#my preorder was pushed from september to october to november

[plusultraetc]

people who already got their age of heroes present mic what summoning spell did you use

[author-a-holmes]

Preface

This year was a year where I learnt a lot about myself. As many of you know, I released my debut novel, Changeling, in March. This was a literal dream come true for me, and I spent the majority of January, February and the first half of March editing the final files, and organizing the release.

All while trying to continue writing Darkling.

And then I burnt out. Hard. I wouldn't call it a mistake, I've learnt a lot about myself and the publishing process, and what my limits are, but it took me quite a bit longer than I'd have liked to recover from that burnout, and so my stats for this year, once I take a look at this, probably aren't going to be a steady as I'd like.

And what I mean by that is there were several periods where I tried to push forward, but had to let it go and continue just recuperating.

It's only been in the tail end of 2023 I've begun writing semi-regularly again, but I digress. Let's dig into some statistics for 2023...

Projects Worked On

Darkling 77,136 words (This year! Total manuscript is almost 100k right now) - Bonus Scene; 1,109

Flash Fiction Pieces 1,264 words over 4 pieces of flash fiction

Fanfiction 825 words over 2 pieces of fanfiction Fandoms: @night-market-if's The Night Market Interactive Fiction

Total Words Written in 2023: 82,415 Total Time Spent Writing in 2023: 71 hours 40 minutes

First Quarter - January-February-March

Words: 19,428 Time Writing: 19 hours 30 minutes Time Editing: 11 hours 20 minutes

This period I was hyper-focussed on getting ARC's of Changeling out to readers, finalising formatting, particularly for the Hardcover, reviewing proof copies, setting up all the various sales channels, and most of the time I logged in January was Editing Time as I needed to review the notes left my by Editor before release.

Once the editing was finalised, I tried catching up with Darkling in between everything else and this is where I really began struggling. I'd thrown myself into my self-edits in December of 2022, and in hindsight I really needed a break but, with a deadline approaching, I just couldn't take one.

Second Quarter - April-May-June

Words: 5,224 Time Writing: 2 hours 20 minutes

April and May I wrote absolutely nothing. Not a single word. And while I never announced it publically, June was supposed to be the original release date for Darkling.

Which meant I had to cancel my editor slot, and re-evaluate where I stood on what I could reasonably accomplish. This is really where I began to recognise how hard I'd pushed myself into a burnout.

After writing nothing for two months, June was where I tried to do a complete reset, and start from scratch building up my daily wordcount and, well. I just wasn't ready yet. I managed 2 days in June, on the 3rd and 4th, and then crashed back into writing nothing.

Third Quarter - July-August-September

Words: 1,346 Time Writing: 1 hour 20 minutes

After crashing in my reset attempt in June, I knew I had to just ride the burnout to it's end. Pushing was only going to make it last longer. I also knew I had a long-awaited holiday set in September. It was my first holiday in about 15 years, so I decided to not set any goals for this quarter. If the mood to write struck me, I'd go with it, but otherwise I was concentrating on reading, on preparing for my holiday, and on outlining other ideas, worldbuilding, and anything to do with my books that wasn't actually putting new words down on the page.

One of those things was figuring out a bonus scene to give away for Darkling Preorders, and I did try working on that a little in August. That's where most of my words for this quarter landed, but most of my time was spent outlining.

And the thing is, the holiday actually really helped. Where I went on holiday happened to be a very similar landscape/enviroment to one of the location in Darkling, and I found around the middle of the holiday I was handwriting in a notebook. I'd not done that in a long time.

Fourth Quarter - October-November-December

October Words: 2,439 Time Writing: 2 hours 45 minutes

November Words: 51,841 Time Writing: 43 hours 45 minutes

December Words: 2,273 Time Writing: 1hour 40 minutes

I came back from my holiday re-energised and knew I wanted to dive straight back into Darkling while still riding that high. I spent some time writing in October, before I hit a few snags and realised I needed to get a birds eye view on the plot.

