The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Howdy, patrons!

I would like to welcome one new patron who's joined us for the month of May! Thank you so much for the vote of confidence, and I'll do my best not to let you down. Or out you. :)

It looks like the technical difficulties that have been plaguing us here at the Jackalope Serial Company have been dealt with at long last! (Knock on wood.) The new laptop is up and running and he works like a dream, while the desktop is running pretty well ever since I've switched to running the OS on an SSD. I'm hopeful that the changes will keep me in good standing at least through the rest of the year, where I'll get to pay off everything and take a significant chunk out of my debt. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

So, THE CULT OF MAXIMUS is full steam ahead this week with part 11, which will be up on Thursday this week. I know I said that last week and part 10 wasn't up until this Sunday -- my apologies for that. Getting Hazel-rah set up with a few finishing touches took a little longer than I thought (it always does, doesn't it?) and there were a number of things around the burrow that needed my attention. This week, I'm -- dare I say it? -- ahead of the game a little bit and should be on track to actually keep my schedule! Whoo! Knock on wood again!

I'm fairly excited about all the lessons I've learned about episodic storytelling through this experiment, and I look forward to being able to act on those lessons in the coming weeks and months with the story. Writing on a regular basis has helped me gain clarity on the aspects of storytelling I really need to focus on, so I'll be taking any excuse I can to work on them. This will lead to more exciting parts that (hopefully) flow better from one bit to the next while forming a cohesive whole that looks good when brought together. We'll see how that works when I double back to edit the chapters for release later on.

I would just like to take a moment to say that I really appreciate the feedback I've been getting on the story so far; it really helps to know what (or who) all of you are responding to so I can make the story even better! If there's something about the serial that you particularly like -- or that you're really not digging -- be sure to speak up! I want to know what's working and what isn't.

There are a number of other projects that I'm working on, but am not ready to talk about just yet; when I get close to finalizing a number of things, you lovely folk will be the first to know! In fact, this month's marshmallow will be a writing exercise to get me into the feel of things -- if you're donating at the Golden Grahams level or above, you'll have that to look forward to!

For now, though, please enjoy part 11 of THE CULT OF MAXIMUS. I'll see you here on Thursday!