Welcome to your July progress update for A.R. Dragonfly! Things are still moving along nicely as far as artwork and editing. So, what happened in the past month with A.R. Dragonfly?
In the last update, I said that I was 5 out of 7 chapters written for Volume 5. Here we are one month later and Volume 5’s first draft is completed and Chapter 1 is already in second draft! This also means that Volume 4 is completely edited and print-ready!
All that is left to complete Volume 4 is the remaining artwork, writing of the bonus chapter, and… well… that’s it! Once again, the speed of Volume 4’s release will depend on the speed of my character artist Zara. I will take care of the rest of the work on that volume as the artwork comes to a close.
In the meantime, I’m going to continue editing Volume 5 to get that into second draft so I can get the character concepts done. I already have two in mind but I’m sure that there will be many more. I also have Volume 6 plotted out from beginning to end so if I find myself with downtime between finishing Volume 4 and editing Volume 5, then I’ll start writing Volume 6.
Speaking of Volume 5, I decided to change the ending again but not drastically like I had the first time around. In the final scene, a certain event happens but I didn’t like the way it happened. So, I decided to keep the idea of the event the same but refine it so it actually seems more realistic because the way I had written it before just didn’t make sense. Too many “why’s” and “how’s” could be tossed around so more refining had to be done. Still, the effect will be the same and it will be a nice lead-in to Volume 6 that will spark a major choice!
Next, let’s talk artwork. The art was coming in so fast that I had to do a separate update last month. I got to show off Reaver and Arcanist (who has a name but I didn’t name him just so it wouldn’t spoil anything in Volume 4). This time, I get to show off two minor side characters that will still have their own impact on the story. Those character’s being Kaito’s parents, Yuujiro and Akane Akihiko!
In the case of Akane, I was tossing it around if I should show her sketch or not. As of the time of this writing, her final version has not been completed yet but that’s not the reason why I contemplated not showing it. It’s the fact that there was a slight miscommunication between my artist and myself. Akane was to have a red and gold rose pattern on her dress; however, he misinterpreted it as having actual roses on her dress. In the end, it’s purely my fault for not communicating that correctly so I only have myself to blame but the rest of her sketch is spot on so I decided to show it anyway. The final version will have the rose thing corrected.
That’s where we stand right now when it comes to the series! Now, let’s talk about some fun little side things that I’ve been doing.
The first up is a special desktop wallpaper. I am not going to show it nor detail it just yet; however, I will say that I don’t think I’ve seen anyone do something like this before. Of course, that’s just through my own personal perception so if someone has then I didn’t exactly know about it. All I will say about the wallpaper is that it is gaming-related and it will affect future volumes of A.R. Dragonfly. What I can also tease about the wallpaper is that it can be unveiled once Akane’s artwork is finished! With her art possibly getting done within the next week, expect a new update on that soon!
The other thing I want to talk about is the fact that I was interviewed by TheOASG. They picked a handful of writers and content creators from within the anime/light novel industry and asked them about light novels in general. This was the second time that they did this and I was fortunate and humbled to participate in it this time around!
The article is called The Great Light Novel Experience, Part II and you can read it over at the following link: https://www.theoasg.com/articles/the-great-light-novel-experience-part-ii/14994
Big thanks to Justin for reaching out to me! I truly appreciated the opportunity to contribute!
See, guys? The contact form on my website actually does work! Who would’ve thought? ^_^
That’s going to do it for this time. I’ll roll Akane’s art reveal in with the wallpaper reveal so stick around for that. Until then,
Ja ne!