Hey all,

  As I finished the first book of Jeb, a close family member got diagnosed with terminal cancer. As anyone who's had to deal with a loved one dying of cancer knows, one of the worst parts is the sense of helplessness you feel. Day after day, you watch someone dealing with unimaginable pain and know that there's nothing you can do to help. They said that reading Jeb was something that helped take their mind off of the pain of chemotherapy, and that really helped me to keep writing. They took a sudden, if not unexpected, turn for the worse in August of last year, and I no longer had the mental space or time to dedicate to this book.

  They passed away in October.

  After dealing with all the funerary arrangements, I did my best to catch back up on everything that I had fallen behind on in my professional and personal life. Much as I enjoyed writing Jeb, it was a lower priority than learning how to be a person. Even once I started to catch back up, though, I found myself struggling to restart.

  In part, the motivation of writing for the loved one was gone. In part, the fact that any writing I do now will never be read by them feels hard. And, I think maybe most importantly, I've always tried to think of the world as fundamentally ordered towards good. In the end, heroes win, villains have a change of heart, and what was broken becomes whole. In short, I wrote Jeb from the perspective of hope.

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  It's been hard to be hopeful lately, even outside of this grief. However, hope is also a choice, and I want to start cultivating it again. With that in mind, I'm going to be getting back to Jeb. I have been away from this story long enough that I need to refresh my memory of what is going to happen and what threads I need to start weaving.

  What does this mean for the Tales of Jeb?

  Starting next Friday, I'm going to post at least once a week. At first, these are probably going to be side stories and explorations of the world outside of Jeb. (if there's anything you want to see, of course feel free to mention in the comments! I can't make any promises, but it's also good for me to know what has stuck with you, the readers). When I feel like I have enough of a grasp on what writing pace will be sustainable for me, both in terms of story development and content creation, I'll transition back to writing chapters of the main story line.

  I was so grateful for all the words of support you all have given me, and I look forward to sharing more of the world of Jeb.

  With love,

  Lawless Air