Status Update — What's Next?

You know, I'd been meaning to write this up for the last 2 weeks, and I figured a brief lull in a (finally back to a regular-size docket) workday was the perfect opportunity to do so.

First thing's first, though — I'd like to give all of you who've decided to show your support an incredible thank-you. It's not understatement to say that I have been utterly flabbergasted, shocked, amazed, and mildly terrified at just how many of you showed up here, and I can only hope I can maintain the quality and caliber of writing that brought y'all here in the first place.

On that note!

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BOOK TWO STATUS

So.

Book 2 is 66% done. It has 21 chapters written, the 22nd chapter in progress, and is slated to end at 31-32 chapters, depending on whether I need 3 chapters or 4 for the climax.

As far as the word count is concerned, it is already as long as Book 1. This is mostly due to chapter length increases — as I've gotten more acquainted with my characters, I've found it easier to spend more time with them, letting them breathe more.

Unfortunately, as good as this progress is, I'd expected to be further than this by now, but I just... haven't had time or energy. And as for why? Well... the day job has been awful.

To make a long story very short, my practice group within the firm was 3 senior attorneys, 3 junior attorneys. Four weeks ago, one of my fellow junior attorneys (the one I liked) let me know that she'd accepted a new job offer and that that was her last week, leaving just 2 junior attorneys: myself, and the one I call "The Village Idiot". At the same time as this, one of the senior attorneys has gone on modified part-time hours because his wife just gave birth to their second kid, and our supervising partner went on a long-planned 3-week vacation, as a last hurrah before his eldest daughter went off to college (which he just got back from today).

This means that for the last several weeks, we have been at half power during one of the single busiest times of the year. This is on top of training the new hire we brought on to replace the junior attorney who'd left, and trying to make sure she doesn't pick up any of The Village Idiot's bad habits. And then, to make matters worse, I inherited all of the complicated clients from the attorney who left, and The Village Idiot absorbed the easy half of my workload, meaning I didn't just get my work basically doubled, but every single bit of my work became more difficult.

To try and put this in perspective: imagine you're processing a file, and even though it takes about 25-40 minutes to process a file depending on difficulty, you give yourself 20 minutes in between files to just... keep your head clear. You normally expect to get done 7-10 files a day, depending on how many of them take longer than others. Got that in your mind? Cool.

Now take away all of the breaks, make every single file difficult enough that it takes 35-45 minutes, and have enough of them be tagged with "URGENT — BY EOD" that you're working straight from 9 to 3 because stuff needs to get out the door and if you take your lunch break, you're guaranteed to miss something important. Combine that with consistent urgent escalations because somehow, you're not sure when, you've become The Person To Escalate Urgent Matters To When The Boss Is Away.

That has been me for the last 3 weeks.

I have been so tired. So damn tired. And I don't say this as an excuse — I only say this to explain why what I'd initially planned for a maybe 3 month hiatus between book 1 and book 2 will be a touch longer.

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HIATUS PLANS

All of that being said, I do have some fun stuff planned for the hiatus!~

FIRST: once the final chapter of Foxfire Book 1 goes live on Royal Road, it's going to have a one week break, followed by a second round of Q&A answers. I solicited answers from the general readership at the same time as I answered y'all's questions for everybody, and I've got a good 20-30 questions that I can readily answer, and a fair few more that I can only sort of... hint at.

SECOND: some of y'all in the Discord server have decided that they want to see something fun. Well, fun for them, less so for me.

So in a few more weeks, there's gonna be something different showing up here on the Patreon. Not text chapters — but videos. VODs of a Let's Play.

A Let's Play of what, you might ask?

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. That's what.

(I don't know which of you finally convinced, coerced, cajoled, manipulated, blackmailed, urged, coaxed, persuaded, and influenced me into playing this game. I do know that it's going to be about 1/3 actual gameplay, and 2/3 me just... malding at everything I'm seeing)

For some context, I've never played an Ace Attorney game. I have seen and heard memes, but that's about it. So I have absolutely, positively, definitely, no goddamn idea what I'm getting myself into here. But suffice to say I'm mildly terrified.

THIRD: I've got a bit of art cooking for Foxfire book 2. Not the cover — I'm genuinely still torn on several different compositions for that, and don't know what the hell I'm gonna do for it — but for a major scene. The one issue is that the art is SPOILERIFIC AS ALL HELL. So I'm actually gonna ask you, the Patrons, to comment on this post:
Do you want to see the art once the commission comes in, regardless of spoilers?

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Anyways, that's all I have for the moment. Time to get back to work... because unfortunately, I still have, uh... okay I've got 5 done, and 8 left... ugh.

Yeah, that workload I mentioned above? It's calmed down some, but it's still pretty awful. So I gotta get back to it.

Later!~

—Noa