The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Tuesday, July 11th, 2017

Howdy, patrons!

It looks like there was a technical error of some sort with the first part of "Too Much Universe"! Sorry about that -- I'm not sure what happened, but I'll update that post a little later this afternoon to (hopefully) address the issue. I appreciate your patience and feedback on this!

That does remind me -- do people prefer TXT or RTF for serial episodes, or would you rather have something else? I figured that TXT or RTF is the most widely-accessible, even though it doesn't quite have as much in the way of formatting capabilities. However, I could also upload episodes using DOC(X) or PDF. Would it be better if I offered a choice, perhaps? TXT for folks who want to read the serial anywhere, PDF for folks who want something that looks a bit nicer on the screen.

I suppose I could put up a poll or something to see what you'd like; in fact, why don't I just do that? That way I can make sure that I'm using a file format that most of you buckaroos prefer!

We're in week three of the Clarion Write-A-Thon, and I have to admit that I'm a little behind on my word count. I'm aiming to catch up by Saturday so I'll have 25,000 words in the bag. That means I'll be finished with the first draft of "Demolition" and moving right ahead with my three-times-a-week posting goal for The Writing Desk. If all goes well, it also means that I'll be knee-deep in pre-writing for the next serial! 

Right now, the plan is to have three "proof of concept" chapters going up at the end of the month, each with a small sample of the story you can expect for each serial. You likely won't be seeing this exact scene in the serial itself; I'd like to use these bits of fiction to drum up interest for the serials here and elsewhere. Folks who've joined at the at the Honey Nut Cheerios level ($3/episode) and beyond will be able to make their voices heard, so if you'd like to vote for what kind of content you'd like to see make sure you're in that bucket by the end of July!

I don't think I've done this yet, so I'd like to give a special thanks to Brighton Dingo for his patronage -- dude's been a part of this experiment from the beginning, and I can't thank him enough for his extraordinary generosity and patience. He's this month's recipient of the Lucky Charm -- BOTH a tarot reading and an appearance for his character in the next serial. Thanks again, dude, you rock SO HARD.

I'll re-upload "Too Much Universe" part 1 in both TXT and PDF later today; the conclusion will be coming next Thursday. "Gift Exchange" will be rolling out to SoFurry, Weasyl and Furry Network later this week as well, so if you missed it the first time now's your chance to catch up!

That's all for this week, buckaroos. See you next week!

• Jakebe