You might have guessed but the last chapter was the end of act 4. Next week I will begin Act 5.

Was Act 4 perfect? Eh probably not. I probably would have done better to insert a set of chapters from Primarus' perspective and truly brought him to life to demonstrate the tragedy of the circumstances of his birth, but that would have prolonged the impression that it was a slave arc and even then, I didn't give as much attention to Lucius' self-reflection as would have been ideal.

These past few months have been utter turmoil for me as a creative. My day job situation changed completely. I started a youtube channel (http://youtube.com/@jameskrake you should sub, I'm trying to get it monetized so I can expand operations). I published my 5th book over on Amazon. Started a book club through my youtube channel (I've got a guilded server linked through my youtube).

I think at this point I can conclusively say that the spark of inspration for that sci-fi tower climber is gone. Like if a ton of people piled onto it, I still think it's a fun story, it just isn't as good as the other stuff I'm writing at the moment. Speaking of other stuff, I am actively recruiting beta readers, for all manuscripts I'm working on. That includes Undying Emperor, but also my cyberpunk series, one-offs, and a YA action series I'm trying to submit to a contest at the end of January. If anyone wants to volunteer, find your way over to my guilded server (https://www.guilded.gg/r/zzrRpJJ06E?i=dJr30KMd).

Rather than abandon UE and start over like I previously thought about, I've got a new idea. Because UE continues to be part of my creative life and I don't want to ditch it, in 2024 what I plan to do is write a stand alone novel in the world of UE that I will self-pub to Amazon et al. It won't be required reading for this story but it will be supplementary, so my plan is to write a top notch story and hope to bridge this gap between people who know me here and people who think I just self-pub sci-fi. The general premise is that I'm going to write this world's equivalent to Shakespeare's plays, to create a bit of tie in while also writing a fundamentally solid story people will enjoy.

Next week will be the act 5 foreword and I've already got a backlog going for the new plot arc. I'm enjoying it a lot. I hope you'll indulge the same kind of stuff that I did in Act 2.

What do you all think of the new cover?

And of course, this is the post where I encourage you to let me know how you're feeling about the story and I certainly encourage you to begin speculating about where the story is going. I've had quite a few people talk to me about Fallen Crest Abbey and learned that the ending eludes most people. I actually plan to upload a video discussing the issues with writing epistolery to my youtube channel and dissect the side-story there. It is quite possibly my favorite writing as a creator, even though I know it's not the most marketable or enjoyable to the average reader.

Regardless, I want to continue expanding my reach. I want to sell more good stories to people (and I think I'm getting a hell of a lot better at certain key aspects). I've got ideas for merch, for game show live streams, and eventually I want to get into comics, board games even.

Thank you for reading this far. The comments and engagement really mean a lot to me.