Hello and welcome to your April Progress report!
This is going to be another one of those reports that is short on words but the shortage of verbiage is not going to reflect the level of work put in. So, let’s just jump in and get the biggest piece of info out of the way.
From Ashe Vol. 10
60,615 (unedited) words later, the volume’s main story is done and in its first draft! That means the first round of major editing is next followed by art commissions followed by final editing and then a release! I am tentatively aiming for a May release for this volume to keep myself on my typical 3-month release schedule; however, I put that word in bold just so you understand that things can change at a moment’s notice. For now, that’s the plan.
Also, I usually take a small break between the first round of edits and the second round just so I can go in with a fresh set of eyes. During that time, I will be fleshing out the outline for Volume 11. Now that I have everything written down, I have a pretty good idea of where to take the story in the next volume.
The only thing I haven’t written yet is the bonus chapter. I still have quite a few story ideas to play around with and much like at the end of every writing session, it’s a matter of picking one and fleshing it out. It’s something I’ll tackle later but with the heftiness of the main story, the bonus chapter may end up being a little shorter than normal. Not only do I want to strike a nice balance but fewer pages also means less printing cost for me, too. You see? There ARE business things to consider when writing a book!
The artwork for this volume is also going to be on the low side. This one is not a budget issue but it’s because while I did create, yet, another new character, she doesn’t play a huge role. It’s not intended for her to do so (at least not yet) but I’m keeping that open just in case I feel like making her a bigger part of the story. That means the commissions will include the cover and maybe two or three scenes, depending on what I feel is important enough to include.
But yeah… I spent a good deal of time writing and I’m quite happy with how it came out. There are some tweaks that I do need to make to it; however, with what I set up… Volumes 11 and 12 are looking to be a mixture of joy and sadness. I’ll just leave it at that.
MyGF WINS + CELEBRATION!
You probably all saw the post that My Girlfriend was Delivered by 2-Day Shipping won the Silver for the 2023 Reader Views Awards in the Teen & Young Adult category! Well, I will be making a separate post for this but just to include it here for some more content, I’ll be celebrating the ENTIRE MONTH OF APRIL by giving you 50% OFF on Google Play, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Smashwords, and Apple Books!
So, for $2.49, you can now read an AWARD-WINNING light novel!
JNC CONTEST
I was hoping to have an update since they said they would announce which series would move on to the second round; however, as of the time of this writing (9:23 p.m. on March 31) there is still no update. When they said it would be announced at the end of March, I guess they really meant that!
In all transparency, they are working hard to get everything in. I cannot imagine how taxing it is to judge so many full-length novel entries. Once I know, I’ll let you know if I passed or if I’ll be commissioning an artist to get that book out into the wild.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
I told you it was going to be short and sweet. I am still working on some t-shirt ideas as I have settled on the next collection that will launch alongside From Ashe Vol. 10. (Maybe not the same day but around that time). To give you all a hint, it will be called the “They Said That Collection.”
But until next time,
Ja ne!