I’m an artist, a bard if you will, a creature of strange habits who has difficulty conforming in the best of circumstances. Rather that organize myself by the Gregorian calendar, I organize myself and my work by a lunisolar calendar with ancient roots, a calendar where months run as dictated by the cycles of the moon.
I live this way for a variety of reasons, most of which are outside of the scope of this post, but I will say that it is, in large part, because it fits my personal rhythm.
January, when the Gregorian calendar starts, is typically a very slow month for me where I don’t really want to start anything. But the end of March and beginning of April? I’m in a get-stuff-done kinda mood. The perfect time to kick off my year.
Obviously, I still keep track of the Gregorian months for things like remembering people’s birthdays and big events and things like that.
But for things like ‘what do I want to accomplish this year?’
Lunisolar, all the way.
At the beginning of the last Lunisolar year (2023-2024), I set a goal to work towards the completion of 10 book-size projects. Not novel-size, book-size.
I think, originally, the goal was 10 books, but I ended up changing it mid-year because things started popping up for me that weren’t technically books but that were very worth my time, and being inflexible with goals is not, in my opinion, a winning strategy.
For example, one of the projects I did this year was a Novel Writer’s Workshop. It was fantastic. Sessions were 3 hours apiece, and there were nine of them, and I taught them live.
It was hours upon hours of work to prepare each session. And the workshop was 100% a book-size project, and I counted it toward my total.
Another project I did this year was writing my first completed tabletop game, DEFIANCE: DUEL IN THE BLACK KEEP. It was a novel’s amount of work, for sure. So I counted that toward my total too.
There was another project which I hadn’t seen coming at the beginning of the lunisolar year: Fairy Wife and I added an additional Bardling to the family. I’m counting that event, as well as the lead up and the month following, as two book-size projects. There’s an argument that was worth more, but I am content to call it two.
And twenty minutes before midnight on the last day of the last lunisolar year, I sent all paid Substack subscribers the early access ebook version of Bladetalker.
With that, by my tally, I accomplished my goal. It was a really productive year, though a lot of it didn’t turn out as I expected.
So now the question is: what do I want to accomplish in the current lunisolar year (2024-2025)?
I want to talk about some of the projects that I’m nurturing, that I intend to finish and bring to you this year.
AGE OF SHADOWS: MORE NOVELS TO FOLLOW OATHBOUND
I’m putting a lot of focus on the Age of Shadows story world this year. I’m looking to complete and publish another Age of Shadows novel or two. I’m not setting an exact timeline for that. It’s done when it’s done. But it is on my list.
Oathbound is a stand-alone novel, and each of the books I’m writing will tell their own complete stories. There will be a suggested reading order, but if you pick up a later book and read it before an earlier book, it will still be completely enjoyable, though you will obviously have a deeper experience if you read them all.
The novel I’m working on, tentatively titled WOLFSBANE, is about a man trying to save a little broken family from the raving cultists of a god of the hunt, in a land igniting with war. The man, who once belonged to a clan of berserker warriors, has rejected bloodshed to be a healer. But inside him is a literal monster, struggling against him constantly, trying to force its way out to kill and destroy.
It’s a wild ride so far.
THE CHRONICLES OF ALLUVION: THE ENDLESS DEEP
The Endless Deep, Book I in The Chronicles of Alluvion, is the serial techno-fantasy epic that I began publishing last year.
I’ve learned a lot about my process as I’ve labored on this book. For example: in all future cases, I will never again try to predict exactly how long an epic work is going to be.
*dazed laughing*
This trilogy will be the longest story I’ve ever written. It won’t even be close. And this world is the most complex world I’ve ever written. The labyrinthine-cyclopean structure the people of Ràth Tollen live in, Anais and Emeric and Loic and Lymma in all their flawed humanity, the creepy-as-hell monsters that live in the dark watery underbelly of their world, the strange menace of the Queen’s Mechanoids…
I not only do not want to rush over it, I can’t.
Back before I realized how utterly huge this project was, I talked about getting the whole thing done in a year. Which was hilarious, and complete nonsense.
I’ve adjusted my aim. I will drive forward to complete and publish (in paper!) Book I this Lunisolar year, nurturing it month by month, giving it the needed time to grow.
In light of that, I am moving The Endless Deep out of the serial release model, and I will put something else there: there are other things with shorter completion cycles that I’d like to send to the people who are paying subscribers.
For anybody who signed up as a paying subscriber who wants to keep receiving installments of The Endless Deep as I continue working on it, just shoot me a message through Substack or the various other ways that you might reach me, and I will hook you up. :]
You are grandfathered in, and I intend to take care of you.
MODELS AND GAMES
One of the things that took me by surprise last year was how much I learned that I love sculpting. I had no idea I’d love it like I do. It makes me ridiculously happy. I wish I’d found it sooner.
I’m publishing a bunch of new sculpts this year. I’m not going to tell you the exact number (but there is a number!) or the exact plan (I have a list!) but I’m going to produce a lot of sculpts, and a majority of them will be from the worlds that I’m creating. I’ll be doing some commission work as well, but the bulk of what I have planned is for my own projects.
I’m also going to make room to write and publish games. My first game, DEFIANCE: DUEL IN THE BLACK KEEP, has been a fantastic learning experience. It’s also set in the Age of Shadows story world, and I want to keep building that world this year, not only with books, but with art in other mediums.
I’ve got new sculpts and games started for both Age of Shadows and The Chronicles of Alluvion, as well as other much smaller projects I’m creating.
PERSONAL GROWTH
I’m still learning how to live the artist-creative life: how to create structure without killing spontaneity, how to make consistency without creating sludge. I’m getting better at it, and this year will be no different.
This year, I get to tackle personal weaknesses that have been obstacles to me for a long time: securing time to do my own work, resting, and refining my ability to finish strong, again and again.
One thing I’m especially going to improve: I feel super awkward when I talk about my own books! I realized that this week, again. It’s rooted in a lie that I believed about myself from childhood, which has something to do with keeping things hidden if they matter a lot to me, because nobody actually cares and talking about it only leads to being dismissed or ridiculed. At least, that’s what the lie says.
My books matter a lot to me.
That lie gums me up badly when it is time to talk about them. It may not be immediately apparent from the outside, maybe not all the time. From the inside, it is gum-gum-gum. Ridiculous amounts of gum. Even the thought of it is gum.
But all the artists and authors and game developers I admire most have the skill where they can talk coherently and non-awkwardly and enthusiastically about their work, in detail, and I want to be like them.
And I hate lies.
So I’m going to root that old lie out of myself, by learning to talk about my books. With my mouth words. Out loud. To other people.
And I’m going to learn to do it well.
The effort to rip out that lie might show up for as my own, self-hosted podcast, or a YouTube channel, or just me going around to appropriate venues and talking about my books to people until I am comfortable doing it and good at it.
It is equal parts wildly uncomfortable and something I’m looking forward to.
THIS YEAR IS GOING TO BE A TON OF FUN
Anyway, all that’s the jist of where I’m headed. Embracing the hard work, embracing the excitement, leaning into what works, shoring up what doesn’t. Completing books, sculpting, creating as much art as possible in both the Age of Shadows world and The Chronicles of Alluvion.
I’ll keep you posted. :]
— Cael