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I just wanted to leave a "I swear I'm not dead and I haven't forgotten about the story" for you guys. I've kept meaning to send this (and even sworn I DID send it a few times) but am finally working on it now. Before I get into the details, I've been busy with college! I took a few years' break after high school and it's been a rough adjustment getting used to school again, so I'm so sorry about having promised SaS returning and then bringing nothing. That awkwardness has been part of what's made it so hard to send this, haha...
Onto business! Originally, I was trying to speed through SaS before the end of December for the Romance Novel Competition. As you can clearly see... that didn't go well. I believe that was in good part because, at heart, I'm a high fantasy writer who meticulously plans things down to the paragraph. SaS was a completely new idea I came up with in little under two weeks, so when I sat down to write it, it was DRASTICALLY different from what I'm most comfortable with. I believe this (as well as a swamped holiday retail job) to be a huge contributing factor as to why I burned out so quickly and was unable to finish SaS.
So, the past couple months I've been working on fleshing out the city of Lynsmouth, creating the various factions it Needed but Didn't Have, working on each individual aspect of the mystery, and completely mapping out each major characters' backstories.
And, yes... I mean completely. From birth to the day the story takes place. In fairness, I don't develop it year-by-year--
TL;DR!
Long story short, even if I haven't published any chapters, I've been hard at work developing the world of SaS between college classes and homework. I can't guarantee an exact date I'll get back to SaS, but it'll definitely be before the end of May and it'll be better than ever! Thank you for being patient with me, and I can't wait to see y'all there!
I'm so sorry for dropping off the radar, I suddenly had a lot of things all going on at once and wasn't able to get to writing. Regardless, I plan to finish the initial 30 chapters planned for the story and will get to the Inksgiving prizes once they're completed. On that note...
@StudioManex is the winner of the top donor award, and has chosen for me to draw a picture of Soren, the father of the MC, Frey!
The winner of the raffle is @Neila, who can decide on their reward whenever they want.
Votes for the rest of the rewards will be held upon completion of the first half of SaS. Updates begin on Monday, the 15th, and will continue weekly.
On a similar note, I'm working on finishing Chapter 4 and it'll be uploaded by 3AM CST. Thank you for all of your patience in waiting for the update! I've been really busy with IRL problems, but I've also worked on a lot of outlining all of SaS while I've been at it and it should be smooth sailing from here! See you all in the comments section soon. 🥰 😉
(extra information follows alt text)
INKSGIVING goals
15k Author FAQ/Q&A
40k Author draws any SaS character (fan voted)
60k SaS characters Q&A
90k Author draws any two SaS characters
120k Commissioned art of any SaS character!
170k Additional SaS short story/scene!
300k Mystery plot hints will be released throughout SaS! Also, readers select characters for ability reveals!
500k 15-30 second animatic trailer for SaS!
to the side, an additional text block reads:
TOP DONOR RECIEVES A SPECIAL PRIZE!
EVERY 1,000 INK DONATED EARNS YOU ONE ENTRY INTO A RAFFLE FOR A SPECIAL PRIZE!
Prize should be along the lines of the included goals listed here. It can/will be negotiated between myself and the winner.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION!!!
Votes for the character(s) drawn will be cast after the initial 30 chapters are published by the end of December 30th! I want a pool of dedicated fans to be able to select from the greater cast that SaS will unfold to have. The same will apply to the extra short story/scene that you guys come up with, then vote on. All prizes (besides the 300k award if it's reached) will be released mid January to late February.
I already wanted to write this novella, a short detective story, but I thought I'd also run an experiment of sorts with Tapas through its release. By fenagling how I upload them, maybe I can figure out some trends that'll help me gain more traction more quickly!
As for the novella, a short description (wip synopsis):
When an estranged member of the noble family and powerful priestess is found dead in her own home, the police are quick to investigate. But all evidence leads nowhere or results in the investigators found dead several days later.
To avoid more deaths, Nikolai, the head of the police force and a powerful magic user himself, steps up to investigate the murder instead. The first thing he has to do is confront his prime suspect, Adilzhan, the local shaman.
Together with Nikolai's knowledge of the people of Kavo and Adilzhan's knowledge of magic, the two investigate the suspicious circumstances around Tosha Yegorova's death. After all, the best way to investigate someone is to make them think they got away with the crime.