Hello and welcome to another progress update for all things A.R. Dragonfly and From Ashe!
Well… at least this time around, it’s just going to be about A.R. Dragonfly as I haven’t done anything with From Ashe in the past month but it’s for good reason: I am completely finished with A.R. Dragonfly’s main series!
That’s right! Not only did Volume 12 get its final edits but it received all of its artwork! This means the book is completed and ready to be published, thus bringing an official close to the main series.
Man… I couldn’t believe that I will be releasing six books in one year. It is almost unfathomable to think about but, alas, here I am. It took a lot of hard work and dedication in order to get to this point. To think that I was still writing Volume 8 back in November of last year and here we are, just 10 months later, I wrote and completed the final four volumes… two of which (9 and 10) have already released.
Speaking of…
You probably saw but back on July 27, Volume 10 officially launched! On top of that, I had a pretty successful 4th of July sale which, in turn, led to my biggest month of sales that I ever had!
I want to take this moment to thank everyone who purchased A.R. Dragonfly and/or took advantage of the free sale and decided to check out Volume 1! Whether you have anything good or bad to say about my series, just know that I deeply appreciate your willingness to check it out for yourself!
Origins
Funny thing… I planned on taking a break after finishing A.R. Dragonfly. Figuring that A.R. Dragonfly Origins wasn’t due out until January, I thought that I would relax a little before putting my nose back to the grindstone.
Ha ha…
Nope.
I’m three chapters into Episode Amber!
I do know that I am going to have to do a lot of editing on the first couple of chapters. It had nothing to do with being rusty or anything but I just had to get used to this new world Amber lived in. Writing about her parents, her when she was 6, and again at 11 was different because Amber was such a different character back then. She lived in a different world and I needed to convey that. It was a bit of a shock but the more I wrote, the more I got used to it and now I need to go back and fix a few things but that’s what first drafts are for! Just get it on paper and fix it later!
Aside from that, there’s not much else to report on the A.R. Dragonfly front from a writing/publishing perspective but there are a couple of things I would like to share.
Merch Freak?
I’m not Nick Jackson but I have been thinking about doing some A.R. Dragonfly merchandise. To commemorate the completion of my series, I made myself a t-shirt through Custom Ink. The shirt is not intended for me to sell… it’s just something I wanted to get for myself as a gift from me to me.
However, that one shirt sparked an idea about some “merchandise” that I could sell to anyone who would be willing to buy it. I thought about physical but that meant I would have to keep stock of things and mail stuff out constantly. The other way would be to go through a drop ship retailer and let them handle all of the work but if there were any order issues, customers would have to go through them and I wouldn’t be able to do much to help people and that kind of turned me off so I was thinking about doing something more that I could control.
That meant digital goods.
The first piece of merchandise I’m creating… (which is also the only one right now)… is a desktop wallpaper. This wallpaper is being completely hand-drawn by my artist, Alex Garcia, as well as myself. We are tag teaming this project and it’s going to be something much higher in resolution and quality than what Alex has done for me thus far. I am truly testing the limits of his skill and ability with this piece.
I don’t want to reveal too much about this piece but I will say that it will be depicting one of the biggest moments in A.R. Dragonfly (at least in my opinion).
Also, how high of a resolution is this wallpaper going to be? How does 7680 x 4320 at 600 dpi sound?
I haven’t decided on a price for it yet but I will let you know when it is finished. Alex and I have already been going back and forth on this for about two weeks now, nailing down the details and quality of it. It’s really working out well and I can’t wait to see the finished product!
It’s Been 84 Years…
Well… not really but it has been a while since Final Hope got some attention. In fact, it has been three years since its last review but that long, long review-less streak came to an end as Germany’s own Ine Airlcana gave Final Hope her review! She must have enjoyed it because the first volume received four stars from her!
You can check out her review of the book on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/197963145X
Nice to see Mikomi and the gang still going strong three years later!
Aaand It’s Done
Yeah… very short update but as I said, most of July was occupied with me getting Volume 12 finished and publish-ready, launching Volume 10, and writing the first three chapters of A.R. Dragonfly Origins: Episode Amber.
So, while there wasn’t much to report on, it didn’t feel like nothing much to me. I’ve been very busy this month but now that things have settled down, my goal for August is to finish writing Episode Amber and then outline Episodes Sebastian, Lynn, and Takumi. After that, if there’s time left, start on Episode Kaito.
Or… I might actually take some time to relax.
I say that but look what happened when I tried that!
So until next time…
One More Thing
A teaser of sorts because I always wanted to do that!
Not to try and hype things up too much but there is one more thing, though. I cannot talk about it right now; however, one of the things that has kept me busy this month is two secret projects that I’ve also been working on behind the scenes.
I, honestly, don’t know how these projects are going to go but they both have the potential to be really big. I’m hoping by the September update, I will be able to share the details with you but we will see.
Mostly for now, I wanted to throw out a little teaser to let you know that there are potential HUGE things on the horizon. A lot of things need to happen, though. A lot of scenarios need to play out but it’s a shot I’m willing to take! I will say that it does have something to do with A.R. Dragonfly and I will leave it at that for now!
Exciting times are definitely on the horizon so stay tuned!
Ja ne!
Joshua J. Piedra 