Book 2 Afterword | Ramblings | Status Update (Patreon)

Hello, Patrons.

I'm not sure how often I plan on sending out these kinds of status updates, but if there's demand for it, I can add my thoughts quickly more often (at most, once a month). The end of a book or arc is certainly good enough for me, for now. Also, come join us in the discord! You can link your account to it here in patreon, if you just click subscriber benefits. There's a number of us in there, but it's mostly just me talking to myself most of the time.

It's been a wild ride, writing this story. I started back at the end of August, and to this day I can't really begin to understand why I sat down and decided to start writing something, for the first time in my life. Yet here we are a little over 5 months later, and I have a group of people looking forward to more. I appreciate all you guys, and knowing that you're all supporting me gives me that extra drive to produce something as good as possible.

Writing Book 2 was both hard and a lot of fun. I might have made things a little more convoluted than they had to be, but I thought I made an exciting climax for the Hart family, and interesting progression, world building, and enjoyable times. The wrap up and set up for the next arc might have taken longer than I would have liked, but I hope in the end it was all enjoyable.

Book 3 is going to be a major tonal shift, and one might even see it as a completely different story in many ways. The Hart family is going to join a community, and there will be many characters that show up. I'm a little worried as up to now, apart from the Hart family, there has only been the 2 Gods/Goddesses, Zeke(lol), Alisara, and Antonius, aside from the evil enemies that have had at most a handful of lines. There are no other named characters, and I had more or less planned things this way from the beginning. 

In just a handful of chapters, you guys will be meeting tons of beastkin, the cast significantly increasing in size, and I am a little worried that I have handled this well enough. Not only that, but the pace is going to be crazy in terms of how many chapters go by in a single perceived day. All of the 20 chapters I have written already happen in the same 1.5 days or so, so you can get an idea on how much is really happening here.

When I originally started this story, I had envisioned a slice of life story, where Jake and his waifus fight in the dungeon and level up, have fun, etc. It was literally just them explore dungeons/multiverse, fight together, have fun back at his home/spaceship. Even if they died, they would respawn like video game characters, and so the stakes would be forever low. There'd be almost no tension, just fun with cute girls and progression, numbers going up for the sake of numbers going up, and exploring a fantasy world, that was it.

Clearly, that ship has long-since sailed. I raised the stakes with Hestia's visit, forcing Jake and his family to experience raised difficulty and potentially larger repercussions to any of their actions. On some level, I must have wanted to have a story of massive scope with at least some tension, because it completely went against my plans of what I originally envisioned for the story. I think you guys must enjoy that, as you're all still here. 

Still, I wonder how things would have been if I kept that aesthetic. I may try that in story #2, if and when I ever get to that. I'm still deciding on if I am going to take a major break on Bonded Summoner when I get done with Book 4 (months from now), or if I am going to do some kind of staggered release schedule with another story, to keep myself from burning out on doing just the one. I feel like by the end of book 4, I will be in danger of burning out on this story, or need a significant 'planning break' where I sit down and really spend a lot of time thinking about where I want this story to head, and where the true ending will be.

In Book 3, once again, the stakes are even higher. If the Hart family fails to work together with and rally the people of highlands, millions will die, along with them. Tartarus' machinations are moving to make their efforts a failure, and it is pulling out all the stops to win against this tiny Tier 1 world. There are vengeful evil gods wanting their heads, and new ones might even show interest in taking them down, to snuff out a potential problem for their future plans early. That's not even including the problems the beastkin have in their history and the lore I'm building this world, besides!

Things are way more complicated now than when I wrote Book 2, and I hope I make things just as much if not more enjoyable and exciting for you guys going forward. I believe that in many ways, I subconsciously planned things in a way where I wouldn't have to deal with certain challenges. But that's done now, the stops are being pulled, and we're going all out for the Highlands arc. I hope you guys really enjoy what happens with the Hart Family next.

Status Update:

- Book 1 Cover has been commissioned, and should be ready in a week or so.

- I am currently 85,000 Words into Book 3, or 20 Chapters with only 1 Interlude/Non Jake POV. I may creep back and inject a chapter / POV of someone else, I am not 100% sure. I also haven't planned an explicit scene in those chapters yet, but there is room for one.

- I may offer a $10 option to read 10 chapters ahead of RR/Scribblehub, but I'm not sure yet. I could have done that originally, but had decided against it, even though my buffer was more than large enough to do so. I had felt like my buffer wasn't enough to ensure I wasn't constantly sneaking into chapters already released to make small modifications to tie everything into each other better. I still do that rarely(even to chapters released on RR, despite being like 30 chapters ahead of it), and I feel it might not be right to do so unless I warn any choosing to support me at that level. But that might change soon, if I keep up at my current pace.

- Just so you guys are aware, I still work full-time, and that is not likely to change in the foreseeable future. But you guys have already surprised me, so who knows what the future might bring? Just how quickly, and at what quality, could I dish out the story if I was fiscally motivated? When I first made the patreon, it was mostly to gauge desire and partly pay for a book cover, for a future kindle unlimited release. I thought it would take 3 months to get enough money, and you guys blew that out of the water in just two weeks or so. My current plans are to spend nearly every dollar I get from you guys on things like art, subscriptions to things like grammarly to improve my writing quality and speed, and things of that nature for now.

- The Kindle Unlimited release for Book 1 is planned for when I have Book 3 completed, and part of Book 4. I hope you all help support me when the time comes, to get the word out. The plan is also to have some additional changes/improvements/edits, so there will be a reason for those of you to check out the Kindle Unlimited or Kindle version if you have it already.

I'm having a blast writing the story, and am excited for you guys to begin the highlands arc. I hope you guys enjoy it at least as much if not more than the rest of the story.

Once again, Thanks for supporting me.

JJ Bookerson