So I stepped back from writing again to rehash my outline. I now have a timeline of events stuck to the large cupboard in my living room, but it set me up for success in November's Nanowrimo.

My original goal for Nano was 75k, which would have completed the Darkling Manuscript, but November Nano's are always hard, and I've only just pulled myself out of a 6-month burnout, so I had no intention of pushing myself too hard. I did win Nano, but with 51k and change.

Which left me just December to finish the final 20-25k. I'm always a little slower in December. A reaction to a fast Nanowrimo/November, combined with family and holiday seasonal stuff pulling at my time, so I didn't get as much done as I'd have liked, before Christmas prep took up all my free time. I did still managed a few thousand words though, so I was happy enough with that considering how the rest of 2023 had gone.

Goals for 2024

I try and keep my goals vague and loose, because I know I can't always commit to things, especially long term, but in general I'm just going to try and make self care a priority this year, while still making progress and moving forward with my writing.

Make my health a priority

Pace my writing and editing time to avoid burnout

Publish Darkling

Complete the Fey Touched manuscript

Send out my newsletter regularly

Books Read in 2023

I do consider the books I read part of my process. Something to refill the creative well, so here's a list of books I've read over the course of the year too...

Lux by Rae Else (My Review of 'Lux') .

Shut Up and Write The Book by Jenna Moreci (My Review of 'Shut Up & Write The Book') .

Fernweh Saga Book One (Interactive Fiction) (My Review of 'Fernweh Saga Book #1' on Steam) .

A Rival Most Vial by R.K. Ashwick (My Review of 'A Rival Most Vial') .

Changeling by Arista Holmes (Yes, I did reread my own book!) (Goodreads Reviews of Changeling; 4.58 Stars) .

The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff (Tradpub) .

The Night Market Book One by Zinnia Demitasse (Interactive Fiction) (My Review of 'The Night Market Book #1' on Steam) .

Wrath and Wraiths, Chronicles of the Dawnblade Book Four by Andrew Claydon (My Review of 'Wrath and Wraiths') .

The Signature Move by Cassandra Diviak (My Review of 'The Signature Move') .

City of Souls by Mel Harding-Shaw (Reread!) (My Review of City of Souls) .

Shards of Stasis by Mel Harding-Shaw .

Shrine of Stars by Mel Hardin-Shaw . And my current read it;

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (Tradpub)

[chorusfm]

