RED LIGHT BYTES: Updates Dossier (9-9-2024)
RED LIGHT BYTES: Updates Dossier (9-9-2024)
In The Homestretch of 365 INFANTRY: Fall 2024!
This is it! Last week before we start rolling out the good shit. Last week of edits, last week of assembly, last week of final touches before it all starts next Monday. Normally I’d like to have a preview article going out later this week, but to be perfectly honest, nothing about the past few months has been normal in as far as my work goes.
Some may attribute that to the Kickstarter campaign not making its mark on Round 1. And in case you missed it, yes, the campaign is not truly over. We’re gearing up to try again in October, so hang tight to your pledges. The blessing (and as I’ll discuss later, mild curse) of how I run 365 Infantry is that I run it like an old-school pulp magazine. We keep trucking along no matter what, and I’m blessed to have such wonderful supporters at my back to keep that going. More thoughts about the campaign in the video below:
The campaign was only part of it, however, compounded by commissions and other jobs, plus plain-old burnout. To casual readers, the reason why you didn’t see a new Red Light Bytes story last week is because I punted it to this week to get caught up on work. And while it wasn’t a mental health issue as I was used to, I have finally realized that grinding this hard without taking a step back is not doing me any favors.
Anyone who’s checked in on my second newsletter Universe of the Astounding knows that I have a lot more in me than just heavy metal wolves, and while most would come to resent a project like 365 for sucking up all the creative bandwidth, the issue is that I haven’t given myself any time to indulge those other pursuits. I can juggle all of these ideas in my head, and have for years, but the secret is that I made sure to let most of them out. And I simply haven’t because of all the work it takes to get a crowdfund campaign off the ground.
Against all logic, after we release the Fall 2024 issue, and I get the new campaign preview pages up, I’m going AWOL. No socials (safe for DMs and the Discord server), no YouTube uploads, nothing. I’ll schedule email reminders and socials posts to follow the Ride for 2025 campaign, and I’ll push the whole release schedule back two weeks rather than one. We’ll reconvene on October 14th, and God-willing, have the Winter 2024 Issue out the week of December 16th.
I just need a genuine break, one I haven’t given myself for nine months straight. Time to focus solely on other projects, my official presence as a freelancer, and more that will help me reenergize. Above all else, I need to find out what to put into 365 Infantry creatively and what to put elsewhere. The last thing I want for this project is for it to become a dumping ground for any-and-all random ideas that, if one pulled back and looked at the big picture, muddle what makes this series so awesome to both my readers and myself as a creative.
In the meantime, the Based Book Sale is still ongoing and ends Midnight on Wednesday the 11th, so you got until the end of TOMORROW to get in on all these sweet eBook deals. Help Old Man Macy himself make it one of the best closers yet! If you have a few gaps in your 365 Kindle library, you can’t beat $0.99/eBook for all the fun we got jam-packed in them.
If all the materials line up, I do hope to have the usual “No. 10 Special” out this week, but if not, expect chaos to reign starting Monday the 16th, with a brand-new chapter of The War at the very least. And while I would tease what all these delightful stories are about, I think I’ll let Kevin’s line-art keep y’all guessing. I can’t thank you all enough for your support, and I can’t wait to share with you what we have in store. May God Bless You & This Force. Be seeing you!
