An update post-August 2025
Updates and news
Hello all! It's a little less than two weeks since I last did an update. That one was in a chat thread, but considering that is being used for the prompt, and I have more to say this time, I’m going for a post this time.
Hello, and General Life update
Two things stand out for me since last time. The first is my subscribers have again roughly doubled in size, which is astounding. As always, hello to all the newcomers, I truly appreciate having you join us in the Narrative Archives, and I hope you have fun. Please enjoy all my random posts. A thank you as well to everyone who has chosen to stick around, especially to
, who has chosen to be my first paid subscriber, providing support above and beyond his feedback and comments. I thoroughly enjoy what Jack writes, and the OMML posts so far have been a feast for the senses.The second thing that stood out, is that there seems to be a connection between me putting my plans into an update, and everything immediately changing. In this case the periodic energy drain and accompanying stress I get hit with infrequently, happened right before I was due to go out of town. It hasn't gone away yet. I don’t know how long I’ll be struggling with it this time, but I will battle through somehow. The main impact here, is that I should not be posting as frequently as I was in July; meaning I need to ignore my self-imposed deadlines, to trick my brain into relaxing, in the hope I can then write.
Until I get myself back into the right frame of mind, expect posting to be highly irregular, veering between too much and none. And if a few days go by when I don’t post: I haven’t disappeared, I’m just resting.
So with my renewed acceptance of my limitations, the future guidance for any and all updates is that everything I plan is subject to change, and any deadlines I put are aspirational, not fixed. That being settled, on to my next set of aspirational goals.
Thalenra Short stories:
I have three fantasy prompts left to do that will be Thalenra based. I've drawn a blank on them for now, so they will appear at random over the next couple of weeks. Other Thalenra short stories are likely to be rare this month, due to OMML. Only one I'm certain of is part 4 of Arvon & Kaela's tale, and that doesn’t have a timeline on it yet. If anyone has a specific area they would like me to do a story on, please let me know in the comments.
One Month-Many Lives:
This is the daily prompt challenge I'm running, for which I have plenty of ideas for. It will be a slow release, probably every other day or so for my personal entries, while keeping up with the restacks and comments on the posts of everyone else. Mardnab, Melir, & Tilindra will be popping up throughout the month for sure, and they'll appear in the narrative summary I'm going to do a few days after prompts 10, 20 & 30, for the challenge recaps.
All Things Novel related:
Last update I said we were drawing to the end of part 1a, after which there will be a pause. Technically there should be at least two more scenes, but I was reviewing my outline, and it’s a lot of talking in meetings, which makes me go 'meh'. In short, I will be starting the novel break now, rather than ending on an exposition dump. I'm intending to get a buffer in for the novel before I post any more of it, as I've been finding that's the thing I get stressed about right now. I'll keep you up to date on when that starts up again, but intention is early September.
In the meantime, there will be a novel overview at the end of next week, which I'm still open for questions on.
, asked about technology, and an answer to that will be included in the roundup. Put any questions you want me to answer in the comments or a chat thread. The can be on either In the Shadow of Ribbons, or Thalenra in general.Thalenra Glossary:
This went up this week. It's very much a WiP. I intend to release the next update for it at the end of August, so be sure to drop a comment on it if you think anything needs clarifying, for what's there currently.
Bye for now:
That’s all my notes. I was going to do some mini reviews on what serials I’ve been reading, but there is just too much out there. Instead, I’m going with a simple shout out on a random ten I subscribe to and one of their serials I’ve been reading, and the instruction to read their posts. They are excellent.
- (Neural.Coder)
- (4:44 Series)
- (Radiant)
- (Ante-Magic)
- (Darkly)
- (Slice of Death)
- (Trash Team Six)
- (Morwen Kelpthorne)
- (Dome)
- (Mountain Tales)