My papa taught me how to howl
How to bear my teeth and growl
He taught me that the hand that feeds
Deserves to be bitten when it beats
He taught me how to break my chains
And that money ain't worth a thing
And that no man should get
More of my time than me
Than me
-"The Hand That Feeds", The Crane Wives
And here we are, almost in June. It's hard to believe the whirlwind tour 2025 has already taken us, in more way than one, of course. We are already two months removed from the premiere of Skazki: A Spell of Ice and Snow, and less than two months out to the opening of The Exeter Apothecary. Through it all the continued trials of family loss, the great negotiations regarding the outcomes of those losses, and planned expansions and developments across the board.
In short, I am busy.
It's no small thing to admit that, either, as someone who thrives on having projects and ideas churning at all times. But I think I can honestly say that this is that unique period of transitional life I have usually more closely associated with moving to a new place or getting a new job that I am yet unaccustomed to occurring when I am, for lack of a better word, settled. Everything is changing, and yet few things are. There is that sense again of losing a bit of myself in the crush and swirl of life.
The solution, to a degree, is to slow down.
Where and when that will happen remains to be seen.
We first turn to the largest of my ongoing projects: Freedom and Control. I have already pushed back the released date of the complete edition of A World I Have Never Seen back from its planned spring release, and hope to have it ready by July. Telgora's world remains for the time the anchor point of my creative endeavors. I have a duty as much to myself as anyone else to see this story of a fantasy country descending into civil war thank to a rise of political extremism and social and economic quality through to the end.
Hey, isn't fantasy writing supposed to be kind of escapist? Ha...
But the reality facing Telgora is its continued use of Amazon's KDP platform which, apart from supporting the great leviathan that is Bezos, also constrains a little bit. Further giving into fears about what that platform will do with regards to the rise of generative-ai must give me pause, as well. While it has been in my interest, and schedule, to release the Freedom and Control books as serialized novels through the platform, I think engaging with it a little less will do me some good. Therefore, A World I Have Never Seen, will be the last of the books set in Telgora released as a serialized-and-then-complete set. The fourth book in the series will release, hopefully, in the winter of 2026 as a single standalone novel.
And then, Telgora is done.
I certainly am not, however.
In the meantime, I wrote a new play already. It's another musical, and I am happy to be working alongside some of the Skazki team already for its development. This is a laser-targeted piece of writing aimed solely at the heart of the generative artificial intelligence debate, putting all my frustrations, anger, and spite over the adoption of this pernicious technology front and center. For as a rough draft of the script already declares: "To make art you need a heart, a smile, and a soul." Hopefully, in time, we'll be able to see this gain traction and be produced as well. Slowly down clearly does not mean a tempering of ambition. There are other ideas, including an adaptation of a different unpublished novel of mine (bartending romcom musical anybody?), and a much for ambitious concept for a script I do not know if I am ready to tackle just yet.
And that brings us to Madelen, who continues to await a reply to her full request. There are plans in the wing regarding either direction that may take, though we remain as hopeful as someone from her world can be. Madelen's waiting, however, mean that Katya is waiting. Katya, from whom we get Skazki, has a novel all her own, and one that I am incredibly proud of. With luck, we can begin querying her in the beginning of 2026.
As far as a new book? If I should find the time. The time... the time...
I am as much writing this down as an update to the people who read my blog for an inkling of what's going on in my life as we drift into summer, the season the sun. I find myself fixated on my actual job, the opening of a new restaurant and the constant search for sufficient staff for both it and the current location. I remain worn by the grief of losing my grandparents, and heartsick over the upcoming loss of our family's cabin in Vermont—a sanctuary through many other crises now personified as its own kind of unimaginable end. I only hope it can remain long enough to see something come of the gifts it has helped me grow, even if many of the people it has hosted no longer.
Now, we plow into June. I edit, and I write, and I wait, and I help others edit and write. I develop cocktails and steer the Vino e Vivo ship into Patio Season! I try to get back into the habit of taking walks, I try to see my girlfriend more than once a week, and I finish the audiobook of The Count of Monte Cristo (obsessed). There is a rhythm to this living, this living, this living, and maybe we're at a point where it really a project of mine.