An update and an explanation

Hey, everyone.

So, let me start this with a little humility. On brand, I completely underestimated how long it takes to write an actual story, like a real story, the size of a small chapter book. Lol... (I'm sorry)

BUT! We're almost close to releasing it. But what exactly is it? Well, let me tell you all a fun little story:

So, somewhere around the time I was working on the last chapter of the Batson comic, my best friend Nora came over to talk over coffee, as she sometimes does when the kids are in school.

I, being the disorganized fool that I am, left a story open on my computer... and she read it.

Now, imagine my shame when I caught her, lol. It wasn't a long story at the time, it was actually intended to be a quick little caption thing I made to fill some content between my big comic chapters, but it was pretty dirty and completely unedited.

She not only read my raw dirty caption story, she read the rough draft. I didn't know what was more shameful about that, lol. Like my most intrusive sexy thought at the time was also presented in probably the worst form of writing I could ever produce.

I literally thought I was going to die.

To my surprise, she actually liked the concept, being a hobby writer herself; and while gender-bending wasn't really her thing, she asked if she could pitch me some ideas.

So, while completely paralyzed by the fear of what this meant for the future of our friendship, I reluctantly agreed. You guys know me. I don't like working with other people on this sort of stuff usually, but at the time it was my worst fear scenario of someone I know and respect stumbling on the stuff I make- and in its rawest form!

It was a rough few days, let me tell you.

Also, I never knew what to expect. I definitely didn't expect her style to click with mine. Nora's more into 'torture porn' stuff like those SAW and Hostel movies. We both enjoy psychological horror, cosmic horror, stuff like that... but when it came to body horror, we both went different ways, I thought.

Turns out that, while gender bending isn't really her thing, she actually doesn't mind transformation as an alternative to the sort of violent stuff that happens in SAW. And when I got her draft of my (really bad, it was really bad) story, IDK... I took a chance.

She's a really good writer IMO, and we're finding that our styles and concepts marry really well. I mean, she took some stupid fan service thing I was going to make and turned it into something so great, that we've been obsessing over it consistently over the last couple of weeks.

I think I honestly may have a partner for life here in regard to my content going forward, especially in written format, which I really have been wanting to do more of. On top of that, I also think you guys are about to be treated by something better than I could ever produce alone. That's how I feel about this.

The downside is that it's also spiraled a bit into chaos from there. We have been talking every day, hanging out more than we ever have in years, and now have this amazing story series planned for all of you, and for us. Especially for us.

Naturally, that planning meant a lot of revisions and a bit of research to ensure the quality I wish to deliver. Because of this, it's taken a lot longer than I would've liked it to. But I'm so proud of this thing.

Not only that, I think this is what I needed in my life, personally.

I'm confident that you guys are going to like Nora's contribution as a co-author, and I hope I can help her find her way as an independent horror writer down the line. It'd be really cool if we could both grow together from this. Especially because this has felt like a dead end for me for some time now, like I had nowhere to really grow other than inside of comics, and I'd love to do bigger, grander things with my storytelling.

With that said, I tried to answer some possibly common questions that have been floating around.

So, what is this story about? 

"Silk Chains" is the first book in a series we are calling "The Pillars of Pendulum Heights," which is a very mature psychological thriller that mixes my standard transformation-based storytelling with Nora's passion for horror.

The series begins with Sean Sinclair, a young nightclub owner and the privileged son of billionaire Don Sinclair. On his birthday, Sean's life takes a chilling turn when he meets the enigmatic and alluring Clara, who orchestrates an unforgettable celebration that forces him to confront his darkest secrets...

It should be a lot of fun! (Maybe not for Sean)

Will it be a comic? What about other comics?

This story is not intended to be a comic, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop making comics and focus on writing. Once this written story is released I plan on getting back into the next big chapter of The Search for Detective Batson, and I plan to still have it release this month.

But I also do plan on adding written stories like this to my content stream; Especially if I can work with Nora. We'll probably attempt a new book every 2-3 months if we can. Right now they're novella-sized rather than full novel sizes, but if they get larger, that may change.

Nora's already writing book 2 while I finish book 1, but she also has a lot of her own stories she wants to tell that aren't co-authored by me. So once this book is out, it'll probably be just comics for the next few updates.

I also feel like I may ask Nora to assist me in writing Catraya, assuming you guys like her. :3

About the books

When we release a new book in this series, or anything we co-author, it'll be released on my supporter platforms (like Patreon) for all Standard tier and higher readers, with no additional cost to you guys.

Also, we've talked a lot about this, and we'd like to actually get our works published. So, if we can make it happen through KDP or some other alternative, we'd love to be able to offer prints of these stories down the line, because we want prints of these stories.

That also means that, while still adult in nature, the wording will likely sound a bit more professional than some of my earlier creations. Something I've been naturally drifting toward anyway.

Will there be images?

I do want to make additional images for you all here, but they won't be part of the book. They'll likely arrive when I need to take a downtime moment with Batson, as those sort of things happen to every writer. So not a comic, but there will be some images at some point.

And speaking of images, allow me to share our first book cover concept below:

(I'm really proud of this)

So look out for this soon, like this week... I just don't know exactly when. Our planning stage no longer includes this story, so it's a green light for me to drop when I finish the last two chapters, and once we are satisfied with the quality.

We were just hanging onto it for a little bit because, once this thing drops, we're sort of locked in to everything it set up. So we wanted to make sure we didn't have many loose-ends open in our overarching story before we wrapped it up for publishing.

To conclude this update, I want to just say that I am VERY excited for this. That I'm so happy to be working with my best friend IRL, and that I'm able to share my brain with someone personal, especially since we're very similar writers in two completely different genres.

And I'm just happy to be given the opportunity to share my first actual written story in many years. I can't wait to to showcase how much I've grown as an actual writer since my amateur days at Fictionmania and TGStorytime.

And who knows? Maybe one day I can take one of these stories I cherish so dearly, and create an actual feature-length movie! Gosh, that'd be the dream...

Anywho, thank you for reading my ramble, I had no idea how to format this so I just let my ADHD run with it. Apologies if it's confusing. If you have any other questions or need clarification, feel free to ask in the comments or on discord, but expect a full-length novella rather soon. You're going to love it.

Cheers
<3 Kara