Cursive Announce New Album

Cursive will release Devourer on Run for Cover Records on September 13th. Today they’ve shared a video for “Up and Away” and some new tour dates. Tour Dates 10/18 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room 10/19 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room 10/20 – St. Louis, Off Broadway 10/21 – Nashville, TN @ The 10/22 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West 10/23 – Orlando, FL @ The Social 10/24 – Miami, FL @ Gramps 10/25 – Jacksonville, FL @ The Bier Hall at Intuition Ale Works 10/26 – Gainesville, FL @ The Fest 22 10/27 – Charlotte, NC @ The Neighborhood Theatre 10/28 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall 10/29 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage 10/30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts 11/01 – Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall 11/02 – Amityville, NY @ Amityville Music Hall 11/03 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom 11/05 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s 11/06 – Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre 11/07 – Buffalo, NY @ Rec Room Press Release Freshly signed to Run For Cover Records, Cursive today announced their new album Devourerwill be released on September 13, 2024. The iconic Omaha band is known for their intensity, ambition, and execution, and has spent 30 years creating a bold discography that’s defined as much by its cathartic sound as its weighty, challenging lyrical themes. As daring as ever, their 10th album Devourer is full of intense and incisive songs, proving exactly why Cursive have been so influential and enduring–and why they remain so vital today. The album’s lead single “Up and Away” is also out now alongside a video directed by Brea Grant (12 Hour Shift, Torn Hearts) and starring Jonah Ray; anchored by a sinuous bassline, the song exemplifies the band’s signature blend of dissonance and deep melody.  “‘Up And Away’ is an unusual pop song, it kind of slinks about musically. I had the ‘up, up, up, up, up, up and away’ section of lyrics in my head from its inception but hadn't planned on using something so bright, cheery and arguably trite...until it occurred to me that what I was really singing about was something floating away from me, something I was losing, not my personal elevation into some stratosphere. So, it stuck,” explains singer/guitarist Tim Kasher. “The video is the first in a series of horror-esque stories we've been planning for some time now, a collection of videos created by genre directors. Brea Grant conceived this story of a down-on-his-luck loafer who gets consumed by his own depression, swallowed into some surreal underworld of blanket forts where Cursive seems to be wallowing as well.”  Devourer is now available for preorder. The band has also announced a slew of tour dates this fall in support of the album, beginning October 18th with two hometown Omaha shows at The Waiting Room and including a November 3rd stop at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. A current itinerary is below. In the years since their 1995 formation, Cursive developed into one of the most important groups to emerge from the late-’90s/early ‘00s moment when the lines between indie rock and post-hardcore began blurring into something altogether new. Albums like Domestica (2000) and The Ugly Organ (2003) became essential touchstones whose echoes can still be heard in new bands today. The pull of nostalgia can be strong over time, but Cursive’s work has often felt like a rejection of those comfort zones; the band has continually pushed themselves, with Kasher’s artistic restlessness steering them ahead. In fact, for Kasher, whose pointed observations always begin with looking inward first, it was an interrogation of this voracious creativity that planted the seeds of Devourer.   “I am obsessive about consuming the arts,” he explains. “Music, film, literature. I’ve come to recognize that I devour all of these art forms then, in turn, create my own versions of these things and spew them out onto the world. It’s positive; you’re part of an ecosystem. But I quickly recognized that the term, ‘Devourer,’ may also embody something gnarly, sinister.” Devourerdelves into that… https://chorus.fm/news/cursive-announce-new-album/

[unknownzine]

A Zine Update from Unknown

It’s been a while! Did you miss me? ^^

I’m happy to report that my lovely assistants are finishing up their zine pieces~ Isn’t that exciting? Soon we’ll be able to start the next phase of our plans. I hope you’ll be ready for it ♥

Check out our schedule for more info, and I hope to see you soon.

-Unknown

 Updated Schedule

August 10-September 20~Preorder Period

October-November~Print Production

January~ Packaging and Shipping

**Note from the mods: We decided to push back shipping in order to avoid the holiday rush. We thank you in advance for your patience.

[what-eats-owls]

Hi! I just saw the news about your book; congratulations!!! That's so amazing!!! I was hoping I could ask you what your querying/publishing process was like? My dream is to get published by a big name kind of publisher like Tor, and it would be wonderful to hear if and how you got an agent, what the process was like, etc. Thank you, and congrats again!! I'll definitely be keeping a lookout for the book

Hey there!

(Sidebar: if anyone’s curious and/or wants to preorder my book, which I, in my unbiased opinion, highly recommend, here’s everything you need to know)

I can tell you about not one, but two querying processes, because they’re both equally important in how I made it this far.

The first querying process was for a book that I still love and would like to resuscitate someday.

Here’s how it went down:

I drafted the manuscript from February - October 2013.

I revised November-January 2014

I began querying literary agents toward the end of Jan 2014 and revised based on the feedback I got

I submitted the manuscript to Pitch Wars in 2014, and then again in 2015, and made it in for 2015, revising September-October, and pitching in November

Around mid-March 2016, I sent the last query for that novel, and focused my undivided attention on another WIP.

And here is a comprehensive list of every mistake I made:

I drafted the manuscript from February - October 2013.

It was a difficult-to-classify genre. Science Fantasy? Future Fantasy? If a bookseller doesn’t know where to put your book, they won’t make a whole new shelf just for you. (Note: this seems to be on the verge of shifting, but I wouldn’t bank on it for your debut.)

It was 152,000 words long. The industry standard for YA SFF (SciFi+Fantasy) is 100,000 words or less. Exceptions are rare and usually extended to established authors who have proven their marketability.

I revised November-January 2014

I had no critique partners. Sure, you can be your own worst critic, but you absolutely need another perspective.

