I know I haven't posted anything new really in a long, long time, and I'm very sorry for that. I'm not sick. Nobody in my immediate family has cancer. I really don't have any big, huge excuse for not putting out content recently. I've just been... busy.
Writing takes creativity, and creativity takes time. I have the plot for The Blue Dragon worked out, and I know what I want to write, I just haven't had uninterrupted time to do it. I've got teenagers - one of whom is autistic - going through middle school and high school with all the academic and extracurricular things that go with it. I've got a day job with a recent promotion that's put more of a burden of responsibility on me than ever before. And I'll plainly say that the recent U.S. tariff situation has made my day job infinitely harder and far more time consuming than ever before.
Writing has always been my hobby, and one I've enjoyed very, very much. But after an exhausting day doing all the things that being an attentive father requires, when I sit down at my computer in the evening after my kids are in bed... I just don't have it. I don't have that drive, that desire to type. I don't even want to watch YouTube videos or binge a Netflix show. All I want to do is sleep. And it doesn't help that the older my kids get, the later and later at night they go to bed.
If you're subscribing to my Patreon because you want to support me as an author and say thanks for all my work, I say thanks to you very, very much. BTC and ASL2 and all my other recent stories wouldn't exist were it not for Patreon.
If you're subscribing as a transaction for new material, I say I'm sorry for not putting out more content recently. I really wish it weren't the case, and I feel like I'm letting you down.
This is not a hiatus. I'm not posting an "Out to Lunch" message. I'm actually re-reading The Blue Dragon again right now to get myself in the right frame of mind, because I really do want to write. I really do enjoy the process, and if nothing else, I hope this status update helps shake me from my doldrums and helps me get back to doing something that brings me joy at night (almost as much as Mrs. Blue Dragon brings me).
I don't want to overpromise and underdeliver right now. I don't want to promise a posting date and then not make that deadline. I DO want to build up a lead of a few chapters so that when I do post again, I know it'll be on a regular schedule. Until then, I just want to say thanks again for all your longtime support.
-b.d.-