Some quick items first:
First, we have Sehad illustrating another fan favorite line. ^-^
Omnipocalypse is up to version 0.2.5 now, as this project iterates toward a stable release. More on this... next week, probably.
More TLS art upcoming for higher tier patrons this week!
I'm probably going to shut down my Cognosticon Patreon soon(ish). It'll stay open for a while because that's a convenience for some readers, but apparently there's no way to archive a Patreon account (you can't even switch to "per release" anymore), which means I have to manually hit the button not to charge every month. This is inconvenient, plus I'm afraid it won't work due to Patreon bugs at some point, thus charging people when I didn't intend to.
The experiment was definitely worth a shot. As I've said before, the Depthless Hunger series has already earned more than any of my individual games for less time and expense. I don't know if the Audible contract will earn out, because they're silly about financial statements, but all of that stuff will be shifting to passive processes soon. Yet more time and energy freed up. ^-^
For all that this was worthwhile and profitable, I find myself grouchy because the process was creatively frustrating. I guess it wouldn't be professional to complain in too much detail about readers, even here, but I wasn't very positive about it. There are some authors doing great on RoyalRoad who have an attitude of "Aww you guys are the best <3" and my general feeling is more "This is why we can't have nice things." Which is not to pretend that there aren't legitimate criticisms, but let's just say I have strong enough opinions to also call some criticisms illegitimate.
It feels strange that I've found a more receptive audience while creating a NSFW harem RPG than writing mainstream fiction. I'm not sure how much of a conclusion I can draw from this, other than that perhaps there's a lot of luck and randomness involved. But I've found the audience here very rewarding, and there are definitely people who appreciate my writing, so I will keep pushing ahead and hoping to find more of my sort of people. And I do want to make it clear that I feel extraordinarily fortunate to have found so many people who enjoy my work that I can do this as a full-time career.
I recently had a frustrating professional conversation with someone (under my Sarah Lin pen name, so there's very little chance they're reading this). They tried to tell me that I was seeking validation, which I simply do not agree is the case. What I don't want is to interact with people who I sincerely believe would prefer my work if I put in less effort and churned out slop.
Am I going to keep doing it, though? Yes. As I've written elsewhere, being a creator is a risky/unstable career and focusing entirely on one project is unsustainable for all except those at the very peak of the viral lottery. However, in the future I will be implementing a few ideas to try to reduce time overhead and make the whole process more efficient. Some are things I learned from the Cognosticon experiment and should definitely help, while others... we'll have to see.
Anyway, in the short term I will keep working on all the things you've come to expect, getting more projects into a strong position. But I'm going keep riding this surge of creative energy, which will hopefully turn into projects that are both financially and creatively rewarding. Let's just say that some of you can blame yourselves for recommending me so much time loop fiction after Omnipocalypse. =P