The Long Term Vision for the Series
When I started writing this book, I was just turning thirty and feeling quite disappointed in where I was with my life at that point. Now, getting closer to forty than I’m comfortable with at the moment, I’m still not satisfied with where I am in my life. I don’t have the career I want, I don’t own my own home, and my love life is… well… Timm seems to be luckier in love than I am, so take that how you want. I say all this because I was thinking about my goals and aspirations for the book series (and it is a series, there are about ten books fully written at this point, and really marketing is where the true challenge lies), and I’m comparing what I wanted to do with it then versus now.
Back when this started back in 2019, we were still working on the Reliably Chaotic podcast, building a whole magical world that I was hoping to flesh out and turn into my own campaign setting. A world that would grow and change based off my players’ actions within it. Part of me would like to go back to it sometime, even off the air, and try to finish the plot that we were building towards. I’ve even completed a couple other books based in that world that are part of a trilogy that I could publish. That may be something I try to do at some point, but it is a bit ambitious at this junction, which seems to be my achilles heel in this entire endeavor.
I wanted to do so much with this entire enterprise: write campaign settings, adventure modules, do audio books, write so many novels, and as I learn the system of how to do that and what’s needed, I’m not dissuaded from doing these things, but I’m learning the key important fact that the younger version of me never really understood:
I can’t do it all.
I want to, gods I want to, but there’s just too much for me to be able to really do for the books, the series, and still afford to eat at the end of the day. I could take weeks and dedicate it to marketing and writing, and creating, but I would be homeless and hungry by the end of it. So I needed to learn what a more reasonable long term plan could be.
More Books
First and foremost, write more. Well… I do need to write more, but at the same time, I have approximately seven more books raring and ready to go in my documents folders. I could probably publish them all in a rapid succession, but with my current job, I don’t really have as much time to write more of the books like I would like to. My week is consistently working 50+ hours, doing a lot of manual labor, and being dead tired by the time I get home (maybe having a weekend to catch up with what’s needed to do at home, but not guaranteed), and I still have to write up the adventures for the games.
Now, Champions of Solain, the podcast campaign is incomplete and could eventually be picked up and novelized in order to bring the story back on track, but that is a far flung future event. Heroes of Solain, however, is a two-thirds complete trilogy based on my love of the Dragonlance series of books that I grew up reading. These books are very possible to publish, and may eventually be found on my website, but I feel that it's probably best to get my name out there a bit more before I start diverging my series’ into multiple paths.
As for Seventh Seal… this is a book I wrote, originally, when I was in high school. I attempted to get it published in college, and you may well find it on Amazon now… since I never took it down. The second book in that trilogy, Eighth Dimension has been completed, though needs heavy edits, and Ninth Gate, the final book in that trilogy has been started… but they all need a lot of spit shining before they’re “lemony fresh,” as Taz would put it from the 96 classic, Space Jam. (NOT THE NEW ONE! WE WILL NEVER FORGIVE!)
Digital Space
Now, I’m not one to judge those in the world of social media, mostly because I cannot do what they do, don’t understand the pressures, and I very much don’t understand the rules of it all. However, I’ve been told by many, many people that it's a space I’m going to need to get more comfortable with. I do have ideas for videos, but it's a matter of learning how to do it and how best to schedule it all. This old dog is going to do his best to learn some new tricks, but social anxiety and imposter syndrome do make it harder to deal with. I also plan to meet with other creators to learn more about how they manage things, so it’s my hope that you’ll be seeing more about me floating out there on the internet… and hopefully it will be good things.
The Games Themselves
So, as of the date of posting, only two books in the series have been released. That’s approximately 10 sessions worth of our adventures. As of me typing this, we’ve had 171 sessions since January of 2019. My last rough estimate puts the current series at going on 30 books, not counting some of the others that I’m planning on throwing into the mix. On top of that, they’re not even half way through arc four yet, which means the game doesn’t look like it's going to end either this year or next year, which means we could be hitting 40+ books in this series, if things continue as they do. That entirely depends on the game, however. And while we never really want good things to end, this story will eventually, then it’s a matter of what game will come after, and how long of a DM break I’m going to need.
There were talks of a Werewolf the Apocalypse game, which I would not be able to novelize like I’ve done with my series here, which is fine, considering with the number of books I’m predicting being 40, and I’ve written 10, I have a lot of work cut out for me still, but it is still something that can be novelized and put into the blog, much like the story of Grey and his coterie. However, there are plenty of other game options in the mix as well.
Doing another actual play would be fun, however I feel that with the way our time is currently being distributed (working, surviving the fall of capitalism, some of the party getting married, etc), there’s a good chance that we’d never get that off the ground again. Though they are fun, and I would not be opposed to being involved with one again.
All in all, there are a lot of plans involved in getting these books off the ground, but the overall plan is this:
Collect Underpants
???
Profit…
Wait… wrong plan… Let me just…
Here’s the right one!
Market the books that I have and try to get more of a following (it would be really cool if you as a reader of my blog, and hopefully my books, helped with this one!)
Continue working on the game side of things as well as continuing to write the books themselves so I don’t fall behind on that track.
Learn the game, like Grey had to, in order to make this series into what I know it can be: a long term epic story about heroes in an age where heroes are desperately needed.
