There’s a quote attributed to Douglas Adams that I particularly like: “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” It carries both his sense of whimsy and an acknowledgement of the complexity of writing, of the drive for creating but understanding the annoyance that sometimes things don’t often hit how you want them to hit. April was such a month for me, and the supporter short story that was meant to go live by the middle of the month didn’t. There are a myriad of reasons why things fell as they did, but in the end the fact remains the story didn’t hit. It’s still open on my side monitor right now, on the apex of the plot, ready to cascade down into a finished first draft, but it’s not done just yet.
And there’s where May begins, trying to grab hold of the deadline as it screams past.
The short story will be done this week. It might be done by the time this goes live, that’s how close it is to completion. I’ll give it a day or two of editing and then have it up this Friday. That’s a supporter piece, so it’ll be available immediately for either supporters on Patreon, or on Discord for Twitch supporters.
This will be the first official piece shared with the Twitch subscribers, and I will be retroactively adding January’s short story to the Discord links. If any Twitch Subs want access to those stories, make sure you link your Discord client with your Twitch account. Just joining the Discord doesn’t automatically apply the role. Same with Patreon supporters. Both of those groups get a special channel for announcements first before they hit the wider market.
After the short is out, I’ll be taking a week off from writing and will be focusing on some back-end Twitch stuff. I have a few things I want to get done that I need the full time I normally would spend writing to work on those Twitch assets that need work. Then it’s Epicus time.
Streaming has been fairly smooth over the past month. Our usual title of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers raiding with Dinner First hasn’t progressed past Shiva, E8S, as hoped, but much like the writing the raid group suffered a number of setbacks in April. Namely we had two weeks in a row where we were down members and while in the past we’ve been open to pugging members into those slots, this raid tier we seem rather opposed to the idea. We are making progress though, and I have hopes of us knocking out the fight soon. We’ve got a long time before we have to worry about the next patch set as update 5.3 isn’t coming out until late June or Mid-July.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne has been going okay the past month, but I’m starting to feel a touch drained from it. It’s a good game but I think I may be hanging up my light bow gun for a few weeks soon. It all depends on how quickly I get Cross Code completed in the weeks to come. Speaking of, Cross Code has been amazing. The story is rich, with various levels of story that are converging to completion soon. I may even dip the game into the co-op slots over the weekend to sweep through what’s left.
We also touched on a few other games this past month. Overwatch graced our presence a few times, including a time with several members of the raid group. Armello also dropped in for a little lovely frustration with Ethan and Enthnal. We had some technical difficulties on that one, but the games were fun otherwise. I rather like these drop in titles, as they offer a nice diversion from the big stories we’ve been working on.
Finally, let’s wrap up some meta communication stuff. The Hiddennode Discord has grown over the past few weeks. 11 new members between this post and the last, and while many are long familiar faces, some are newer friends who have connected with us. I’m loving the activity I’m seeing in there, and I hope to see it grow and grow in the coming year.
And that sums it up. May is set and I’ve got some more writing to do this evening to get that story ready. Stay tuned for more Patreon posts, join the Discord, and keep an eye on public announcements via Twitter, Facebook, and Twitch.
Otherwise, see you in June. Enjoy the rest of your spring.