The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Volume 2, Issue 9 -- Wednesday, May 17th, 2017

Howdy, patrons!

It's been an exceptionally difficult time for me, to put it shortly. Spring 2017 was a fairly hard semester -- it was my first as an Honors Student, which meant my assignments were graded a bit more ruthlessly and I had to complete an Honors Project for the class; both of my classes were late-start courses, meaning that 17 weeks of material were scrunched into 12 (Debate) or 8 (Statistics); and a change in work schedule from five 8-hour days a week to four 10-hour days meant there was a lot less wiggle room for just about anything. Try as I might, Friday was often spent just catching up on everything that had lapsed over the week.

And then I got a call from Baltimore that my sister was intensive care after being found in her apartment. I flew out immediately, and it's been roughly non-stop ever since. I'm trying to step up into a primary caretaker role for my elderly mother from across the country, dealing with the bureaucracy that surrounds my sister's passing, and helping the father of her children settle into the intense responsibility of caring for four children. I'll also need to withdraw from this semester when I have time and catch up to the rhythm of work slowly but surely.

Needless to say, there hasn't been a lot of time to work on stories with everything going on. But fear not! Now that things are coming together into a "new normal", I'm able to turn my attention back to writing. I've been working on part 3 of "Stable Love", and I should have that out to you in a week or two. Hooray! While part 2 was the longest of the serial, this part will be the biggest in a few ways; I can't wait for you folks to meet the Clydesdale of the Braverman Estate, Atlas. :) 

The fourth and final part of "Stable Love" will hopefully come not too long afterward, and then it's on to the third serial of 2017! I still don't have a name for it yet, but I do have a setting and broad strokes for the characters. I'm really excited to dig into it -- I just need the time to sit down and make it happen. 

Thanks to everyone who has moved their pledges over to the new system! This means you won't have to sink money into content you're not getting and I'll only get paid when there's something new to show you! However, there are about nine of you (one third!) who haven't made the switch yet. I'll be sure to send you personal notifications to do so. I'm thinking that I'll start in with the extras next month, round-robin style! I'll send a personal notification to the top-tier patron at the first of June, so watch out for that. If you'd like for your character to appear in a future serial OR a personalized tarot reading, be sure to sign up for that tier by then.

That's all the news for this edition, buckaroos. Thanks a lot for being patient! I'll peek in soon!

• Jakebe