The important news: 365 Infantry is being delayed for one more week, and will start running its Autumn 2025 issue on Monday, September 22nd. We’ve been here before, but not like this. I’m going to cut to the chase and speak without any of the ad-man frills:
I’m losing my will to write this series.
This isn’t a great thing to say as people are onboarding, this isn’t a great thing to say in your fourth year of publication, but as an artist first and a marketer second, it’s time to kick this elephant from out the corner and into the center of the room. I’ve already addressed the big picture concerns for 365 going forward as being part of my overall oeuvre as an artist, but this is something I can’t pawn off on my interest in other projects.
The reason why the new issue is getting kicked to next week is because of how it is affecting my production capacity with this series. I have 3/5 stories past the first draft phase with notes, and 2 tales remaining. It’s like pulling teeth, it’s felt impossible to get back inside the world, and it’s a miracle it hasn’t driven me to complete insomnia. Kevin’s done a phenomenal job on the art this issue, I await Brendan’s final mixdown of Alan Firedale for sound designing and scoring, work on our first proper short film is underway, but it all doesn’t mean shit if I don’t have actual stories to tell.
I’m over the fact that most of my readers do not say a goddamn word about what I make. I’m over the fact I can barely get a “buy, leave, or blow me” out of you people. I’m over the hill about prose as a niche in the modern day, I’m over the hill about what “the mainstream” wants, I’m over the hill that this series isn’t horny enough for your average furry and the mere presence of bipedal wolves sends genre fans screaming into the hills. I’ve got other stories in me, I’ve got other work to tend to, even other anthro stories I want to tell. Whatever the fuck this current audience is, I accept it for what it is and can only pray more people who actually want to engage this series will show up one day.
Part of this has been my undisciplined pinballing between projects, making it hard to make the space this series used to have acres of in my mind. Changing from series to series isn’t like flipping a switch, as much as I’d like it to be. Each world has its own unique vision and energy that you have to take time to pivot towards, and I just haven’t found my way back into the series proper. And to be frank, part of it is still the two-time failure of my crowdfunding campaigns. There’s nothing cute to say here; it sucks when you’re told by the public at-large, “your work isn’t worth the money.” It just sucks.
That rebuke combined with my present workload makes it feel like its completely futile to keep working on this series. It also doesn’t help that the internet is a uniquely miserable place to do business or passion projects on, and that it will more often than not throw absolute fuck-loads of atrocities and hair-triggers in your face than allow you a moment of reprieve from the day-to-day grind. This is a godawful racket that makes miserable people on the daily.
So the obvious question: why bother then? If you’re so damn fried, why bother?
Frankly, I don’t know. I know how this series ends, so the completionist in me would sooner chop his hands off than leave a job undone. On a more personal level, I love what this series has been for me in the past. This series has gotten me through some tough times and I owe it the dignity it deserves on that ground.
But the biggest reason for why I’m bothering at all is that not knowing. It’s the fact that this series could break open wider than the Western frontier. If I’ve got nothing to lose, if most of you don’t want to pipe up and say what about this series works and what doesn’t, this series is as good as a blank canvas. A blank canvas with a special set of tools mind you, but a blank canvas nonetheless. There’s room to do some real damage (complimentary) and make something that actually excites me. Maybe we play with structure more, maybe we introduce some real hairbrained shit.
Maybe I’m about to already.
Point is, y’all had your chance to make this consumer-friendly. Those of you who do come to me, sharing your thoughts, reviews, and ideas, you’re beautiful people and I cherish every line. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. It’s nice to have people who give enough of a shit to say something. You’re real ones for it.
To the folks around the globe who have likely stumbled upon this through stray searches and the algorithm gods, none of this concerns you as I was you once myself. Surfing the web and finding cool shit wherever it was. I’m honored I could be that for you and I hope this series has given you plenty of joy over the years as we near the end.
But to the rest of you.
To the rest of you who could have taken the time to comment a simple “wow, cool,” y’all blew it, your silence is a blank check, and now I’m gonna tear the roof of the fucker and see how it flies. You’ve been warned.
Only other housekeeping is to say is this: after taking a look at the paid subscriptions, I’m fully suspending Red Light Bytes. No newsletter, no new stories for the foreseeable future. If I barely have it in me to deliver the bare minimum, I don’t have anything extra left to give. You guys still have access to all of what’s already behind the paywall and your patronage is valued as it will help keep the project going throughout its final year. What flash stories we have from this year will go into the 2025 Annual Collection alongside the bonus story.
I do still have the editorial work to do on those official second editions of the 2022 and 2023 Annuals and Electric Anthology Vol. 1. I also still have assembly work to do on Electric Anthology Vol. 2. I’ll see about having things ready in time for a holiday rush, but no guarantees. I’m still giving the audiobook thought, and if that’s what finally takes the damn thing over the top, well a pox on me I guess.
There will be no “No. 14 Special” this time as I genuinely don’t know if I have the words in me to hype anything at this point. After the drop, I’ll send out periodic pushes for the Quarterly on Amazon via email, but you won’t hear from me until late in November when Issue 15 is in full swing. I’ll include a table of contents in the quarterly credits as substitute but that’s it. Otherwise, we’ll return next week on Monday. Be there or piss off.
Congrats on your book Jacob, would you like me to share your book with my founding readers?