It’s been a long, long time coming, but it’s finally here. This is the big one, folks. THE big announcement. It’s actually two big announcements, and each would be huge news  on its own. Buckle in, my friends. There’s a lot heading your way. 

First bit of news: we have a cover! Tantalus Depths now has a full, professionally designed book cover. I could gush about it endlessly with words, but you know what they say about the word-picture value conversion rate, so let me just show it to you instead: 

 

LOOK at that beautiful thing. That is an image that belongs on a bookshelf. It belongs on MY bookshelf. I want it in my hands right now, and I know you do too. Fortunately, neither of us will have to wait much longer for that.

That brings us to our other big news: the answer to the question we have all been asking for the past six long years. That’s right, my friends: we have our launch date. 

Mark it on your calendars. Put in your vacation requests. Make a reservation for a nice weekend getaway in a cabin in the woods so you can put everything down and curl up with a nice book. MY nice book, because after all this waiting, it will finally be in your hands. 

It’s crazy to think after all this time waiting that the big day is just three months away. If I’m honest, it suddenly feels way too close to me. I’ve got a lot to do in the next couple of weeks to make that launch as successful as possible and I plan to spend the entire time panicking. But it’s an excited panic. I truly can’t wait to share this book with you all, and take the next huge step into the future as a fully-published author. 

Thank you all for sticking with me this long. It’s been a crazy ride, and it’s only going to get wilder from here.  

Hello my friends, and welcome to the far-flung future year of 2022. 

Tantalus Depths finished funding in fall of 2016. It’s crazy to think about the fact that we’re now in the sixth year of development, but I’ll be honest, I’m feeling every year of it.  

I never thought when I started that it could possibly take this long. I was a naïve baby author six years ago with only the most superficial understanding of how the publishing business works. I’ve learned a lot since then, (mostly the hard way) and even though parts of this process have been absolutely grueling, I think I’ve grown quite a bit. 

I do wish I had known how long this process could take when I started, though. I have long felt guilty for accepting all of your generous help and faith all those years ago and having no clear answer for how long it would take for you to see the payoff. I’ve tried to be as transparent as possible throughout the process, but I also want to be respectful of your time and not pester you with repetitive updates during the long stretches of time when I was either working through yet another round of edits or waiting to hear back about the last one. 

But fortunately, for my first update of the year, I have some news worth waiting for. 

As of this last week, I have put my stamp of approval on the absolute final manuscript for Tantalus Depths. Editing is complete, and fully set in stone. I will never, ever, ever have to make changes to this book again, thank God. It’s off to the typesetter now, who will finalize the internal layout and make my words look nice and pretty on every page. We have an ISBN number now, a copyright page, an acknowledgements page, a list of grand patrons; every bell and whistle is accounted for. The “book” part of the book is 100% done, at long last. 

My publisher and I are now working with our cover designer on the book’s final cover, which we should be able to reveal in the next couple of weeks. I’m incredibly excited for the new cover, and I cannot wait to be able to show it to all of you. 

A finalized release date is also coming very soon. Ongoing covid uncertainties have made it harder to plan our launch with precision, but I can confirm it is 100% coming out this year, most likely early summer. As soon as I have a definite date, I will be sure to let you all know. 

That’s all the news I have for now, but there will be more coming soon. Thankfully, things should finally start to ramp up speed over the next few months leading up to release, so future updates should be coming fast and frequently. Thank you all for your continued patience. I promise you, it is going to pay off very soon.