I actually sketched my plans a bit before the end of the year, and after looking at them for some time, I suppose I can consider the loose schedule formal.
We’ll start out by wrapping up the Hero’s Metal series with book 4. It’s ended up being my ‘flagship’ for a variety of reasons, and while book 4 doesn’t provide the same anarchic joy as blasting out book 1 did, there’s a different kind of satisfaction in polishing the capstone of the structure before mortaring it in place. It’s been a fun series, and I hope the series completion and the publishing of the thicc boi omnibus edition will help bring in some new readers as, through no real doing of my own, I believe the story of Chasmgard’s gradually transcending heroes deserves the attention.
For most of last year I intended to spend some time developing one of my game projects after completing Hero’s Metal, knowing full well the mental and emotional fatigue I’ll experience when it’s finally done. Programming vidya and working out game mechanics just works out a different part of the brain, and it’s one way I’ve found to recharge the old creative batteries. There’s a bit of background motion with friends in the game arena, and I hope there will be news to share on that sooner than later.
Also on the ‘feed my soul and recharge the batteries’ track, work continues in my free time (lol, free. I’m a dad yo) on more dungeon synth music to share. The compulsion when I start writing music is insane, sometimes even stronger than that of playing a new video game, and despite it being a creative endeavor and having some structural elements in common with stories, overall it just operates in a completely different region of my mind and heart, making it an excellent escape from tedium and expectations.
The current set of tracks was intended to be EP length, but the tracks conspired against me and two different factions (EP candidates) formed an alliance and forced me to arrange them into a full album. I’m polishing the form and transitions of the final track currently, will spend some time on mastering and QC listens, and then this project will be ready for the light.
The plan here is to release it on its own channels, which means I’ll finally have a music artist persona rather than releasing as TJ! I aim to share more of that soon as I tease the album’s release. I really think it’s a banger.
Of course my expectations are set: I’ve compiled an album that pushes at the boundaries of various dungeon synth and other synth subgenres, which are already subgenres of other things, which are already niches within niches. In other words, I do not expect international fame. But the fun thing about music for me (it’s what I actually trained in, back in that foreign country we call the past) is that because it’s so compulsive, it’s almost effortless. And the heart and ears reap the rewards!
Also working in the background is a small comic project, which again I hope to be able to speak about soon.
My daytime work consists of editing and ghostwriting, which has all been going swimmingly, but that does leave little writing and reading brain at the end of the day. Thus I don’t expect to have many book reviews out in the coming months, but I’ve got other ideas for YouTube content.
On that note, last August I launched IndieScan, to great fanfare from my colleagues. The series, rounding up new releases from mostly the Iron Age, put my channel over a hundred subs pretty quickly, then plateaued. Around the time it flattened, I did a flash review of Godzilla Minus One which pulled almost 2k views. You can appreciate what this did to my psychology. A lackluster IndieScan followed the next week, and then my perhaps too polite reaction to Zach Snyder’s Rebel Moon pulled in over 3k views!
Now I’m not a views hound, but my book sales increased, not dramatically, but obviously, and it was clear that there was something I could leverage. Thus I want to strike a balance going forward. I likely won’t do IndieScans weekly, but once per month, or twice if demand happens to rise again. Then I’ll make sure to hit a few popular topics, keeping my trademark positive outlook, and in between I think I’m just going to let loose with a few other ideas I’ve had brewing.
It feels sad to be so burnt out on indie promo, but I’ve been working it for a long time now, and others with better video setups and a more book-focused passion on their channels, or some with more abrasive and attention-demanding personalities, get the word out much better and faster than me, getting more subs and selling more of their own books in the process. I cheer for them, but it points to the need for me to make some adjustments. I’ll keep looking to do the things I do best!
By summer I expect to be working full tilt on my next novel(s), which will either be a 5 novella series set in an anime-style AI fantasy apocalypse, or a standalone adventure pulp about doing urban archeology with a federal agent werewolf. I’m very excited about both of these, and it’s only with white knuckles that I’ve kept myself from trying to write them before Hero’s Metal 4.
In any case, thanks if you’ve read this far! Thanks also if you pop into the YouTube channel from time to time, and whatever your plans for the year, make it a good journey.
2024 is going to be a kickass year for you man!
"I’m very excited about both of these, and it’s only with white knuckles that I’ve kept myself from trying to write them before Hero’s Metal 4." I FEEL THIS IN MY SOUL. I get Shiny New Idea Syndrome so bad!