Weekly Update - 8/3/22 (Patreon)

So will try and keep this one relatively light, but I know I've said that before and we all know how that worked out. Considering how this month's schedule was looking, I moved a few things around and decided to make this the week of conclusions, which is why we had the last chapter of QT: Piper's Prelude drop yesterday. At the end of this week, we'll also have the last chapter of If I'm Honest (this version, anyway - I know lots of people want me to revisit the scenario, so maybe we'll be back again later). I'm hoping to have that on Friday, but at this point, let's be realistic, it'll likely be on Saturday, 8/6. It's the conclusion, and I definitely want to be sure everyone's satisfied. I know how it ends (I've known that for a long time, actually), but some of the details are still getting hammered out.

My international trip has been set in stone finally and will be from 8/15-8/25 so things around that time will get a little weird. I'm going to be using scheduled posts to manage the time around it, so I'm giving everyone plenty of warning about that. During the trip, I'm going to have the first postings from a couple of commissioned works, QT: McCallister's Madness and The Devil's Details, filling in, because they're already written. I'll hopefully have a little bit of time to scramble together the next chapter of QT: Phil's Tale although I know a lot of what's in that one already, so we'll see how it goes. Typically when I travel internationally, there's a lot of downtime when I'm stuck in airports, on trains, on planes, on buses, where I generally try and get some writing snuck in. Also, I tend to write decently well when I'm making my body conform to the time shift, struggling against day/night cycles, but it's been half a decade since I've been out of country, so we'll see if age is going to make any of this more difficult for me.

Next week I'm currently planning on getting out Quaranteam 49 and Brewster's Brood 21, although in which order, I'm still not entirely set yet. I guess you'll know when you see the first of the two on 8/9 and then can expect the other on 8/12. Keep in mind, QT49 is the penultimate chapter of Book One, and will be the only QT chapter this month, with the end of Book One, QT50, on the cards for sometime next month.

Speaking of QT, a number of people have been asking on the public sites about cast lists, and it struck me that I really haven't released a new cast list publicly since September of last year. For those of you who are subscribers, there was the updated visual guide, which you can still find here - 200 Patrons! | Corrupting Power on Patreon - and if/when we hit 300 Patrons, I'll release the newest version of that. 

What I'm thinking about doing in the meanwhile is releasing a text-only version, not only to Patrons but to everyone, towards the end of the month. It'll include characters from not just the main QT storyline, but also QT:PT, QT:PP and even a little bit from QT:MM. Depending on how things go, maybe I'll have it for Patrons late this month and give it to the public sometime next month. It's a thing that's getting done for the print release of QT:B1 anyway, so it won't hurt to put that out.

While I'm in travelmode, I will be working on a number of things, including the opening of new Tier 2 and up project I'll be starting in September, which I was originally calling Honeywell Island, but I've renamed in my notes to Breakpoint, the short code of which will be BP. For those of you who aren't Tier 2s but are considering upgrading, as was voted on by the existing Tier 2 subscribers, I'm going to reduce Brewster's Brood from 2 chapters a month to 1 (although I'm going to lengthen then up a little, so the single BB chapter each month will be closer to 7.5k words than 5k) and start a new second story for Tier 2s and above that's exclusive to them, and won't be available anywhere else until its eventual release in print form in a few years.

Some of you may be asking what Breakpoint is, so let me tell you just a little bit - it's a story with (eventually) 3-5 protagonists, and is inspired by works like The Prisoner, Lost, The Running Man, John Wick and The A-Team. It's set now-ish, but the technology levels will be both surprising and unusual. I don't want to give too much away, but I've had the idea banging on the back of my brain for the better part of six months now, and when that happens, I have to eventually let it out otherwise it'll drive me mad. The world building for this particular series is nutty and surreal and awesome, and I hope everyone loves it half as much as I do. 

Breakpoint will be getting new chapters for Tier 2 and up subscribers once a month, and I suspect they're also likely to be 7.5k sized chapters, but we'll see. This idea is cluttering up so much of my head that I'm yearning to put it down on paper. Expect the very first chapter of it, dropping sometime in September, to be huge. 

I'm also going to throw up the poll for Tier 4+s tomorrow about what the OTHER fan chosen story is going to be getting a chapter this month. I know that's pretty early, but the international trip throws a monkey wrench into a lot of things. I'll probably also write that chapter when I'm on the go. (I'm also going to try and get commissioned works for the month done during that time.) Its release is scheduled for 8/26.

The next few months, the rhythm will feel a bit weird, between the international trip, the conclusion of QT:B1, but my current roadmap has us taking October off from mainline QT, and then returning with QT:B2 sometime in November. But it'll be fun and we'll get through it together.

Here's a song I've been listening to a shitload lately, from a band I'm going to see live in a few months. Take care of yourselves, folks, and I'll see you back here Friday or Saturday!

The Midnight - Lost Boy - YouTube