Extended Progress Update: August 11 2023

Hi Returning Visitors,

Key highlights of this update and reminders:

• My typical gentle nudge to remember to add my email address can be found here. It's important for the TFS character portrait inquires and welcome message.
• Reminder: The Q&A prompt collections close on August 15th!
• A. Corvin will now have a rascally raccoon friend in Book Two thanks to your votes! 🦝
• Important: The TFS: Book Two alpha drop is soon. I have a surprise about it! Honestly, I'm going to talk about this for most of the update since Tiffany and I worked so hard.✨
• Book Two Snippet: Deliciously deadly? 🤔🍫🐍

I'm already eagerly planning out scenes for the introduction of A's raccoon thanks to those of you who voted in the poll to help decide the critter's species. I can't wait for your MCs to meet him, though I think some of you might be more excited about seeing the other characters react to this, uhm, unusually adorable pet. (Yes, I'm looking hard at R. Verner for this one, lol. 😌🖤)

A gentle reminder that the Q&A prompts collections will be closing out on August 15th. You can find the General Q&A post: here and then the Spicy/Heated Q&A post: here (Evergreen and Hickory patrons). You all are asking some brilliantly thoughtful, fun, and spicy questions. It will be a packed month of Fernweh/character insight, so thank you for your genuine care/interest. It's my hope to have questions sprinkled all throughout September along with other content. 💚

It's only 48 hours until our next alpha drop on the 13th! 🌲

(I respectfully request your patience, please, while I send out DMs via Patreon with the alpha info; there will be a pinned post on the day of outlining rules/reminders too. Thank you! 💐)

It will be our first monthly offering of new content from Book Two. Originally, you all will have noticed in my rollout of the new benefits to patrons that I mentioned splitting the drop that was supposed to take place in September. That makes sense, right? More frequent drops require more editing and testing along with the writing, so you can savor Fernweh some each month. This is still my plan, but I've decided that: August 13th will include the September drop, so 36k words in total within this drop.

I wanted to be transparent about this to gently establish future expectations. Tiffany (my friend/editor) and I worked extremely hard to get the content ready for you to enjoy all of it basically a month in advance. There are a few reasons why I'm choosing to release more now:

• RO Excursions! 💞 We're so close to you getting to spend some quality time with your beloved(s); this is just the start of what's to come in Book Two. I'm eager for you to read!
• The second half of Chapter 1 is variation-rich depending on your dynamic with R. Verner (romance, besties, general affinity), whom you're romancing, A. Corvin's relationship with the MC and B, and last but not least, Mal. While my original split was pretty even, the playing experience/time will differ based on scenes you uncover. Sharing it all should offer a better playthrough that will leave you anticipating the detailed RO excursions. 👀

This means you all will be encountering R. Verner along with Mal in this drop that's only two days away instead of seeing the enigmatic server in a future content release! 🥰

TL;DR: I'll be sharing the rest of Chapter 1 on August 13th to pave the way for 💞RO excursions💞 (date branches) in the coming months! There's so much ahead.

Hickory patrons🍂, due to this change, this month's Author's View and exclusive poll about the first RO excursion is moved earlier so that we will have a better idea of the schedule for final editing and testing. This section has many tens of thousands of words. The Hickory poll opens on August 18th and closes on August 23rd.

I made a few tiny date changes; I've updated the Content Schedule. Nothing major, dw! It's just me moving Mrs. Dorran's banana bread a day later and swapping around a few dates. No content has been altered for this month aside from me sharing more alpha goodness. ✨😌

[Spoilers Ahead!]

Here's an excerpt from Book Two:

An ouroboros offers you a fang-filled smile, teeth peeking out around the tail stuffed in its maw to help showcase the toothy expression. It has been drawn less fearsomely, almost cartoon-like, but you still slowed down when you caught a glimpse of those ebony scales, reminded of the mocking farewell sign. Unlike that one, this one advertises a sweet treat.

"Ouroboros funnel cakes'?" you mutter, only reading part of the tagline because saying: 'So good you'll want to eat yourself!' would be plain creepy. "I'm conflicted."

Fernweh really likes its town emblem; at least it's less unsettling when drizzled in chocolate.

(This scene is choice-dependent when spending time with one of the ROs somewhere. No, it isn't a fair; it's Hubbard's Farmer's Market. It was fun setting the mood for this venue. Each excursion takes place somewhere else around town to encourage you all to explore them to learn more!)

Thank you again for all of your support. I hope you're looking forward to a restful weekend and the upcoming alpha drop. 💚