Hello dear friends.
I figured it was timely to give you all a bit of an update on how everything’s going. I haven’t really made an update like this since February, and just wanted to keep you all in the loop.
Crematoria Online
Yes, Book 3 is still being worked on. It’s not my main focus at the moment, and I know some fans of the series will be disappointed to hear that yet again. But it is what it is and I’m sure that when it does come out, you’re all going to love it.
EDGE force
I talked about this a little bit in my February update. Back when I made that blog post EDGE Force was really just a concept and an exploratory first chapter.
I had an intent when I went into it to write a survival horror LitRPG trilogy, but as I’ve written the first book and plotted out the rest of the trilogy, I became acutely aware that it’s not really survival horror.
The scope of the series is different to what I initially envisioned it as. It’s not just horror, but an exploration of the very nature of reality and what we might do if we found out that it was much stranger and far different then what we expected.
I’m completely dropping the word horror from how I talk about the series. Yes, it is scary, and yes there are crazy monsters that you might find in your most terrifying nightmares, but that’s only one aspect of the series as a whole. The system, the adventure, and the impending doom that the world within the books will face is just as important.
Currently I’m almost 60k words into the first draft of book one, which is a little bit behind where I wanted to be by this time in the year. But that’s 60k words that I wouldn’t have written otherwise, so I don’t feel too bad about it.
The word count aim for this first volume is around 80k words, but I always tend to overshoot my goals. Being able to write about 20k to 30k words a month, I hope to have the first draft of this book finished by the end of May.
So that means that if you are a patron over on my Patreon page then you’re probably going to have access to a brand new Matthew J. Barbeler LitRPG towards the end of this month, or early June.
Patreon
Speaking of Patreon, you can find mine here.
I know some of you love Patreon, but for the majority most people are either ambivalent towards it or actively dislike it.
I decided to launch it because it was going to be a way that I could release more regular content while I’m working on full length novels, and if anyone wanted to read those raw alpha chapters, then they could.
There are a couple of caveats to what I’m using Patreon for, and I just wanted to lay them out here publicly again so that everyone would know exactly what the purpose of my Patreon is and isn’t.
Yes, I will be uploading those raw unedited chapters of my main releases to Patreon as timed exclusives, but they will only be able to stay on my Patreon until I publish on Amazon. Once all chapters have been published to Patreon, I’ll begin publishing chapters to Royal Road, so you will be able to see the raw chapters there for free, even if you aren’t a patron.
One thing that I’d ask is that if you’re reading them on Royal Road, hit me up via message on Facebook or in the comments over there if you spot any typos or weird stuff. That would be much appreciated. ❤
Once it’s on Amazon and enrolled in Kindle Unlimited, it will be removed from both Patreon and Royal Road. This is a requirement of KU exclusivity.
There are some pitfalls to this that I know will directly impact the value that future patrons will get out of my Patreon.
It means that someone who joins it in a years’ time will not get the same amount of content as someone who is a supporter right now. I’m aware of that, and working to provide some Patreon exclusive content that my patrons will get exclusive access to forever.
I’m a slower writer who’s only doing this writing thing part-time at the moment. I’m just not going to be able to release things as quickly as someone who is doing this full time, but I still want to be able to get content out there to those who want it in a more regular fashion.
I’d be super keen to hear your thoughts on this, so sound off in the comments below or shoot me a message on Facebook or Twitter or all of those other places.
Dungeons & Drongos
Two weeks ago we ran the first session of Dungeons & Drongos, a D&D 5e livestream session with some Aussie writer folks. Luke Monks-Quinane, Alan Baxter, Megan Badger and Kirby Lemai round out the party with yours truly fumbling through the job of being Dungeon Master.
The first session was a hell of a lot of fun, and we’re running session two tonight! So if you want to get in on that, come along and send me a Facebook friend request. We’ll be going live in a Facebook Messenger room at 8PM AEST.
General Life Updates
My little boy is almost 18 months old. That year and a half has absolutely flown by. I know a lot of people have said that 2020 was pretty much a time warp where time slowed to a crawl, and I have to admit that it did feel like that to me at times. But 2020 honestly felt like a lucid dream that I’m only just starting to wake up from.
Last year was hard, and it was really all about survival and not much else. I treasured the time that I got to spend with my family more than anything else, and a lot of other things suffered because of that. But I don’t regret it for an instant because I’m never going to be able to get any of that time back.
It does feel really good that things are starting to get back to normal here in Australia.
Abbie and I have actually been to the movies twice in the past month or so. Sure, the turnout was a lot less during opening week then it would have been previously, and we had to socially distance from those sitting close to us, but it was just nice to be able to go back to the movies.
We saw Godzilla Vs Kong and the new Mortal Kombat movie. I loved GvK, and I enjoyed parts of Mortal Kombat. I don’t think the MK movie deserves the amount of hate that’s being piled on it, because there were just as many things wrong with the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, and that’s still one of my favourites.
Plus, Mortal Kombat was filmed in Australia, and has one of the best depictions of an Aussie character with authentic bogan dialogue and delivery that you’re ever going to see in a Hollywood blockbuster.
Honestly, go to a house party in Queensland full of 30-something blokes fuelled by Milton Mangoes and you’d probably find Kano there on the piss.
Godzilla Vs Kong however? That’s right up there with my favourite Kaiju movies of all time now. I don’t care that it’s dumb as a sack full of bricks, I flippin love it.
Also, Abbie and I are getting married next month, which is very exciting, and if everything else goes well we might also be homeowners, we will also be very exciting.
How’s everything going where you guys are? Are you feeling like things are starting to get better? Or are you still buckled down in survival mode waiting for the pandemic to end?
Matthew J. Barbeler 