Patreon Update 3/22/24
Added 2024-03-23 06:00:02 +0000 UTCAlright Patreon changed the menu for making posts... again. Sorry I released a few early, you get so used to clicking through the page a certain way and I have to adjust and not speed through it to remember to click the new button.
That's AO3. I even wrote another chapter, but the more I look at it, the more it feels like Chapter 1 of a new book.
So onto the next one.
As I sit here counting down until my next dayquil dose and covered in tissues, it might be the illness, but I want something new to give me a little pick me up.
That and I'm slightly concerned about the next DD book and want to mull things over a bit more. The next book is set up to be mostly this raid. There are a few issues that arise from the situation. 1. The raid itself is not quite enough of a plot and I don't know the B plot atm. 2. I have to introduce a lot of new characters to make the other schools feel real and part of the competition and I'm kind of worried about overloading/thinking better on how to avoid that overload of new name. 3. I have to somehow make Ken not completely annihilate this raid to the point it trivialized everything.
I was supposed to write this Isekai reborn book. Yet, I'm really in this jive of returners. So I wrote 4 chapters of a returner today. I want to write it, but I need to play with the characters a little more to make them interesting.
Returners are always a little darker, but I don't go very dark.
We shall see. I am behind because AO 3 went a little long, but Monday the wee one goes off to Daycare and I'll get full eight hour work days. Gasp. Hopefully I can get a nice buffer up next week and then move back to 7 chapter weeks. Tentatively the plan.
Audiobooks are coming along though we are going to miss one for April I think.
Kickstarter for DJ special editions is 2-3 weeks out.
Comments
whats this about special editions? i think i saw some mention of other special editions but ive never noticed a post explaining what your putting in them. is there a link to the info on the older special editions?
John
2024-03-29 23:30:56 +0000 UTCSweet. I see and foresee great fun things in the future. Looking forward to whatever makes it out.
Tim Nielsen
2024-03-24 06:49:25 +0000 UTCDD has been such a great series. I certainly don't mind you taking the time to get your ideas for the next book in order. I enjoy the action, but for me, it's the relationships between Ken and his ladies that really make the series shine. (And his grandparents too of course.) REALLY looking forward to it but am ok with a wait to get it perfect. Try to work some POV chapters from the gals in there. Those are always interesting and fun.
Hugh Sweeten
2024-03-24 02:46:02 +0000 UTCI think that the fact that the new ability that brings Ken up to par with Crimson ruins any chance of that sort of plot. If that happened in book 2 or 3, then yeah. But, making the special abilities more common sort of ruins one of the cornerstones of Ken and Crimson’s relationship: the fact that he is the only person amongst humanity that can match her.
Caniner
2024-03-24 02:42:10 +0000 UTCWe read this Genre for the girls dude. B plot is appreciated but a novel filling up with Ken's harem is equally appreciated. Buuutttt I agree Ken was made so OP he basically instakills... LIKE CRIMSON HIS FUTURE WIFE!!
RTV
2024-03-24 00:35:48 +0000 UTCYup. Finale was posted on Royal road I think around a month ago.
MrCynical
2024-03-23 23:29:36 +0000 UTCI agree, if possible adjust your release schedule to allot for 5.5 chapters a week and aim for 6, this will let you get ahead of the game and have flexibility to deal with life without burning yourself out
Lynderyn
2024-03-23 21:33:48 +0000 UTCThere is plenty of plot left that could be wrapped up or continued on the relationship front. His grandpa promising the Silver Fangs a ride, the book’s author becoming more secure interacting with Ken about the book, Helen and Penny making progress, PR shoots, etc.
Lynderyn
2024-03-23 21:30:43 +0000 UTCAgreed. Make it so that berserker hit it off with his class so that's the point of contact for that while school.
ReadingObsessed
2024-03-23 21:28:30 +0000 UTChaha, silly Tenchi Tokyo teacher spin-offs. in case you are not joking: tenchi-muyo-ryo-ohki S4 and S5 are recent S5 being 2020. and GXP Paradise Starting are new but about his buddy, and the prequel to his series which leads up to ryo-ohki S5.
