I’m not going back on my word this time!
Since we last spoke, some things have moved forward with A.R. Dragonfly! First off, the artwork for Volume 8 is finished and the volume is publish-ready! Tentative release time frame is early June for that volume with Volume 7 coming in April! I hope you look forward to it!
On the subject of Volume 9, the first editing pass has been completed and the book is now in second draft! 13 art commissions have been created for this volume which looks to update some of the older art pieces! Included will be Daniel McDevitt’s second-ever art piece and his first since Volume 2! Technically, he made his debut (art-wise) in Volume 4 because the piece that was supposed to be in Volume 2 missed the deadline and Volume 4 was the earliest he would make a reappearance.
Also, Yuujiro and Akane will get some new artwork! We also have some brand-new characters coming in Volume 9 that will get artwork. They are more background characters to help flesh out the world some more.
The next task to tackle is the writing of Volume 10 and I am happy to say that as of this update, 2 chapters are in first draft and I have the first 3 pages (8.5 x 11 size aka probably about 6-7 pages) of Chapter 3 in first draft. Volume 10 is shaping up to be a monster as I kind of went overboard with Chapters 1 and 2. Both chapters have over 10,000 words each and are the longest chapters I have ever written in a light novel, including Final Hope! The rest of the chapters won’t nearly be as long, though.
Chapter 1 just ended up being long because I found a lot of stuff to write about. That was an accident (although a Bob Ross happy accident). Chapter 2 was intended to be long because it was supposed to be a VERY special chapter. To kind of give it away a little, the chapter is titled Happy Birthday, Amber so I wanted to make sure that Amber had a very special day! I will not divulge any information about the chapter but know that Amber will FINALLY celebrate a birthday after 2 years of nothing (story wise).
In between writing, I’ve been working on some art. I do have Volume 7’s promotional artwork created in preparation for April’s release. You’ll see it in due time but as you could see from the cover reveal, there is something going on with Kaito and we will begin to explore that in Volume 7 before it leads right into the next major story plot point in Volume 8 where it proves to test all of our characters on many different levels!
That’s about it. Just a short and sweet mid-month update to let you know what’s going on. I’ll see you all in March for the next major update!
Joshua J. Piedra 