Warning: This contains no story content! This is a chapter merely containing some thanks, announcements and information about the series going forward. There is also a tl;dr at the very end if you just want the general gist of things.

  THANK YOU

  First off, I want to thank everyone for reading, and special thanks to the people who commented and pointed out errors so I could clean them up. I really don't know why google doc's spellcheck didn't pick up on some of those. I never expected to make it onto Rising Stars, and I am very happy that I did, and that I got a bunch of new readers.

  Also, if you read this story and enjoyed it, please, give a follow, a favorite, a rating (or even better a review), or best of all, tell people about it! There does seem to be an audience for this sort of story on Royal Road, but I think it's safe to say that it gets less word of mouth than other genres like litrpg. So I make a humble request: if you can - if you think you know someone, or a community, that might like this story, tell them about it. When people hear about this story from actual readers, it's so much more meaningful than if I go out and promote it myself. I do have a patreon as well, but it's purely a tip jar right now. Tips would be appreciated, but just so you know, it is just tips.

  Also please, participate in the poll! I'd like to get an idea where people are coming from.

  Alright, that's enough nagging. Here's a question:

  What do you want?

  As a reader, what would you like to see? (Other than more story). I know some authors try to make a community around their works. Would you guys want a discord where you could discuss things? (I don't use discord a whole lot, but I could look into it if people are interested). I know I don't interact in the comments a whole lot, but that's because I don't want to offer definitive answers to speculation and questions there - part of the joy of reading a book (at least for me) is puzzling things out, and having a word of god answer for everything would detract from that fun. As for extra stuff, I'm probably going to add a glossary to this, and I was thinking of occasionally writing (short) stories or fables that canonically appear in-universe - like the tales of Vereline Valoir that Elyse is so fond of.

  And dream big! It doesn't have to be realistic. Would you like to see a webcomic adaptation? A conceptual instrumental mood album? A bestiary of creatures? A cartoon or anime adaptation? A feature-length film that reimagines Martimeos as a futuristic super solder that dual-wields laser pistols? The sky's the limit.

  Okay, now for some rambling:

  HOW I WRITE

  In case you're new and you didn't know, this story is actually a rewrite of an original draft I wrote 3 years ago. Well, more specifically, what you have seen so far is a rewrite of the first arc in that draft that massively expanded it from 30k words to the 180k word book that you see here now.

  The original draft does have two other arcs that have not been rewritten yet. They are probably going to be much less of a rewriting project than the first arc was, because they actually have some meat to them. (Again, the first arc was originally 30k words, while the other two arcs were around 150k+).

  However, I really recommend against reading the draft.

  You see, when I wrote the draft, I wrote it the way many fictions on this site are written: Releasing chapters as I wrote them. As a web serial, essentially. But by the time I reached the end of the third arc, I was extremely dissatisfied with what I had written. Readers didn't seem to think it was too bad, but releasing chapters week by week influenced the story I wanted to tell. It locked me into decisions I wanted to go back and reconsider. In some parts, there were details I wanted to go and add in, but I couldn't because the chapter had already been released. At times, I felt myself bending the plot of a chapter in ways I really didn't like just so I'd have stuff to release. (Trying to wrap up a chapter in 5000 words, for example, when it really deserved more).

  It all added up to a draft that I really didn't like by the end of the third arc, though it certainly had its fans. At the end, I was torn between wanting to go back and immediately start a rewrite and wanting to go on to the next part of the story (but building the future arcs on what I considered a very shaky foundation). In the end, torn between these two, and in a very intellectually demanding job, I just simply didn't have the mental energy to write and I abandoned the story for a few years.

  In fact, I remained torn between wanting to move on to the next arcs and wanting to do a rewrite up until relatively recently. There was something that made me want to really commit to just doing a rewrite, though, so I did.

  This time, I did it differently, though. This time, I wrote it not like a web serial, but like a book. What that means is I had the entire thing written before I even posted the first chapter (though I did give it more touch ups than I thought I would while releasing it).

  And really, I liked writing this like a book way more than as a web serial. I am much, much more satisfied with this now than I was with the original. And going by the reception, it seems to me that people like it much more than the original as well, which I'm very happy about. So I think from now on, that's how I'm going to write entries in this series; an entire book at once, and not worrying about making the chapters conform to something that would be beneficial to a weekly schedule.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  I still consider this a draft. I want this story to be the best it can be. But it's now a draft that's much, much closer to the final product than the original draft was.