Nukin Futs
2024-03-23 21:01:39 +0000 UTCOr an isekai/tensei that gets isekai'd to where they came from... A few have a similar plot of; after years of, what would be its own series, accomplishing what they were summoned to do, they get to 'return' sometimes to worse than they remember.
Nukin Futs
2024-03-23 20:51:26 +0000 UTCCould you imagine what Ken would be going through emotionally if the dungeon targeted one of his girls with a panther like creature and having to watch her die over and over again until she figured out how to beat it? 😱
Robert Crowder
2024-03-23 20:03:26 +0000 UTCFor DD I think a longer B plot focusing on a new/expanded relationship is usually a good idea.
whyme943
2024-03-23 17:08:36 +0000 UTCRealistically they aren't anything special beyond the new special dungeon ability. They just.. worked harder? There is no reason that someone profoundly gifted wouldn't also grow at this rate or faster. Let's be honest.. Ken is not a particularly high level natural talent. He is just an extremely specific talent with strong work ethic. He has specific circumstances, such as the nature of those he grew up with, and his lucky draw of a class. He is a fated hero.. not a genius. Heck the girls keep up with him more or less don't they? Imagine someone with a uniquely cunning mind who absorbs information at an excellerated rate. Someone who graduated the learning/textbook information part of Dungeon diving by the time they were 10. Who mastered swordsmanship and martial arts to levels surpassing some masters by age 15. Those kinds of people are real.. right here.. in real life. Why would it be unreasonable for a hidden ace like that to be born in the DD world too? In fact it's kinda odd those types of people are missing. True prodigy or savaunt level talents. Who uses seemingly odd or unusual methods of training others just can't wrap their minds around how it works even though it does. There is no reason why that can't be a thing, as like I said.. those people are real.
MistuhBogan
2024-03-23 16:54:07 +0000 UTCOther examples are Tower of Heaven, Reborn: Apocalypse, Eternal Dominion, and Lotus Lake. The first two are dark, the second two aren’t. They regress after dying in the modern world to before the release of big VR MMO games.
David
2024-03-23 15:49:56 +0000 UTCAR is finished? I already preordered book 6.
David
2024-03-23 15:47:37 +0000 UTCAlso called a regressor. Tower of Heaven, Apocalypse Redux, Reborn: Apocalypse, Eternal Dominion, and Lotus Lake. They go back in time and change things. Most of those are dark but the last two aren’t. They regress after dying in the modern world to before the release of big VR MMO games.
David
2024-03-23 15:46:28 +0000 UTCWith how hard they’ve been pushing, I honestly don’t see the other schools having rivals in the same year. They’re already surpassing second years from their own school and almost stepping on third year toes.
David
2024-03-23 15:42:09 +0000 UTCYes it does, but I’d watch that Tenchi series in a minute. The new one where he’s a teacher seemed like it’d be interesting, but it’s all 3-5 minute “episodes” and doesn’t make sense.
David
2024-03-23 15:39:50 +0000 UTCFeel better! And chance we can read this first draft of the returner series to give an impression? I like regressor stories.
David
2024-03-23 15:37:48 +0000 UTCBasically some one either reborn into the same world or sent back in time to correct history/second chance
Deaths Envy
2024-03-23 15:35:24 +0000 UTCWhat is a returner?
Mateo
2024-03-23 15:33:19 +0000 UTCDD has so many possibilities. It could even be that Ken has to skip the raid to deal with the fallout with the Dwarven Queens or take a more tactical leadership role in learning to manage and command the raid teams. He is a guild master and needs to learn how to take control of multiple teams, not just in the raids but against hostile enemies. We see a build in that with the safe area assault. Would be nice to see him grow into his leadership role more. Having him spend more time building solid Guild teams would be nice the team leads could also become his. And the other girls could start learning how to lead the team without him as he will be more preoccupied with new members and threats.
