Happy New Year, dear readers! Reflections, future plans, etc!

(super short tl;dr version: Happy New Year! Thank you for being here, thank you for all your support. I’ll continue to do my best in 2026, with both Maidens of the Fall and Necroepilogos. I don’t have any surprises planned soon, and both stories are in a very good state behind the scenes. That’s all!)

Now for the proper version!

Originally I was thinking of not making a New Year’s post this year; I’ve done it the past few years running, just to give readers an idea of plans for future, where I’m at, and so on. Last year I waited until the end of January, then rolled it into the post-Katalepsis Book One wrap-up post. Then I ended up directly addressing the readers several times last year anyway, so making a post like this feels a bit redundant. Plus, I was real sick when I would usually have written this, (though I am doing much better now!)

But you know what? It’s a nice little ritual, a nice tradition, even if I don’t have much new to say right now. This one will be shorter than previous years, I guess, but it’s still worth doing.

So, Happy New Year, dear readers! Here’s where I’m at!

Maidens of the Fall is still in early days right now, but I could not be happier with how it’s going. I’m still flattered and amazed and extremely thankful for the positive response, for how much people are enjoying it already. It’s a very specific kind of pressure — to go from writing a big-deal long-term story for so many years, then eventually finish it, and start up a new project, hoping that it will be just as fun and satisfying for the readers as Katalepsis was. Especially after having to put the Katalepsis sequel on hold.

But that pressure is apparently paying off well! I’m having a hell of a time (positive!) with Octavia’s voice and character; behind the scenes the story is quite ‘delicate’ right now, it’s still quite young, individual chapters often need more planning and attention and careful re-drafting than I was used to during the later two thirds or so of Katalepsis. Maidens of the Fall is currently taking a lot of effort behind the scenes, as all the characters and themes and arcs begin to unfold. But I’m really invested in that process, and I hope you’re enjoying reading it just as much as I am enjoying writing it.

Speaking briefly of Katalepsis ‘Book Two’, I’m still experimenting with possibilities. I’m not ready to say anything concrete yet, but the setting will probably return in quite a different way. We’ll see when we see.

Meanwhile, Necroepilogos is still going strong! But …

Okay, I’m going to admit some anxiety here. Behind the scenes — narratively, structurally, character-wise, all that stuff — Necroepilogos is absolutely fine and dandy, no problems at all. I love it as much as my other stories, and I cannot get enough of those zombie girls. But you know what? I’m worried about my ability to keep up with two stories like this. Back when I first started Necroepilogos, it was a side-story, something I slipped into a day and a half of time around writing Katalepsis each week; now it’s so much more than that, the story has grown in the telling, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be ending any time soon. Back in 2022 through 2024, Katalepsis practically wrote itself, so I very rarely had to rework entire chapters or sit down and interrogate characters; that’s not true of Maidens right now, those magical girls are high maintenance, at least for the moment.

I’m not saying I’m going to put Necroepilogos on hiatus, I’m just being open and honest about my worries behind the scenes, even on a 3-1 schedule for both stories. Perhaps later in the year I can adjust that schedule somehow? I don’t know, this isn’t a plan, nothing so coherent.

Behind the scenes right now, everything is nicely ahead. I’m trying to maintain a full 1-chapter buffer for both stories, and I intend to keep it that way. But I want to be open about the mechanics of writing serials week-to-week, and the fact it can go wrong.

Whatever happens though, I will keep doing my best, for both stories, all my characters, and most importantly, all of you! The readers!

I know, I do this every year, but I just want to say thank you. It still amazes me that I am a full-time writer, telling stories on the internet. That is only possible thanks to all of you, the patrons who make this real. Without you, Katalepsis would not have existed, Necroepilogos would never have risen from the grave, and these Maidens would not be anywhere near the moon.

Thank you, for all your support, whether you’ve been here since the start, or you only subscribed today, or even if you’ve never subscribed at all and you’re just having fun reading along! Thank you all; I couldn’t write without you.

I know the world out there is kind of a more scary place than it was a year or two ago, and I am only very small. But I will do my best to keep my little corner of the internet as pleasant as I can.

Thank you for being here. Seeya again soon!