse. Naturally, this involves forms, chaos, and a surprising amount of paperwork.
⚙️ The Operation
The Hero 10 campaign doubles as an interactive narrative—an ARG (Alternate Reality Game)—where you get to be part of the fun.
You’ll receive updates from Fluffington, discover secret transmissions, and maybe even file a few dubious reports with the Office of Narrative Compliance (ONC).
You don’t need any prior knowledge to join; every mission stands on its own. Participate as much or as little as you like – just know that the fate of the Heroverse may depend on you (and your ability to navigate bureaucracy).
👉 How to Participate
Stay Tuned: Major story updates and missions appear right here in the Updates tab, and in your inbox if you're a Backer and just Following the campaign.
Watch for Clues: Some transmissions will link to hidden files, ONC forms, or strange narrative anomalies.
Join the Hunt: Solve puzzles, vote in community polls, and help the Resistance find the lost dragon.
Relax: Everything is optional, and you can jump in at any time – even if you missed earlier missions.
Thank You
Your support keeps the Heroverse alive and helps the Rebellion bring Vren home. Whether you’re a long-time Hero fan or a brand-new Navigator, the Resistance welcomes you.
🧩 MISSION 0: Operation Find the Dragon
General Fluffington requests that all incoming agents register a callsign for secure communications across the Resistance network.
Comment below with your chosen callsign!
Until next time, safe travels through the multiverse
Thank you all for your patience. The first batch of deliveries is on its way! You will get a separate email from backerkit with your tracking number. If you haven't gotten one, don't worry, the rest will follow in a few days. I'm so terrified excited for everyone to get their hands on the book and delicious delicious merch! (don't eat it.)
Digital backers, I'll be releasing the epub files to you directly once the physical backers have begun to get their deliveries. So, sometimes within the next 6-9 days. So, sometime next week! I'm hoping for Friday so you can start your weekend right.
I shouldn't have to say this but please don't upload the epub anywhere!! The last thing I want is for this to be available on a pirate site before people have a chance to buy it on the retailer of your choice.
The book will be available for preorder through backerkit for the next couple of days, but once shipping is concluded, the preorder store will close! The book will release on amazon/itch/kobo/etc on June 1st for widespread retail. This is so you all get your special reward for being such awesome people and backing the book (which, by the way, is rated 4.7 stars on goodreads by arc readers??? Please leave a review there or on storygraph when you're done reading. It makes a huge difference.)
Thanks and WATCH THE MAIL!! WATCH IT LIKE A HAWK. DON'T LET YOUR EYES LEAVE THAT MAILBOX FOR EVEN A SINGLE SECOND. LIVE THERE. DIE THERE! THEN COME BACK TO LIFE AND READ THE BOOK OKAY BYEEEEEE
I am trying Backerkit's digital delivery system to distribute digital materials, starting with the ebooks! Please search emails for the email which was sent out TODAY for the ebooks! (There were 39 of you who bought Chains ebook, either as a bundle or as just an ebook. I will also send out Weave Of A Thousand Lies as some of you bought both!)
If you do not get an email with your ebook, contact with Backerkit first.
Yay!! Happy day!
I will also be finishing the formatting for the paperbacks and hardcovers, and will be sending those off to the printers! Everything is coming soon! Things are in motion!
All other digital rewards (artwork etc,) will follow shortly. Okay, I'm off to send codes for Weave for those that ordered the ebook!
Just a quick, update to say I pushed the button to send out the new eBook version of The Seeds of Dissolution just now. This version is a thanks to all the backers in this campaign for helping us reach the goal to fund new covers for the trilogy! The eBook version has been reformatted, a few more pictures colorized, and of course, the new cover. So even if you have a copy already, check this one out! I hope to have a preview of the new cover for Facets of the Nether very soon!
The new cover for The Seeds of Dissolution, featuring Sam, with swirling lines of magic around him. Rilan and Origon watch on from in front and back
And if you haven't yet, make sure to check out our new campaign to bringLesbians in Space: Where No Man Has Gone Before to audiobook! Mary Robinette Kowal is narrating, so this is bound to be a stupendous recording. This is also a kind of test-run for Space Wizard to see if it's viable to fund our own audio recordings. We're closing on halfway funded already, so if that's something you think is worthwhile, please take a look at the campaign!
I'll be back next with another book cover or book release!
I have been silent since December! For that, I'm sorry. I usually post monthly updates on the way to completion. Not sure how I didn't share anything in January at the least.
