RED LIGHT BYTES: Reloaded
Learn About The New Format & THE 365 INFANTRY WILDFIRE SALE! (ENDS ON 4/14)
Overview
And we’re back! No April Fooling around here though, because the Byte is ready and raring to deliver the goods like we’ve never before!
The weekly newsletter has been a handy way of dishing out updates and your extra dose of 365 Infantry entertainment via the weekly flash story, and that won’t be changing anytime soon. However, the way we dish things up will be. In this first part of what is now a THREE-PART volley every week, we’ll go over the new changes, and what’s happening with the series.
Because there’s a lot more happening with the series.
The New Format
Long story short: Red Light Bytes will now be going out in three installments over the course of the week.
Every Monday, it’s our UPDATES DOSSIER. This covers all the nitty and/or gritty of the series, from new releases, discounts, production updates, exciting surprises and more! A straight-shooting rundown of everything going down here at HQ.
Every Wednesday, it’s our RED LIGHT ROUNDUP. This will give all y’all your much needed dose of CULTAH (he shouts with full I-talian gusto). I’m currently drowning in things to share these days, from exciting new Iron Age projects to old favorites to a bottomless well-spring of deep cut discoveries. And while we’re going to start things small, don’t be surprised if you find your weekly roundup delivered in video form one of these days…
Every Friday, it’s our STORY OF THE WEEK! Explore Haven and the Wastelands thru pint-sized tales, where no genre or subject is off-limits. That’s one free story at the start of the month, and paid exclusives for the rest of the month. In honor of our poll results last year, we’ll stick to Red Light Bytes as our only side series for the year. Solar Joint Stories will be given a rest, and we’ll touch on Steeled Spies later in the update. However, I shall remain uninhibited in my penchant for surprise flash-fiction anthologies. If a Chevelle has a full tank of gas, it’d be a pity to drive her at the speed limit, now wouldn’t it?
Got all that? Killer, on with the updates!
Wheel-N-Deal
First up, a genuine, no-bullshit special offer.
Issue 8, on top of being one of my favorites to write thus far, has marked the debut of the quarterly in paperback and eBook form, complete with exclusives such as “Haven & The Wastelands: A Timeline,” now in the wild for the very first time. To celebrate, we’re having a WILDFIRE SALE!
You’ve heard of fire sales before, but the problem with this one is that it spreads. All 365 Infantry collections are on sale via Amazon. All eBooks are priced at $0.99 USD, and all paperbacks are discounted too!
The 2022 Annual Collection ($7 USD)
The 2023 Annual Collection ($12 USD)
The Electric Anthology Vol. 1 ($5 USD)
We went as low as we could without running afoul of Amazon’s printing costs and had to pull some from Expanded Distribution to make it happen, so a sale like this is a very rare operation!
We’re also debuting the official 365 Infantry Bandcamp as a means of consolidating music releases into one easy-to-visit place. Accordingly, we’ve brought over both Alan Firedale: Original Soundtrack Vol. 1 and our heavy metal anthem Wolves of Steel featuring the Ruthless J.V.P., available now for just $1 USD! After the 14th, they’ll revert to their original prices ($5 & $3 USD respectively).
Also debuting is a humble little EP called While Haven Sleeps, an ambient/dreampunk experiment that captures the aura of the megacity itself in three tracks. Fans ought to scope out those “About” sections to learn more about where these little ditties hail from in the 365 canon. It will be permanently priced at $1 USD, a housewarming gift from us to you. Shoutout to Andrew Clark from The Animated Moon for helping out with the cover design!
To double-back to that rebellious red wolf and his lovable hot-rod, Alan and Goldie will love this news! Subscriptions to 365 Infantry on Substack are now 25% OFF, good for ONE WHOLE YEAR!