Deaths Envy
2024-03-23 15:27:36 +0000 UTCDidn't Ken have a friend from the beginning of the very first book (Berserker, I think) that immediately got picked up by another school? That should give you an in with the expanded raid.
Pete's Place Garage
2024-03-23 15:16:38 +0000 UTCWould like to see some of kens party or one of the other guild members face a similar challenge Ken and crimson faced if possible. Having an entire party of guys at crimsons level would be an awesome direction to take things. Also, if the boss is trivial for Ken, then so be it, that's the difference between litrpg and soft magic, the system keeps the writer honest and prevents plot armor from driving the action. If you want, introduce a new dungeon mechanic where the raid becomes an uber, with different mechanisms only the cat people or elves have information or legends on. Then a bunch of kens friends can get limit breakers all at once. 😝
AZ
2024-03-23 14:08:19 +0000 UTCAbsolute flat-out noice! Tasty tasty Sentar content. Returner genre doesnt have to be dark, break the mold once again Slice of Life Eldritch Horror: "My 3rd wife is a Beyonder; Whom, after I defeated her captors and claimed the title of Demonlord, returned me to my Home Plane to raise our fourth-dimensional children, who keep eating the souls of our neighbor's birds." (modern LN, Title is half the blurb) Actually that just sounds like a weird version of a Tenchi derivative.
Nukin Futs
2024-03-23 13:43:57 +0000 UTCYou don’t have to go back to 7 chapter weeks. Unless that’s what you’re absolutely wanting to. 6 has been more than enough, in my opinion. It’s more than most authors do on here. Some release a chapter a week for the same price. I’ll read whatever book you choose to write, because they’ve all been phenomenal. Hope you get feeling better though. I know colds/the flu/covid has been making a massive comeback where I live
Aaron
2024-03-23 11:05:24 +0000 UTCWe know Ken's Zerker friend went to another school. Their catching up with Ken can be a soft introduction to that school. As to the Raid boss, two options come to mind. The first is the standard actual MMO...an Enrage timer/mechanic. Too much health/armor so that time starts to run out for the raid. The second option is the paired Raid boss with healing or resurrection mechanics so the bosses have to be separated and be killed in quick succession. This means Ken has to build up/rely on that second team to take down their boss (even if he can practically solo his own).
Loukemia
2024-03-23 10:29:15 +0000 UTCfor the raid you can add raid aoe (aoe attack that hits everyone) and times were the raid monster is invulnerable to damage or make it where there is a phase where Ken can't get close. There are plenty of ways to make it harder for ken while showcasing how broken his new prowess is buddy!
DJ Johnson
2024-03-23 09:40:38 +0000 UTCWhat happend to the that Archmage prisoner story idea for a new book?
Robse
2024-03-23 09:02:32 +0000 UTCI definitely approve of the the world building. Would love to see how you do it, too - maybe a few Stars from the other colleges taking lead. The war would be a power levelling experience for many so the need to chill and stat train would be a big thing. I'd love to see the rise of other stars. Maybe tournament arc in safezones by the dungeon where it marks the winners for trial? And yeah good luck with the returner. Interest drop off of many of those is steep so oooooof.
NovaZero
2024-03-23 08:30:58 +0000 UTCIsekai reborn is what you find in most isekai anime. Die and reborn on another world. Returner has a few beginning routes but you stay on the same world with memories from before your return. Typically the returner dies, usually from betrayal, and either goes back in time to the beginning of Apocalypse/system initialization/etc or comes to inhabit a new body some time after their death. Apocalypse redux is a recently completed decent go back in time returner story on Amazon and Royal road. Absolute necromancer is the dead and comes back years later returner story in manwha form.
MrCynical
2024-03-23 07:51:18 +0000 UTCNo need to make them a long term main relationship I mean. It would be nice to just have another dude you know that can keep up out there in the world. They can grow together but distant at the same time. One to provide a counter balance.
