We are in autumn… well, most of the country is for that matter. It’s still ‘summer’ here in Florida. Sweltering heat, high humidity, it’s still in abundance.
But that hasn’t deterred me from plunging forward with A.R. Dragonfly! The last time I wrote, I was writing Volume 7. That was actually put on hold and no progress has been made in that aspect. The reason for that was the artwork for Volume 4 was nearing its end and I had to prepare for the volume’s launch.
Naturally, after Volume 4 comes Volume 5. With my artist jumping straight in and finishing off Kaiza, I, once again, put writing Volume 7 on hold and created the cover art for that volume, which you could see in my last mini-update. Since then, the second art piece was completed; however, I am refraining from showing it due to the fact that it would be spoilers to anyone who has read up to (and including) Volume 3. For non-readers, it would simply be a piece of art with no spoilers but I cannot take that risk.
I will say; however, that the art piece is of a character who received a slight redesign. It was actually the character’s original design but I decided to use that design as a plot point rather than introducing them with it right off the bat. In the end, I feel like it worked out and made for some nice character development. Hopefully, when you read Volume 5, you will feel that way as well.
Speaking of… with the art going into full swing, I decided to put Volume 7 on hold for now to focus on working on Volume 5.
With that, All of Volume 5’s main story went through a three-pass grammar check in Word Spell Check, Grammarly, and in Google Docs. This put the entire volume into Final Draft. I have now begun the process of re-reading the chapters one-by-one to clean up the last remaining bits the passes may have missed and to make final decisions on things such as dialogue or missed plot holes.
With that, Chapters 1 and 2 are in Complete status, meaning that they are publish-ready! I didn’t stop there, though.
I went ahead and wrote the bonus chapter for Volume 5. Since the Blaze Auras lore arcs were done, I took to Twitter and held a poll. An isekai parody won the vote so that was the chapter I wrote. Unlike the Blaze Auras lore chapters which were a mere page or two long, this one ended up around 12 pages of 8.5×11 paper, or roughly 5,100 words! In other words, it’s a true, full-sized bonus chapter.
It should be noted that these bonus chapters are NOT canon. They are nice, fun detractors from the actual story that people can read and enjoy knowing that anything and everything that happens in these chapters will not affect the parent story.
In addition, I wrote the Preface and Afterword, as well as created the artwork for the chapter title pages. Two out of seven chapter title pages are complete with the rest awaiting new artwork to be completed.
Once I get Volume 5 into Complete status (main chapters), I will return to writing Volume 7. Even though I do have 12 volumes planned, I have concrete plans through Volume 8 so I want to get there which is where the next major event in the story happens. After that, there are a few more major events but they are loosely planned so I would like to sit down and map out the rest of the series. I’m taking it chunk by chunk, not allowing myself to get too far ahead. Just in case plans change and I decide to go another direction, much like I did with Volume 5’s ending.
Even though I’ve been doing all of this and focusing 100% on A.R. Dragonfly, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have The Zero Eclipse in the back of my mind. I’m still thinking about how I want that story to go and how I want to retell my original Shadow Wing story without making it out to be a typical run-of-the-mill fantasy series. I’ll be excited to see what I come up with once I can give that series my full attention.
Now, for the next thing… I teased on Twitter and Facebook something about the number 30.
When I launched Volume 4 of A.R. Dragonfly, I mentioned how I looked back at some of the past downloadable artwork and was dissatisfied with what I had created. I ended up remaking the desktop wallpapers for Volumes 2 and 3 but I also took down the Cellphone Wallpapers saying that I would redo them.
And redid them I did.
The number 30 referred to the number of cellphone wallpapers that are now available for you to download! While I did pull a Mortal Kombat palette swap for the background, I felt that keeping the same style made them thematic. It also allows me to make new wallpapers of existing characters and new characters with ease.
You’ll also notice that the wallpapers are rather large but that’s because they were made in 4K resolution for modern phone devices. Enjoy the sharp crispness on your mobile screen!
Also, you’ll notice that the wallpapers are styled after Volume 5’s cover… but that would not be the truth. The truth is, I started working on the wallpaper design before the cover. I ended up liking what I made for the wallpapers so much that I cut it in half and turned it into Volume 5’s cover! I just happened to unveil to cover first because the wallpapers weren’t finished and ready to be revealed.
I am awaiting the sketch for the third art piece which will be Volume 5’s brand-new (ish) character, Jessi Hammons! I’ll be sure to show it off on Social Media so feel free to give my Twitter or Facebook a follow to see it when it drops.
Jessi might end up being the last art piece I unveil for a while because several of Volume 5’s pieces are definitely in spoiler territory. I’ll probably do a mini update whenever Jessi gets completed to show her off. Also, you won’t have to wait for Volume 5 to release as I will add her cellphone wallpaper once she is completed!
In fact, looking at my request list, art pieces, 4, 5, and, 6 are spoilers for the story, Art piece 7 isn’t really a spoiler, but I’d rather save it so readers can get some enjoyment out of it. Piece 8 is a solo piece for Sebastian… the first since Volume 2, piece 9 is a solo piece of Takumi, and the final required piece is another spoiler. That means art reveals will probably be scarce this volume but I will make sure to keep everyone up-to-date so you know that progress is happening.
That’s going to do it for this month’s progress update!
Until next time,
Ja ne!
Joshua J. Piedra 