Heeeey there, folks. My apologies for the recent lack of activity. I feel more than a little embarrassed having alluded to so many new projects being in the works only to go dark on everybody for the better part of two months. I obviously should've known better than to tempt fate by saying things were calming down enough that I could return my focus to creative pursuits. As it turned out, I probably spent less time working on personal projects in April than I have during any month-long period in the past year. It pains me to say my writing progress was measured in paragraphs rather than pages.
The good news is that the latest series of events to occupy my time haven't been all bad. There's definitely been stress, but beyond that, I feel as though I've made some real progress in figuring out some things about myself and the direction I want my future to take. The bad news is that the biggest threat to my personal well-being at the moment is a pretty serious one. I've talked before about my struggles with achieving financial security, and well, to make a long story short, the shit really hit the fan in a way I wasn't expecting. The present situation demands I dedicate close to a hundred percent of my mental and emotion resources to making money or else I could arrive at a very bad place in the very near future.
What this means for my creative output in the furry fandom isn't entirely clear yet, as I'm still in the process of figuring out how exactly to deal with the present circumstances. At the very least, the short-term outlook is that I probably won't be uploading a whole lot of new work for a while.
You could say I've been playing the long game up to this point, hoping I could continue doing something I enjoy with the plan of eventually turning creative writing into a secondary (or even primary) source of income. I no longer have the luxury of gradually building an audience over time, however, and the unfortunate reality is that writing stories isn't likely to earn me much of anything in the foreseeable future. A couple attempts at lining up commissions have fallen through, and my Ko-fi account has yet to receive a single tip at the time of this writing. I've also more or less abandoned all thoughts of ever setting up shop on Patreon after learning that the company no longer intends to support creators of adult material that strays even a single step outside the realm of the tamest vanilla content.
C'est la vie. Far better writers than myself have struggled to make a profit from their craft. I'll keep writing for the sheer enjoyment of it, I just can't make finding the time/energy required to produce new material a priority anymore—at least not until things change, however long that may take.
A couple new things to look forward to before I go on this pseudo-hiatus: Scouting Mission has received a substantial revision that makes numerous changes to the original text and expands the length by several hundred words. Inkbunny and Fur Affinity readers are getting the updated version fresh, but SoFurry users who've only read the first draft might want to give the story a second look. My SF and IB accounts will also see the addition of Backroom Deal later this month, and all three accounts will soon get a brand new piece of sexy artwork I commissioned back before I realized just how broke my ass actually is. I hope you enjoy that, because it'll probably be the last piece of art featuring any of my characters you see for some time.
Thanks to anyone who bothered to read all this. Feel free to drop me a shout or a comment anytime; I'll still be around, even if only to enjoy being a part of the community.