MistuhBogan
2024-03-23 06:38:26 +0000 UTCPerhaps you can build up an exceptionally talented rival from another school. Maybe some kind of prodigy. Though making them another enemy might be too overdone. Why not make yourself a kind of.. Vegeta. Grudging rivals.. not outright hostile ones. I wouldn't suggest making them female this time.
MistuhBogan
2024-03-23 06:36:21 +0000 UTCThanks so much for the clarification ❤️
T'Ericka
2024-03-23 06:34:54 +0000 UTCAlso for me, at least I don’t care if you introduce more characters in world building for DD. That series out of all of your series seems incredibly ripe to be very long and have quite a bit of depth. I just hope the sales maintain to make that possible. Give me Bruce Sentar’s Wheel of Time. 1700 named characters 😂
Michael Viggiano
2024-03-23 06:29:50 +0000 UTCAs a dumbo, what is a returner?
Michael Viggiano
2024-03-23 06:28:21 +0000 UTCLooking forward to either isekai or returner. I could use a good new returner now that Apocalypse redux is finished. And I agree that returner are usually darker because of the whole return premise. The entire reason for returning is they failed, which invariably means starting the journey from a darker mentality where they've been betrayed and killed, failed at preventing humanities collapse, etc.
MrCynical
2024-03-23 06:22:59 +0000 UTCIsekai reborn is what you find in most isekai anime. Die and reborn on another world. Returner has a few beginning routes but you stay on the same world with memories from before your return. Typically the returner dies, usually from betrayal, and either goes back in time to the beginning of Apocalypse/system initialization/etc or comes to inhabit a new body some time after their death. Apocalypse redux is a recently completed decent go back in time returner story on Amazon and Royal road. Absolute necromancer is the dead and comes back years later returner story in manwha form.
MrCynical
2024-03-23 06:18:28 +0000 UTCWhich one of them was the one that wasn't a harem series agaib?
Bob Bryan
2024-03-23 06:17:56 +0000 UTCGet well and feel better soon! And I was curious as to how DDs next storyline was going since we only had the raid. It's good to think things through and sometimes take a step back to view the bigger picture. As for the Isekai idea... I think the returner story sounds better. There's so much Isekai out there, that returner or reverse portal stories (can move back and forth between the two worlds) are more appealing...
Jamie R
2024-03-23 06:17:31 +0000 UTCI will admit I was curious how you would balance both the whole, "Ken can solo the entire raid once we can get enough hits up", and not really seeing how one raid could be an entire book. I guess you could throw in some of the other events to level them up that crimson mentioned like the vampire castle. Or possibly throw a trial for one of his main group of ladies. Maybe bring Ely back? I'm not a worried about the overload of names, mostly because I'm not writing it and worrying about ensuring I remember who goes to what school and is what level and what teacher or whatever they have with them is there. Easier to flip back and forth some sometimes. Plus I've recently read an English translation of a Chinese novel that threw in like 20 different names at one point, multiple times, and they were all what I would consider full names. So unless you're going to constantly list them, I'm not as worried.
Casey
2024-03-23 06:07:42 +0000 UTCI think one way to not overload us with characters is to only add a couple at a time. Maybe just a single party they happen to encounter before the raid. You could play off of the Royal College’s power-leveling strategy and make Ken’s team pull a party out of a bad situation that they got into from a lack of experience (for example, they were power leveled into the 40s like Bellaire, but they are forced to dive higher because their stats aren’t high enough)
Caniner
2024-03-23 06:07:11 +0000 UTCI’m a little lost. The isekai reborn is not the returner series? Which chapters will we be getting next? DD or the returner or the isekai?
T'Ericka
2024-03-23 06:07:07 +0000 UTCOh, that Kickstarter sounds like my jam. I can't wait for that.
BigJCSoto
2024-03-23 06:03:19 +0000 UTCWhat’s going to be the DJ special editions
Taylor
2024-03-23 06:03:13 +0000 UTC
