Happy New Year, and thank you for 2025! (Patreon)

Thank you, everyone, for making 2025 a great year!

My 2025 has been quite stressful, but also exciting, with Loopshard of course launching in February, becoming my biggest hit on Royal Road yet, and the first two books of Madman Apocalypse and Isekai Exorcist launching on Amazon.

After years of being too ADD to stick to one story for long, I feel like I truly found something I can keep writing with Loopshard, and though I'm still busy with my finals, I'm planning to keep writing Loopshard without breaks until it's done. I can't say how many books that will be yet, but current projections right now are at 6 or 7 books, but we'll see how it goes.

I've also finally gotten back to having a solid backlog for a story for once, making my Patreon enticing (I hope), but I honestly just spent so much of Q1 and Q2 this year just editing furiously on my books to prepare them for publication. My Q1 of 2026 is promising the same, but I'm hoping to wrap Madman book 3 in January, which should make it less of a stressful thing since I'll only have Loopshard as ongoing afterwards.

I know I don't have a ton of readers here who have read Father of Monstrosity, but in 2026 I am planning on finally releasing the sequel, Sovereign Monstrosity, though I aim to finish it before releasing it on RR (with chapters hitting Patreon in Q3 probably), so I don't get into another crazy double-deadline scenario like I've had for all of 2025 <.<

While I definitely have that urge to just write as many stories as possible, I've realised (this year especially) that pushing myself too hard will just end up doing more harm to myself than necessary, so I'm trying to be sensible and not overcommit to releases, hence why Loopshard will probably remain 3 chapters per week guaranteed for a while, even if I can very solidly hit 4 per week, sometimes 5, when I don't have any other obligations.

All that being said, 2026 is also scary for me in a way. I'm graduating from my programming course in January, and should technically be looking for a job already, but because of RR and the opportunities it has afforded me, I am able to not stress about finding a job, since I have made a fair bit of money from publications and the deals I've signed, not to mention my Patreon growing to a new all-time high of supporters. I'm just so eternally grateful to all of the support everyone has shown me.

Writing as a career is a terrifying prospect, which is why most people only view it as a hobby. It takes a lot of luck to make it work, and there are tens of thousands of people for whom it just doesn't pan out. While I'm in no way living large off of my writing, I am able to remain full-time through 2026, which feels like such a rare opportunity that I don't want to give up on. Sure, I would easily be making more money with a job as a programmer, but writing is my passion and my dream, and I would rather struggle to get by than live a life of regret, knowing I left behind a golden opportunity to pursue my dream career.

I'm not sure how much I've talked about it in the past, but until 2023 when I did an experimental psilocybin treatment, I struggled with chronic depression and suicidal ideation, along with anxiety and panic attacks. For many years I basically just never really left the house or interacted with people in real life. It was pretty terrible, and I just didn't enjoy living at all. You can see a lot of that in how I wrote Father of Monstrosity, I think, though the end was written when I was actually getting better thanks to my treatment, which might be why it's so different.

But the thing about any kind of hardship, and especially if you overcome them, is that they give you a unique perspective on life. I've never been someone who chased money, but I've always been a dreamer who enjoyed escapism and the imaginary. And since it feels like I sacrificed so much of my youth to mental illness, I'm determined to make the best of however long yet remains of my time on this Earth.

As my audience has grown, so too have I grown, and I'm happy to report that I'm completely free of my depression and have been for the last two years.

I know it's sappy as hell to turn this shit into a motivational speech, but I know there are a lot of people who read escapism literature and who may be in the same position that I was in for the majority of my life, because before I was a writer I was a die-hard consumer too. I know there are always going to be tough days ahead, but do yourself a favour and chase your dreams. We all only get this one life to live, no matter how much we wish we were the protagonist of an Isekai or Timeloop story, and I just think it's such a shame to live a life of regret caused by the choices you didn't make, because you were scared to take the leap. There's no guarantee it will pan out, but if you never try, you will never know.

(IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This is not an endorsement to sell all of your earthly possessions to chase your dreams. Please dream-chase responsibly.)

See you in 2026, and thank you all for 2025.
- Dosei (土星) -