Hey, everybody! Chapter Two is up!
TL;DR: Yay! Diversity! Chapter Three is coming! I get mushy and thank everybody at least twice.
I'm really proud of this chapter, and I hope it conveys the diversity within Aurum, and how absolute boned Albicon is in joining the constabulary. He fellow recruits are a motley bunch, and I love them all dearly. Yes, that includes Duvane, even if he is a sniveling arse.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I was often frustrated with the lack of representation in speculative fiction, or the terrible caricatures that many past writers have relied on. I can not stand a sniveling, effeminate villain or a butch barbarian who hates all men. Some of the characters orientations are more obvious than others, and it does not detract from the story as a whole. At some point we all talk about our partners, bad dates, and failed romances.
Reveling in diversity is important to me. I hope as readers you'll revel in it with me.
Chapter Three is on deck, and I will uploaded it soon as I am happy with the revisions. After that, we can talk about what I should upload next. I have some things percolating in the back of my head to help bring awareness to the crowd funding campaign. I always welcome feedback and suggestions, so please don't hesitate to send them my way.
I want to thank you all for following me, with special thanks to those who have backed me already. I've devoted most of the past four years to writing this book in particular. Far too many said there wasn't a market for fantasy humor. That there weren't enough readers out there for it to be marketable.
After finishing the sixth draft, I hadn't touched A Beast Requires in over a year. If it wasn't for getting blasted with emails about the Nerdist Collection, I wouldn't have even touched it. Since I started writing I fell into the psychological, faraday cage of questioning my ability to tell a story. Was I fooling myself by going after the one thing I've wanted to do since I was a kid?
Last night I cried. 47 of you like this book enough to back it. 47 of you want to see this book published. 47 of you think that I don't totally suck at this writing thing. There's a long way to go to reach the magic goalposts, and it's sure to be an interesting ride. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all your support.