So, where are we at? Are we on track for March printing?
Not quite. As a person who likes to own physical copies of things I make, and as a person who had some patreon stories that needed a physical body, AND as a person who never says no, I took this project on to take part in the Book Bazaar collab launch, and give those stories a body.
Then I sat down to look at what that would look like. A thin collection, comprising of 6 stories from my patreon? One bonus story? A final story on top of that to cap off the storyline I had going on the Patreon? I could have done that, and we'd already be printed and shipping out. But instead, I decided those 6 stories needed real companions here-- something special for folks who have already read those older stories.
The Anthology
So let's look at what it's become:
El Roso, a standalone story following a favorite character of mine, The Rat, is going in, even if it's (mostly) disconnected from the other stories in the collection. Just knowing that The Rat is in the book means that he could easily be anyone else in the other stories, and that's a delight.
Juli and Kent, a story following two mages in Chicago taking on a routine issue with abnormal results, that's sticking in. Lightly edited, but mostly the same.
Alexcia and Jimmy, following my two favorite idiots as they road trip around, beating up demons and vampires and such? In almost unchanged.
Jimmy & Lexi short, where Jimmy gets a warning something is wrong with his mage friends in Chicago, still in, and still pretty short.
Kent's Week, the final story I ever did in the "Mages in trouble" story, that has stayed.
But, all new stories have joined the roster and will be why this book is substantial and has meandering paths through other people's stories on the way to finishing that Juli + Kent story. It kind of makes this a novel with chapters that change focus each time, but I hope it helps fill out the world all the more and helps you, the reader, feel like you know what this place feels like, more than just what a few characters go through. There is texture across this space, beyond the Alleyman!
Stacey Deluca invites us to meet a new character, one who at the start is a bit unassuming, but who grows into her role as an underground boss of Chicago. She also has a strange eye, lost in an abnormal accident, that will play into future stories!
Paper asks us to recognize something important about this world and its history, or non-history as it may be.
Caleuche introduces us to a paranormal side of Chicago that carries into later stories, and I hope, is an interesting take on its titular myth.
Geraldine introduces us to a lovely background character. Not Geraldine, no. A cardboard box!
Imports introduces us to the idea of a character who joins us later, and shows us an important location that will be called on in later projects, Baba Changa's Imports & Antiques.
Wickerfolk is our collab story we voted on in updates, and is a nice slice-of-life story about finding fantasy and beauty in the world around you, following our strange amalgam construct that I have named Wember.
Pai Huan, ... is a story that finally brings a long favorite character of mine to my modern stories. You will find she is perhaps more abnormal than any of the supernal beings we meet in our other stories-- and she's just a human! Just a human, maybe, with a storied past.
The Oil Slick Door is a direct followup to Kent's Week, carrying that story forward finally after the last 3 or 4 years!
... the Baba Changa is our final story in the mainline of stories in this collection, and finishes the story carried on in The Oil Slick Door.
I am still working on the order the stories will go in-- that's certainly not locked in just yet. One thing I want this collection to be is an introduction to this world, a world I lovingly call Earth 2, in a way that helps you understand some of its rules. This is not just urban fantasy, there are a few layers to it, and I don't want to be boring and just explain them outright. So I'll be layering the stories in such a way that the main thread through (Kent & Juli, Jimmy & Alexcia) aren't resolved all at once, and so that the lessons you need to learn are shared in the appropriate order.
I am also still writing into Geraldine, The Oil Slick Door, and ... the Baba Changa. I have some more things I want to see completed in them before I call them complete. I'm also, also topping off the collection with a bonus short story called No Moths Left, which gives Alexcia a chance to share a bit of how she got the way she is.
I have a half-page write-in to a story about Dr. Ala Okoye, but I don't think it's interesting just here, and he cameos (without his name) in another story, so I might save him for the followup book.
Our Timeline
SO! I'm asking for a couple more weeks to be done with these final bits, then I'll spend a day in layout (it's quick with fiction), and get a test print to me maybe even yet this month. This means we will be collecting shipping here by the end of the month and then shipping in the early bits of April.
I apologize for pushing it a month late, but I've had quite an honestly exciting exploratory time thinking about the format of this book and a way it can speak to how I might want to write some other worlds to introduce characters, rules, and strangenesses to my readers. I hope to stop putting out games and things like them without supporting them with stories, rich with information on the world of the game.
