Redmatter Creations
CREATOR
18 days ago
Project Update: Blight Eater Week 12 | 1 month until launch!! | Blight Eater Draft 2 60%
Good afternoon!
Yes, yes, I realize I'm two weeks late on this update. I wanted to accumulate some news and drop it in a bigger update. Here's the news in chronological order:
Yes, yes, I realize I'm two weeks late on this update. I wanted to accumulate some news and drop it in a bigger update. Here's the news in chronological order:
The Bright Spot Hardcover!
Yes, this thing is finally done, and it looks amazing
I finally received the copies in the mail, and they are everything I want them to be. There's a little error on the dust jacket, but that will be fixed eventually.
Soooo I made a mistake. Good news for you all. The Bright Spot hardcover is available on Amazon for $35 even though it SHOULDN'T BE!
It's so odd because the page will let you purchase it, but it says the release date isn't until June of 2027. I did everything I could to make sure this wouldn't have happened, but here we are. So go ahead and order one if you want! Otherwise, you should wait until the campaign starts to receive a SIGNED edition!
Here are some pics of how they look in person
I finally received the copies in the mail, and they are everything I want them to be. There's a little error on the dust jacket, but that will be fixed eventually.
Soooo I made a mistake. Good news for you all. The Bright Spot hardcover is available on Amazon for $35 even though it SHOULDN'T BE!
It's so odd because the page will let you purchase it, but it says the release date isn't until June of 2027. I did everything I could to make sure this wouldn't have happened, but here we are. So go ahead and order one if you want! Otherwise, you should wait until the campaign starts to receive a SIGNED edition!
Here are some pics of how they look in person
The Bright Spot Turtle Lake Public Library Event
I did not, unfortunately, record the event, but it was such an awesome experience! It was so cool to see people show up and listen to me read, answer questions, and talk to other very smart people. These were some of the first people to receive the hardcover edition!
Blight Eater Exclusive Preview Edition
Fifty of these tiny things came hot off the press and landed on my doorstep. This is the first physical printing of anything inside the sequel Blight Eater. It contains a prologue and the first six chapters. It's about fifty pages long and very worth it. I'll be giving these away for free at the Twin Cities Book Festival (if I get accepted) for anyone who purchases The Bright Spot. The E-book rendition (PDF) will be free for anyone who signs up for the pre-launch. https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/redmatter-studios/blight-eater-the-bright-spot-book-2
Once the crowdfunding campaign concludes on November 19, I'll release the file for free for everyone.
(Email me if you want a physical copy btw: [email protected])
Once I run out of these, I won't be printing any more!
Once the crowdfunding campaign concludes on November 19, I'll release the file for free for everyone.
(Email me if you want a physical copy btw: [email protected])
Once I run out of these, I won't be printing any more!
One Month until Launch!
Holy moly, it's coming up so fast. I'm both ready and not ready. It feels like there's so much left to do, but I think most of my work here is done. I just need to continue writing and plugging away. The crowdfunding campaign launches OCTOBER 29.
I'm going to try to livestream the launch event, though I'll be spending that day on vacation in Florida.
I'm going to try to livestream the launch event, though I'll be spending that day on vacation in Florida.
Blight Eater Progress
Blight Eater draft 2 is at 56,000 words... Around 60%. I unironically thought that draft two would take me only a month or two. This revision has taken longer than it did to write the first draft. Let me explain why to the best of my ability.
- Larger scope and higher expectations
- Book 2 naturally expands upon the narrative that Book 1 left us off at. There are more questions than answers at this point. Cliffhangers need to be addressed. The world continues moving and growing. More factions come into play. Rules are bending and breaking. Our characters need to grow and change.
- Instead of taking a first-person present approach like how I did with the Bright Spot, Blight Eater takes a third-person present point of view. This means that characters like Caelius, Oberon, and Lyria all get their own chapters. We aren't trapped in one person's mind, and we can pull back the curtains more on The Bright Spot.
- There are things I want this book to do and to be. There's a major sequence I want to happen at the end that shifts the tone of the story permanently. However, I cannot figure out a way to make this work. I will need to restructure character motivations and decisions, but doing so breaks other sequences that need to play out. Fixing this is difficult because if I change too much, the book won't end the way I want it to. The characters won't grow. The novel will feel unrewarding. Right now I'm working on getting some eyes on it so I can get feedback and ideas. But this takes time.
- A shift in motivation. This is primarily caused by the issues above. I love this book. It's unironically my best work so far (which isn't saying much, I guess), and I'm extremely passionate about it. Being passionate about it makes me worry that I may screw it up, that people may hate what I end up doing, or that I write the wrong ending, hindering my ability to write a satisfying conclusion in Book 3.
- Books don't get written in a day. Let alone in a single month. However, if you eat that elephant one bite at a time, every day, eventually you'll have a finished novel in your hands. I tend to get sidetracked, focusing on other things during my few solitary hours at night, instead of writing. If I could have edited one chapter a day, every day, I would have had draft two finished in April.
- Draft 2 is a rewrite. I have the original draft on a separate screen, and I write from there, changing things on the fly rather than planning it out. Fresh words mean fresh ideas.
- My goal is to get it edited with a satisfying conclusion by the end of the year. Right after, I will use the funds from the crowdfunding campaign to hire a developmental editor. I expect Draft 3 to take about three months since I shouldn't be doing any MAJOR rewriting. After that, I will consult beta readers, a copy editor, and then do one final run-through draft. Lotta work... I don't have a clue when the release date could be. Likely mid to late 2027
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