From The Desk of Nerd³ - July 2024 Edition (Patreon)

Dearest Patreons,

While I’m not an expert on cars, I do understand the basics. The wheel inside makes the wheels outside turn, the pedals on the floor tilt the rudder, and when Rebecca is driving I can expect to listen to ‘Pink Pony Club’ on a loop for the entire journey.

Then there are the gears. Most cars don’t have them anymore, neither do they need to be pulled by horses, yet in what Jeremy Clarkson and his kind would call ‘proper’ cars, they still bafflingly exist. I’m not sure of their purpose, but as far as I can tell they create unnecessary noise, make starting on a hill difficult, and if you shift from 5th to 1st on the motorway they cause your engine to fly out of your bonnet and explode on contact with a nearby Little Chef. It's that last point, dear Patreons, that I want to focus on today. Finishing a big project and starting a new one, going from 5th to 1st, absolutely breaks your brain.

The Paradox Paradox is very nearly done, so much so that we’re gearing up for a release date announcement LATER THIS WEEK. (Current plan is a video TOMORROW!) For the past five years I’ve lived with the voices of Kez, Austin, Eureka, Osheen, Fatoumata, Theo, Jack, Iscah, E-NA, Bea, Alphonse, Clive, Morag, Lily, Baxter, Fred and many others rattling around in my head. When I sign off on the next, final version, that’s it. They can talk as much as they want but nothing can change. The blast doors are closed and Geordi La Forge has done that cool roll under it. The Paradox Paradox is a lock.

CLUNK. There goes that gear shift, taking me from the most intense project of my life back to square one, jettisoning characters, places and concepts out of my head forever. Like I said, this broke my brain so hard that I simply had to go and lie down for three weeks as condensed story gooped out of my ears. My body shut down, my brain followed, and I just drifted about like a shambling zombie with an empty diary. All I manged to do was play a tonne of Picross, which has essentially become my brains way of defragging, and start dieting again, which was easy because my bedroom isn’t the best place to forage for berries. I’m 10kg lighter, and most of that is Paradox leaving my body.

But now, here we are again. First gear. New projects on the horizon. Will those book collabs work out? What about that game? Is [REDACTED] really the title of my next solo book? Is it even going to be that story? Honestly, I don’t know. That’s what first gear is, handwaves and placeholders. No answers yet, no voices, no story goop. It’s a different world, arguably a scarier one, where only one thing is certain. That blank page won’t be blank for very long.

Happy July,

Daniel

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