It’s only been about a week and a half since the last progress update… surely not much has happened, right?
Nope! Plenty has been going on with A.R. Dragonfly although a little storm called Hurricane Dorian did put a halt on some things. The good news is that the hurricane has bypassed my area and even though we are still getting some gusty winds (as of the time of this writing), I am in the clear and can probably continue working on the series without worry about loss of power or any other delays.
As of the last update, I said I had six out of seven chapters in first draft for Volume 6. I’m happy to report that all of Volume 6 is now in first draft as is the first chapter for Volume 7! The second chapter for Volume 7 is titled; however, writing was halted due to the storm. In fact, I do believe I will be taking a small break from writing for another reason: the soon-to-be release of Volume 4!
Last time I did an update, I said that there were two art pieces remaining: Amber and Jeremiah. Amber is finished and the sketch for Jeremiah is in and my artist is currently working on finishing the last piece! So, without further hesitation, here are those pieces of art!
For Amber’s art piece, I wanted to redo the original artwork she received for Volume 1. I wanted a new facial expression along with her new hair color that she received in Volume 3. I felt that Zara knocked this one out of the park and she looks better than ever! There’s also a bit of a hidden reason as to why I had her original artwork redone but, as I eluded to in the last update, I’m not quite ready to talk about that yet. When I am, though, fans of the series may find what I have to offer quite interesting (at least that’s what I’m hoping!)
Jeremiah’s art is for a scene in the final chapter of the book. He is, once again, angry over something but when isn’t he angry?
Since my artist is almost finished with Vol. 4’s art, the time had come for me to stop everything I was doing and put the finishing touches on the book. I had to finish laying out the book in InDesign, I created the rest of the chapter title pages, spell-checked the bonus chapter/features, and finished the cover.
Wait… wasn’t the cover finished and unveiled a while ago?
Yes, it was; however, the spine was the width of Volume 3 because I had not yet completed the book and didn’t know the total number of pages yet. Once everything was all said and done, Volume 4 ended up at 220 pages from cover to cover. With that number known, I saw my spine was supposed to be 0.468″. I resized the document and now the cover is print-ready and good to go. I also decided that Kaiza will be gracing the back cover of the book.
Also, as is tradition with every book release, I do have a desktop wallpaper that I will be launching alongside the book. I know Volume 2 and 3’s wallpapers were kind of messy and looking back, I’m not really happy with them in the least bit. At some point, I plan on going back and redoing them so that we can have proper-looking wallpapers for those volumes. I also plan on going back and redoing all of the cellphone wallpapers too since I know I can do better than that.
While I cannot reveal the wallpaper just yet, I will say that Volume 4’s wallpaper pays homage to Volume 1’s. It is finished and ready to go, though. I will also give you a clue, too. There is a spoiler for a future volume in the wallpaper. I won’t say what it is but I will say it’s not immediately obvious. Another clue is that the spoiler in the wallpaper is also related to a future plot point that is introduced in Volume 4. That’s all the clues you’re getting. I’d be interested in seeing if people can figure it out so be sure to tell me your educated guesses once you see the wallpaper.
Speaking of artwork, I have the book cover for Volume 5 finished minus the character artwork. For those who are wondering, Kaiza will be gracing the front cover of Volume 5! With that, I am unveiling the cover (sort of) for the next volume. Obviously, the Kaiza artwork on the front cover is from Volume 4 and will NOT be the artwork for Volume 5. It is merely a placeholder. With that, here is an early glimpse at Volume 5’s cover
I sent my artist all of the character artwork for Volume 5 so it is in his hands and ready to be worked on at his convenience. I had no idea, at first, what to give him for a deadline since Volume 4’s art was due in December. Here we are, the first week of September and I’m staring down the barrel at another book release. I didn’t expect to be releasing Volume 4 only three months after Volume 3 but his speed caught me off guard and forced me to get myself into gear. That’s why I wrote Volumes 5 and 6 and am working on Volume 7. Not only was I inspired as to where I wanted to take the story but I wanted to make sure I had a pretty good cushion should he be just as fast with Volume 5.
Volume 5’s art was originally due in June 2020; however, I’ve bumped that up to March 2020, giving him another 6 months to complete 10 art pieces along with an 11th optional art piece. Needless to say, it may or may not take him 6 months to do all of the art. We may even see Volume 5 as early as December which would be insane because that would mean I would have published three books in a single year. I’m not saying expect Volume 5 in December, though… I’m just fantasizing!
That wraps up another progress update. As you can see… I did a lot of things in that last week and a half and with me being on vacation from work this week, I look to be doing even more!
There won’t be another supplemental progress update this month because the next update will be the launch of Volume 4! I hope you are all looking forward to it!
In preparation for that… if you live in the United States and want to get an autographed copy of Volume 4, please contact me with your information. Autographed copies are $15 each as the extra $5 covers the cost of printing the book, the cost of Amazon shipping the book to me, and the cost of me shipping it back out to you. Also, since I will be placing orders for author copies, if you would also like autographed copies of Volumes 1, 2, and/or 3, please let me know so I can place an order for those along with Volume 4’s order.
Currently, I am out of stock on the first three volumes so I need to replenish those and will do so based on demand for them. If you don’t want them autographed, they’re up on Amazon as we speak and you can go get them right now.
By the way, this also holds true for Volumes 1 and 2 of Final Hope. If you want to check out my other series and want autographed copies, let me know as soon as possible and I will order them along with my order for A.R. Dragonfly Vol. 4. Any autographed book is $15 per book.
I do apologize that I can’t do international shipping. It is pretty expensive to do so. It costs anywhere from $35 to $60 to ship to another country outside of the U.S. and there are also customs practices I have to go through. If you are crazy enough to spend upwards to $75-$85 for an indy light novel… just to have my crappy handwriting in it, then I will ship you an autographed copy but chances are, you probably won’t spend that much and I don’t blame you one bit for not doing so. Just buy it on Amazon and I’ll sign a piece of paper, scan it, and email it to you to print out and maybe you can tape it to the inside of the front cover or something!! ^_^
With that, going to end it here! I’ll see you all back here for the launch of Volume 4!
Until then,
Ja ne!