Gain access to exclusive stories, audio dramas & more, and help keep the Force riding high into 2025 and beyond. This discount includes our top-of-the-line General of the Armies tier at an unheard-of $75 USD! This gets you free eBooks and digital goods the day they go live, and of course, our eternal gratitude for supporting this epic production of ours.
And just to reiterate in font you can see from space:
SALE ENDS APRIL 14TH! WHEN IT’S GONE, IT’S ALL GONE!
So don’t delay gang, get some killer pulp entertainment at proper pulp prices today! You’ll find links to every purveyor of exciting wolven sci-fi via Linktree.
And if you have any spare change after this bombing run of deals, you’ve got until 12:00AM PDT Wednesday, April 3rd to take advantage of the exciting offers at the
hosted by Hans G. Schantz. Literal hundreds of digital titles, across all genres, priced at $0.99 or FREE! We are happy customers and participants of sales past and you’ll definitely be seeing more of in future efforts. As we love saying in the business: COME AND READ IT!Housekeeping
Now with the moneymaking out of the way, let’s talk new and old. Because we’ve only just sprung our quarterly digest format on you all, we’re holding off on the release of Agent Roger Steele’s debut novella “The Short-Circuit Revolution” until the end of April. This decision was made so we don’t clog up the release schedule with competing products. It will give us more time to tighten it up, proof it to hell and back, and give it a few more once-overs than usual for proper quality assurance. Only the best for the Force’s finest spy!
Speaking of quality assurance, you may notice a few things while you peruse the website. Certain lines may read different, certain passages may feel smoother. No, you’re not experiencing the Mandela Effect, we’re updating all our stories with the latest proofed manuscripts.
ALL 80+ OF THEM.
Whether free or paid, we believe our online readers deserve the best possible product. We’re not perfect, but we’re also not blind to issues of proofreading. Like with game development, if we find a bug, we aim to patch it. Just ask General Weefy who has been a saint about pointing out typos in the past.
This update will include every chapter of “The Short-Circuit Revolution,” as serialized here on Substack under the Steeled Spies banner. This won’t be a George Lucas Special Editioning either. No deleted scenes, no CGI’d Phantom Megatank, just cleaning up typos and errors. The strengths and failings of our stories are up for you to decide, we just want to make sure you’re getting the best possible versions of them. It’ll be a slow, but steady process, and everything should be caught up in a few days time.
Lastly, about ACC VULT.
In the spirit of that commitment to quality, I’m breaking my self-imposed silence on the ARG to clarify just where we’re going to go with it. I’ve taken the time to review the videos I made last year. ACC VULT is a project I enjoy making, but it was also one thrown together in a fit of passion like so many other parts of 365, including the stories they’re founded on. And after this period of review, I have decided to put the game part of it on the backburner.
While I’m still committed both its storyline and the concept of presenting it as an ARG, the successes, layering, and long-term timeline of other projects like Shipwrecked 64 have convinced me to only present ACC VULT when it is good and ready. I may provide snippets of story here and there, and they’ll be marked as they always are, with the unique computer terminal thumbnail. But when it’s ready, I’ll make a formal announcement that it’s back on.
For the time being, consider last year’s happenings as a prologue. A prelude to something so much more magnificent, and so much more terrifying, yet to come. It’ll only take you three minutes to watch it all, but one helluva time to sort out…
Conclusion
I’m having the time of my life, and I hope you are too. Year 3 of 365 Infantry is shaping up to be a most exciting chapter for the series. More adventure, more fun, and more of that brazenly bizarre energy as only the wild wolven future can provide. And with the new-and-improved RLB, you won’t miss a second of the electric excitement yet to come!
Before we go, one last bit of housekeeping: true to my word, The Avenger’s Creed is now available to all paid subscribers. The 4-page comic was collected in the 2023 Annual, and while I kept it exclusive to it for awhile, now’s the time to bring it online. With any luck, it won’t be the last time you’ll see our world in panels and speech bubbles.
As always, May God Bless You and This Force. Be seeing you.
