I Have Returned! - Update and Plans

I have returned from my long, long hiatus!

It has been a while, hasn't it? Almost two months! That might not seem like very long, but to me, it is. I don't think I've ever taken such a lengthy break from my blog or social media. While I'm still not back to my socials, I've been easing out of my hiatus bit by bit. I am hoping to be completely active online again by April.

What was I up to all this time?

During my hiatus, I was originally supposed to continue writing at a leisurely pace, away from the fast-paced hubbub of the online world. For the first week or so, I tried to work a bit on The Pirates of Sissa, and even took a look at my manuscript for Marie/Elise, but the truth was, I didn't really feel like writing any of those projects - or any of the others that I'd set aside. So, for the majority of my hiatus, I just... didn't write. 

Every now and then I wrote a little snippet, when I felt the desire, and I quite enjoyed what I wrote, but it never went beyond that. It was fun. 

Then, about halfway through March, I started thinking that maybe it was time to return from my hiatus and start writing again. I'd had a nice long break, and it was lovely, and I had the energy to resume my work on the various projects that I'd put on hold. I started with Murder in Heliopolis; the manuscript was almost finished, so all I needed was that little push of self-motivation and discipline to get those final handful of chapters written. Lo and behold, it worked. I finished Murder in Heliopolis! 

(Then I edited it for a few days because I hated those last chapters, but that's neither here nor there.)

I had a bit of a tougher time writing for The Beast of Ildenwood. I'd reached a point in the story that was a challenging to write. Once again, I just had to roll up my sleeves and push through. I managed to write a couple of chapters over 3-4 days, but I have to admit that I find myself feeling uncertain about the story at times, and hoping that the numbers speak for themselves - the readers that have opted to read, rate, and follow the story. Generally speaking, all of my web fictions are first drafts, so they're never perfect, but I do hope that they're good enough for readers to genuinely enjoy nevertheless.

Oh - and possibly one of the things that I am the most excited for: I started practicing my digital art again! This time, I made a bunch of panels for [in]Sanity. If you haven't heard of it, [in]Sanity is a web comic or graphic novel that I'd really like to create. To do that, I need to vastly improve my digital art skills, so that's something that I've worked on of late. Here's a little sneak peek:

Sneak peek of a very rudimentary first draft of the prologue episode of [in]Sanity, a web comic project I've been working on slowly but surely.

I'm very proud of how it's coming along. I had a lot of breakthroughs with my digital art that truly helped make it a lot easier for me to improve my skills. For example, I learned how to use tools that allowed me to create better line art - and trust me, that is a huge, huge thing. That alone allowed me to improve greatly with my art.

Plans Moving Forward?

As a first step out of my hiatus, I then went ahead and updated both of my web fictions (The Beast of Ildenwood and Murder in Heliopolis) over on Royal Road, and I've started sharing Murder in Heliopolis on Inkitt. I'm giving the platform a go, because I've heard quite a lot about its model and I'm wondering how it works. I figure I can learn a bit more about it by using it - so, if you're on Inkitt, Murder in Heliopolis will be uploaded on the platform in full! I hope you enjoy it. 

Additionally, you can also find the story on Tapas, though the chapters might be split into smaller parts given the episode word limit on the platform. I stopped uploading chapters when I decided to go on my hiatus (or a little while before), but I'll start scheduling the rest of the chapters soon.

Moving forward, I feel like I want to work a bit more on my web fictions than I do my other books. There are a lot of reasons for this. Yes, it certainly has something to do with the immediate gratification you get when you post a chapter and people read it, comment, or rate it, but it also has to do with improving my skills on a platform where I can get great feedback, network with and learn from other writers, and keep myself accountable. 

Of course, knowing me, I might jump back into The Pirates of Sissa, The Fall of the Black Masks, Marie/Elise, or any of my other writing projects within a week! But I have a plan for my web fictions, and I'd like to give it a go in earnest. 

I'll be posting a few more blog posts going into more detail about all of the above soon!

It's good to be back, but as I said above, I'm just easing out of my hiatus right now. I'm taking it step by step, because there's so much I want to do, and I don't want to overwhelm myself trying to do it all in one go. Here's hoping for the best moving forward. 

~⭐~

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Read my solarpunk mystery Murder in Heliopolis on Royal Road, Inkitt, or Tapas. (Binge on RR!)

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