Hello, Readers!!! It’s Clevenger!

Yeah, it’s been a bit. One-hundred and sixty one days, to be precise. But it’s good to be back, and man… I’ve got some updating to do. I hope that all of you who read this remember that you are special to us, and we really appreciate you. I know there even be one particularly new reader that joined us… and hello to you!

What happened? Why return after all these months away? What’s GoInG ON!?

Well, let’s break it down…

What happened? Life. Life happened. Graham was undergoing a lot of medical concerns, and the amount of time he had to devote to recovery and treatment was substantial. He’s doing great now, but it was a lot. Because of this, our writing took a pause, the blog fell onto the back-burner and well… we just got pulled away.

At the same time, my day job demanded a lot of me over that time period. All wonderful things, but shifts in responsibilities, tight deadlines, and unforeseen challenges all led to extra stress. That stress took my attention and again, writing took a pause, the blog fell ont the back-burner and well… we just got pulled away.

So, why return after all these months? Well, I’m excited. Pure and simple. I’m headed down from Chicago to Alabama to see Graham again. Haven’t gotten down there in a long time, and seeing him in person is going to be great. We’ve allocated some writing time, some gaming time, some time to hang out and talk about life, and it’s just going to be nice to break away from all the above mentioned stress and relax a bit.

And because of this excitement, we’ve been writing. Not at our blistering pace that Book 2 was, but together last week we put nearly 6000 words into Book 3! So, yeah. It’s exciting.

The other reason that I’ve chosen to return to the blog, is I miss talking about this process. Writing a book (let alone a series) is something that I’m very proud of. It’s a way for me to put my insights into the world. I was tempted to come on here and rant multiple times about some of the recent developments (or more accurately, regressions) in social policies. Trans-phobia, anti-women legislations, revokation of racial rights, etc. I chose not to because I really try not to go full politics at any point, but it was a very challenging time. I support equality for all, that’s been pretty clear, and everything that has been damaging that equality is hard to swallow. We’ll just keep fighting.

But talking about the book, my personal mental health, my writing, my friendship with Graham and our collaboration process was always really great. It helped keep me grounded to why I fell in love with Sainan when we first created it. And now… as I prepare to head South, I need that love flowing through me.

So, what’s going on?! Well, we’ve made some strides moving forwards. We’ve rededicated ourselves to finishing the series and getting all four manuscripts on paper. Once those are complete, we will focus on marketing, promo-materials, and publishing. I attended some VERY interesting seminars at C2E2 that gave me insight into how to launch our first book, possbily using a crowd-funding channel, and more. As we approach that, we’ll keep you all updated. So, you may not see as much of us… but know that the dream hasn’t died. We are very much still committed to the Stories of Sainan.

“Manticore’s Shadow” still sits on my shelf (its little beta edition) and reminds me each day that I’m very much capable of completing this with Graham.

Be Kind,

–Clevenger