April 2025 Newsletter
A month of ups and downs. Let’s start with the progress and good news. Here’s probably our very last map that we need for book 2: the Gershan Lands. This is similar to the map that you’ve seen of some of the Gershan Lands, but the other map is more focused on the eastern portion of the Gershan Valley, specifically around Yvel. This map is a bit of a zoom-out and shows the other princely cities of Gersh and the borders with the neighboring kingdoms, Markia, Berkmar, Tamarkand, and Eklenda.
The only other possible map is one of the goblin city of Kogylar, which would be another side-cut map like the one of the dwarven city of Adyrnaarn.
You might see Versingit on the map, north of Yvel. Previous newsletters featured iterations of maps of Versingit, specifically to show the different phases of the Battle of Versingit. You might also remember a cityscape that I was working on and, last newsletter, one mounted figure.
Forgive my amateur hand. I haven’t worked out the bloodspray yet or the other wolf riders and fleeing civilians, but this is Muydiyet the Great, leading the charge of her tribe, the Wiridil, through the eastern gate of Versingit, down Avart Avenue, cutting a path of blood along the way. Have quite a few more riders and civilians to draw, like I said, but they’ll be in the background and/or off to the side, and therefore less detailed.
My first convention application has been accepted. I’ll have a table at O-CON (Omaha Convention (held in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the Missouri River from Omaha) at the Mid America Center, July 11th-13th. Hope to see you there. https://www.theoconexpo.com/
The convention and the hopes of catching the summer reading crowd was part of what’s driving the timeline of publishing in late Spring. It’s not that it’s impossible, but there have been some more difficulties. Life hits us all or, for some of us, we were more eager to help than we actually have the time for. What I allude to is that I am having some staff turnover with illustrators and editors and that is forcing several decisions, such as whether or not to include some illustrations at all or delay the publication. Something that I am further learning from the launch of book 1 and the advise of some very smart friends is that a book launch needs to be advertised and marketed ahead of time instead of just plopped out there as soon as everything’s slapped together. So, galls me as this may, I might not make it before the Summer - and I might even be later than that. I was hoping to have copies of book 2 available for O-CON. We’ll see.
And so, speaking of advertising, those of you on my emailing list might’ve caught my plea to follow me on Instagram (or my Facebook page) and X (I still call it Twitter in my head. ‘X’ makes me think of the X-Men or X-files or what have you, child of the 90s that I am). I’ve started a presence on both of those platforms and have begun making regular posts on there. So, two things. First I would really appreciate if I could grab a like/follow on those platforms. Second, here’s what I offer for that. Other content with some recaps of lore, comparisons to real-world phenomena, or some insights into the inspiration. A couple examples are below. If those pique your interest, then I would also really appreciate a share on your social media platform of choice.
Last couple things on advertising and such:
I am sitting at four (4) reviews. I could really use your help. Even if you don’t like it and only give it 4 (or even 3) stars. Please be constructive. If you didn’t like it, please list why in the review or do a pro/con type of review. Most consistent feedback I get is that the names are difficult to sound-out. Fair.
Second, “The Execute Bathtub,” episode 8 of the Sophisticated Murder Hobos went live on youtube on March 22nd. What happened to episode 7? Sadly, we lost its recording to technical issues. Rookie mistakes… but we’re rookie podcasters. On the plus side, we do have some listeners/viewers from the Burning Wheel community, so it’s nice to see that interaction. The podcast is not quite doing the job I had intended: advertise for book 1, but the people that watch it seem to like it. We are going to lose our video editor very soon, so it will start to look a bit more rough around the edges.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxMas5wMTk8&list=PLNfIEverSFHasQWrSLgsWedwCEBK5CY2A&index=1)
Music of the month:
Prime Thanatos live (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwhsegXolTs) - great multi-purpose working music
Sewer layer 004 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnZ2h93xVfk&t=2428s) - Currently listening to as I write this month’s newsletter
Sewer layer 014 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bna96rbyGEg&t=2582s)
El Tigr3 - Man-eater, full album (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyPHuEV1H_g&t=1149s)
