Sorry about the slow writing update. This should have happened at the start of April but I have basically been sick for the last 2 weeks. Like, REALLY sick; with temperatures hitting nearly 39° Celsius. High enough that I have been borderline on how much acetaminophen I should be taking.

I’m mostly better now, the strep throat is gone though I’ve managed to pick up a cold / flu in the meantime which is keeping my temperature elevated and me hacking. I don’t know how much work I’ll be able to get done but I haven’t put down words in 2 weeks. Which is tough, when you’re on a lot of deadlines… sighs

Anyway. It is what it is. I’m going to do the big update!

A Thousand Li & Celestial Cataclysms

Ace Edition of The First Step released on March 12, 2026 this year. It has done okay, so far. Nowhere near as well as we had hoped, though some of the hopes (USA Today or NY Times Bestseller lists) were a distant dream for a work that has been released before. Even with the exclusive short story, we haven’t seen as much pickup from existing fans (understandable); and the war and the uncertainty and the rising prices probably hasn’t helped any of that.

Sales are continuing however, and consistent, so that is good. We’re trying to keep pushing the sales, and just hope that it becomes a steady trickle of books that sells, while the addition of the next book in the series hopefully picks up even more sales.

Not much else to report, we’re gearing up for the next book – The First Stop – release in July. There’s going to be early release copies at LitRPG Con and we might have an event at one of the bookstores there, but beyond that; it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to do much.

Moving on, Immortal Connections (book 1 of Celestial Cataclysms).

If you haven’t noticed, the book is releasing this month! We are pre-selling copies of the ebook/etc. on the Starlit Publishing site before they release on Audible and Amazon. If you want a DRM free copy of the series, that’s where you get it. Especially with audiobooks, if you can pick it up direct from us, that’d be a HUGE help.

That being said, book 2 is being written right now. I stalled out at 165k words when I got really, really ill as mentioned, but hopefully in a few months the first draft of the second book will be done and I’ll be able to start working my way through editing it.

With each book around 300k words, there’s a reason why releases are once a year.

System Apocalypse

Work continues from both Craig and Jason. We’re nearly done with edits for book 2 for System Apocalypse: Liberty; and we’ll have the book sent to Podium for recording soon; so we are on track for a release later this year. Uncertain about book 4 for System Apocalypse: Relentless, Craig’s real life job continues to kick his ass.

No other major plans for the SA series at the moment.

Dungeon Brawler

I just sent out book 2 for editing, so we should be getting that done and ready for release later this year, so we’ll be fine for a rapid release. I’m halfway written on book 3, but again, everything has been pushed back because of my illness. I think we’ll be fine still to release book 3 soon after book 2 (basically 3 month breaks) and hopefully even book 4. This is a 5 book series, so if everything goes to plan, the entire series will be done by 2027.

Hidden Dishes

Another work that is 50% done. I was working quite well on this, and then, of course, illness. So everything is thrown off whack. I don’t know when I’ll get this done, but early next year release is likely. Which was always the plan.

We only have 1 or 2 more novellas after this. If I can figure out the time and don’t get sick, I might just try to write the last novella now; just to finish and bookend the series.

Other Projects

Not much else to say really about other projects. Things have been pretty quiet as I try to focus on getting work that needs to be done finished. Being ill for so long will definitely throw everything off, and while I’m still sick, today will be my first full day I can try to focus.

We shall see where I get. After such a long break, trying to pick up the threads of where I started / ended is going to be tricky too.