  And again - I really, really, really recommend against reading the original draft if you haven't. There really has been a lot that's changed, a lot more detail added in, some plot elements will be taken out - you will be reading an inferior version of the story and possibly spoiling yourself. (Sorry original readers)! In fact, very likely I'll eventually take that rough draft down (If for no other reason that it's currently confusing for people who are trying to find this story).

  THE FUTURE

  What was it that changed recently that made me commit to this rewrite? Well, it's easy. Some of you already know this. I lost my very intellectually demanding job not that long ago, and simultaneously needed to find a new place to live.

  It was a very hectic time where I was desperately trying to find a new job and work as much as possible so I could save up money to move. At the same time, I had all this mental energy now and I immediately wanted to use it for writing. At first I was trying to get back into the groove after years of neglect with a new story (City of the Lost), but there was something that changed my mind.

  See, when I was desperate for money, I actually submitted Wander West, In Shadow to a bunch of publishers. I didn't think any of them would be interested, I was just sort of doing anything I could to try and get some cash.

  Well, some of them were interested.

  By the time they got back to me, I was already more financially stable (though again, tips are welcome!) But it did make me realize that wait, people actually will be interested in buying my books. Of course, I was so dissatisfied with it at that point, I had to do a rewrite if it was going to be published.

  So that's what I did. I started the rewrite sometime in September and finished it sometime in November, and I included a bunch of the ideas that I had but which I hadn't included in the original draft. (For new readers, just to give some perspective: David wasn't even in the original draft. At all.)

  So where do things stand now? I have some offers from publishers, though I haven't settled on one yet. (And if you are a publisher and you're interested, feel free to reach out). But look, the long and short of it is this:

  I'm not rich. If I was rich, I wouldn't even bother with a patreon tip jar. I would release all my content for free. But I'm not, and the time I spend on this hobby is quite significant. I actually took time off in November, from my new job, just so I could really push myself to write between 5-8k words a day and finish up the story. The reality is if I'm going to spend this much time and this much effort on it, I need to make money off of it. And the more money I make off of it, the more I can spend time writing, and the more of it people will get.

  SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR YOU?

  It means two big things.

  First of all, I will not be releasing the rewrite of the next arc until it's totally done (or very nearly totally done), and it's not right now. In fact, I've barely started on the rewrite of the second arc yet. (I essentially wrote this whole new 180k word book in two and a half months and really pushed myself towards the end while simultaneously working a whole lot and finding a new apartment, and I really needed some time to destress after it was done). So, for now, other than some side content like a glossary or some occasional short stories and maybe me commissioning some art, this is it. I don't know how long the rewrite of the other arcs will take me, but again, I do think they'll be much less involved than the rewrite of this one was.

  Second, I will be trying to monetize this somehow. I'm aiming to get published. But even if I don't go with any publisher, when new content shows up, I'll put some of it behind a patreon tier. Maybe give a free sample of the first 5-10 chapters, and then put the rest behind patreon. Though, again, I am aiming to get published.

  Final words

  This series will change over time.

  Martimeos and Elyse are young, and as they journey, they will grow more powerful in the Art. They'll become more confident in standing their ground. That inevitably means that the tone of the story will change, somewhat. In this entry, basically every enemy they came across, they tried to avoid fighting somehow, and when they could not avoid it they came very close to death. In the future, as they grow, this will not be the case.

  I think that I can anticipate that probably some people will not like the gradual changes. Some people probably appreciate this story exactly because how powerless the protagonists feel so often, and some part of that will be lost as they change. This is a series that will grow along with the characters in it. However, the one thing that I hope I am consistent in communicating is that the world that Martimeos and Elyse live in is one of terrible darkness but also great beauty. I hope I communicated that well enough here. Sometimes my work gets described as grimdark, but that's never what I've been aiming for.

  Anyway I'll stop rambling on. I wanted to thank you again, sincerely, for coming along on the journey so far, even if you don't make it all the way through. I hope I'll see you again in the future. If you have any questions, I'll answer them in the comments here.

  TL;DR

  Don't expect new content right away, because I want to write the entire next book before I release it (which is what I did for this one). And do expect that I am going to try to monetize this somehow, because people have shown interest in doing audiobooks and print books of this. I'm sorry, but I need to pay rent, and the more money I can make off this, the more content I can actually pump out.

  But again, thank you, thank you, thank you for reading. I'm really glad that so many people have enjoyed it.