Checking In

Hey folks, been a while....

This has been a trying year for me. I lost a parent at the beginning of the year. Had a nightmare of a move to another state. Then spent months searching for a job. And then most recently, after successfully evading it for the better part of 3 years, I caught COVID. Thankfully the COVID episode wasn't the really bad one where I had to be in a hospital on a ventilator, but man, even the mild case really takes it out of you - and this is from a guy who's used to dealing with being sick and has had 2 bouts with pneumonia in his lifetime already. 

Altogether my plans for 2022 never got a chance to get moving, and never really found a rhythm. One of my original plans, for instance, was to transition to a more YouTube centric experience. I was planning to do a series of videos explaining and discussing the Book of the Shadows more generally, and even perhaps look at branching out to doing a weekly fan-fiction podcast discussing past/present/future stories both inside my story and in other ongoing or previous anime/manga/video game stories. Clearly, none of that happened.

So, I am checking in to let folks know that I'm not dead, nor is this fan-fiction franchise. I recently posted a couple new chapters of Geass R3 Alter, with another probably due by the end of the month. Writing, and then attempting to edit, in a variety of fugue states, means a lot of editing, re-editing, and re-re-editing, so the process is slower than it once was (though my pace of writing was never that great to begin with). 

In terms of artwork, I pushed really hard at times to get my latest project ready. My personally set 1st, 2nd, and 3rd deadlines all ended up passing by (this was part of the COVID period), but I will meet one of the final deadlines. 

I would normally, about this time of year, know for sure what the end of the year looks like in terms of art projects, but I'm not entirely sure. I can all but guarantee there won't be a Halloween project this year since I would have to basically move at lightning speed to get that done (don't even have a budding concept for a project there at the moment). There are a couple options I have for a Christmas project, but I just can't be sure right now if I'll get either of those done in time. Again, normally I'd be confident about something like that, but maybe because of the COVID fog in my head right now or the knowledge that little has gone close to plan this year, I lack the confidence to make a call that definitive. 

To wrap up, Happy Labor Day to folks out there in the US. I'll be playing the Black Eyed Peas a few times to day in celebration. Looking ahead, I hope you can enjoy the continuation of Geass R3 Alter as I try to steam ahead towards its conclusion. Look forward as well to the new E7 pic I will have done soon, backing into a Ezeran Foundation Anniversary celebration. And should I make any progress on any other projects, I will be back here to highlight those as well. Until then, stay safe and happy.