I'll start off with the announcement: a Visual Novel adaptation of Outcast Book 1 is currently in development.
The kickstarter for it can be found here. I'll let the kickstarter page speak for itself on what to expect and what it will look like. This is something that has been in the works for a while now, and I'm very excited to share it with all of you now.
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The Next Story
My next solo series, tentatively titled 'Heroic Valor', is currently in development. The outline is mostly done at 25k words (why are my outlines so long...) and a beta of Chapter 1 was just released on Patreon to positive reception. Once I get the outline finished it's full steam ahead. Patreon will get chapters first, and then once a backlog has been built up I'll start posting publicly again.
That will likely take a while. To be honest, I was kinda underselling how burnt out I was in my earlier postings. Most of Outcast Book 6 was written in burnout mode (by that I mean over 200k words of content), and I had to work very hard to make sure the quality didn't dip as a result.
Regardless, I'm not stopping writing no matter what. There's nothing I'd rather be doing with my life, and I'm excited with the ideas I have for Heroic Valor. Some time spent not writing Outcast has already helped with recharging my creative juices; much as I love the story, it went on a lot longer than I thought. It was originally meant to be a trilogy...whoops.
I'll make sure to post a link to the new story once it goes up on Royal Road. Looking forward to it!
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The End of Outcast, and the Beginning of Something New
It feels weird writing this part. I've felt weird since the moment I finalized the epilogue and its ending.
It's hard to fully express how much writing Outcast has changed my life. Without getting too personal - I'm in a much better place than I was before I started it, and that's entirely because of the fans who were kind enough to show enough support that I could make this a career instead of a daydream.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
There's a reason I say 'thanks for reading' at the end of every chapter. I really mean it.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Although pragmatically, it would've been more sensible for me to extend Outcast for a bit longer. It's rare that authors in the serial space manage to make a follow-up series that reaches the same level of success as their first hit. At the very least, I know some people would've enjoyed reading After The End content.
With that said...I really wanted to end the story at this point. Emotionally, I think it makes the most sense, and it's what feels the most fulfilling to me. After six books, Rob is finally home. Writing anything after that point would just dilute the impact.
Speaking of Rob - I'm a little nervous about moving on to a new main character. Rob was commonly cited as one of people's favorite parts of Outcast, and why the story worked for them. With that said, for the next story, I can't just write someone named Bob who acts exactly like the old protagonist. I don't think that would be satisfying for anyone. While the story genre will be the same, I want to explore different characters and themes. I think you guys are going to have a lot of fun with the stuff I'm cooking up.
Other than that...there's tons I could say about writing Outcast in general, but I wouldn't even know where to start, so consider this an impromptu AMA. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.
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That's All For Now
Aside from when Outcast Book 6 releases on kindle, and a link to Heroic Valor when it eventually gets posted, this is the last post I'll be making on this story page. Allow me one final reminder for the Outcast Visual Novel Kickstarter if you're interested in checking that out.
And to everyone here, whether you started reading Outcast at Chapter 1, midway through, or just recently - thank you once again. It was a wild ride.