44 Announcement

So, I know this title is especially ominous among the webnovel sphere (especially when something like it is released after an author stopped updating for a bit), but no, I'm not dropping.

Most of my ideas for Brimstone are in volume 2 (volume 1, what we're currently on, will end within 10 chapters), which we haven't even gotten to yet, and I have a solid outline for the rest of the story as a whole. There's not really much worry among both myself and my proofreaders that I won't finish at some point.

Fun fact, actually: Everything that has happened so far was supposed to be an introductory arc done in, like, twenty or so chapters, but it became a sandbox instead. I don't know what happened. What I do know is that you can be sure that this story will be done, eventually.

I'm making this announcement to just formalize my de-facto hiatus. It's been, what, four or five weeks since the last update? Longer? I recognized a while ago that I should make an official hiatus rather than crush any remaining readers' hopes every week with no updates, but I wanted to release it with the next chapter (which is half done).

It should be telling that even after so much time, that chapter is still only a third of the way written. So, I just figured I'd bite the bullet and post this without the accompanying chapter.

Yes, yes, my remaining three or readers, I'm sorry, but I've had a ton of obligations thrust on me recently and haven't found the time to write. I can't write in fragmented, twenty minute bursts every day or two with the scheduled 'discipline' others speak of - to write, I find three or more hours of time to continuously toil at my keyboard, and those opportunities are much less in quantity now. It's unavoidable.

I miss the few times I'd cleared out a whole day to write and ended up starving myself by sitting at my desk for 11 hours. Those are the instances that the especially large chapters come from.

Probably in a few months, things should quiet down, some updates should be released, and this announcement will be deleted and become a black mark on an ILLUSTRIOUS update schedule that lives only in our memories. I'll use the time to maybe build up a chapter stockpile for a mass release (read: probably not even three chapters).

For my most faithful reader, Eltoxico, the Bringer of Power (Stones) that has been resolutely keeping my novel afloat through stretches of peril on his lonesome, I recommend the novel 'Tenebroum' on RoyalRoad. It's a thank-you gift: it has a malevolent wraith/lich MC that blights the land and seeks to ascend, with only power, gold, and torment of the living set in its sights. (Also, please stop donating power stones every day without fail through stretches of weeks with no updates. It makes me feel guilty.)

Anyway, that's it. See you in a few months.

Bye.