The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Volume 1, Issue 22
Tuesday, October 11th, 2016


I'm roughly six weeks in to my first semester back at school, and it's a lot more intensive than I thought it would be! I'm taking two classes -- Clear Thinking In Writing (think of it as English Composition 102) and Social Psychology, and there is a lot of reading and out-of-class study involved in both. My English class demands annotations on several chapters of our fiction book and one chapter of our textbook every week, in addition to journal entries, essays and quizzes; for Social Psychology, one or two chapters of our textbook combined with watching several videos every week and mandatory discussion in a forum about the topic. It's intense, especially for a community college!

My day job has also gotten more intense; we lost three experienced colleagues in the span of one month, right when our workload starts ramping up for the holidays. It will take too long to train their replacements, so we're effectively understaffed during our busiest time of the year. That means an overload of cases and several late work days.

With those two developments and a few other curveballs, I simply haven't had the time or energy to work on the serial. And I truly feel bad about that. Thinking back to the beginning, I think it was a mistake to plan an extra-long serial for the Patreon at the start. It's far too big of a commitment, especially just starting out when none of us are really sure how this grand experiment will work. The sputtering pace of the release, combined with the gaps in my writing experience that have been exposed by attempting this huge project, has made it clear that THE CULT OF MAXIMUS simply will not work as it is.

So it's with a heavy heart that I announce the hiatus for this particular serial. I love the idea, and I'll definitely come back to it, but when it begins again I'll make sure that I'm able to produce consistently and have a solid buffer built up ahead of time. Planning is definitely something I should have done more of with this, and I've learned my lesson. Next time, I'll come correct.

I apologize for the lack of content over the past few months; I'm committed to changing that as soon as possible. I've made it a point to schedule a little writing time for myself every day, and I'll do my best to stick to that schedule. For now, the plan is to start with smaller serials -- somewhere around four to seven parts long -- so that I can get a feel for writing consistently and actually finishing projects that I start. Once I'm a bit more confident in my routine, I'll see about tackling longer works.

I'll also need to rethink the Patreon reward tiers; those on the higher end have certainly not gotten their money's worth, though I'm eternally grateful you've stuck with me for these past ten months. So many of the reward perks at the highest tiers depend on direct engagement, and I've learned that for various reasons that's something I can't expect from patrons right now. It's clear that you folks are into what I'm doing, so I'll think of other ways to show my appreciation for those monthly donations without necessitating work on your part.

For now, I hope to have the first part of a shorter serial ready to post by next week. I've long wanted to create something of a "personal universe" that I can use for various size-related shenanigans, with a stock of six or seven characters. The stories will be loosely connected, and characters will float in and out of each other's escapades. But up front, things will be fairly breezy. This might be the perfect time to try that out!

If you have any feedback on THE CULT OF MAXIMUS up to this point, feel free to let me have it! I'll definitely take notes and keep it under consideration when I get back to it. If you have any suggestions or requests for future serials, I'd love to hear that as well! You can comment here, or send an email to serial.lope@gmail.com.

I hope you folks have a week worth telling stories about! I'll check in with y'all soon.