I made no substantial changes. Removing an apostrophe didn’t fix a sloppy plot.

I began querying literary agents toward the end of Jan 2014 and revised based on the feedback I got

I queried without doing much research into industry standards, comp titles, etc. I just googled “how to sell a book” and went to town.

I submitted the manuscript to Pitch Wars in 2014, and then again in 2015, and made it in for 2015, revising September-October, and pitching in November.

Pitch Wars was actually great! I made a lot of friends who I still speak to today. That said, it was a big risk to enter a story that hadn’t made it in the previous year, because most of the mentors had passed on it a year earlier.

Around mid-March 2016, I sent the last query for that novel, and focused my undivided attention on another WIP.

CUE SIRENS, AIRHORNS, SKYWRITERS THAT SPELL OUT “THIS WAS THE SMART CHOICE”

At this point, I had spent two years trying to query a manuscript that wasn’t gonna make it. It was hard, and heartbreaking, because at that point I had poured everything I had into that story, and because it wasn’t enough, I didn’t feel like I was enough. I felt like Sisyphus pushing a big lousy rock up a hill, telling myself it was my fault it kept rolling to the bottom. But I loved that lousy rock! I didn’t want to walk away and find a different rock I could push up a hill, I wanted that rock. It took two years of pushing before I finally realized: it’s a rock. Without me, it’s not going anywhere. And I could come back when I was ready.

(I was also dealing with some major life events at the time - my mother had just been diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, and my miserable job was in a downward spiral. IT WAS A GREAT MENTAL SPACE ALL AROUND. But my mom is cancer-free now, and I write for a living, so suck it cancer! Suck it, shitty job!)

What I didn’t realize until much later is that when you spend two years pushing a boulder uphill? You get shredded like Kylo Ren.

All those failures, all those mistakes I’d learned from, had made me a better writer. (It also made me a slower drafter because I was waaaay more critical of my own writing, but eh. I could draft slower because the end product needed less revision.)

So here’s how things went down with my second manuscript:

I drafted the manuscript off-and-on from January - July 2015, then exclusively from March - December 2016

I revised January and February 2017 (when I wasn’t, y’know, wallowing in existential horror in the orange mold infestation in the White House)

I was accepted into Pitch Madness, a contest which asked for a VERY short pitch (35 words or less) and the first 250 words of the manuscript; this was in early March 2017.

The response from agents in the contest was positive enough that I sent queries out to the rest of the agents on my priority list

I signed with my fabulous agent in mid-April 2017

My book sold in late June 2017

Said book will be released in just over four months from now. :)

So let’s review: 

Manuscript one: eight months drafting, two years querying, no agent, no deal

Manuscript two: ~1.5 year drafting, one month querying, sold two months after signing with my agent

Yeah, I’d say I learned a thing or two.

As far as things go once you’ve sold to a publisher, everyone’s timeline is SUPER different: 

Sometimes your editor has minimal notes, but you don’t get them for months. 

Sometimes you get a ton of notes even BEFORE you sign your contract. 

Sometimes your book may be in pristine shape, but the release schedule is super crowded, so it won’t be out until there’s an opening in a year; or the reverse, your book is super buzzy and gets fast-tracked and has to be ready on a SUPER FAST schedule. 

Sometimes your editor moves to a different publisher, and you get assigned to a new editor. 

All of these have happened for authors I know. It’s basically Calvinball, there is no norm. (Fun fact: this is also part of why every author yells “DON’T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB FOR THE LOVE OF GOD” but that’s another post.)

One other note for this: if you’re interested in publishing with a mid-to-major publisher, you need an agent. Publishing contracts are notoriously full of potential pitfalls - for example, I can think of at least one major publisher that has language in their default contract that says the contract can be terminated if the author “flauts public convention.” And there are other, less flagrantly terrible parts of the contract that can still screw you over if they aren’t caught, and things that can still get weird outside of contracts that your agent can help you navigate, and basically your agent is there to make sure you’re all getting the best deal possible.

Anyway, that’s my publishing journey thus far! If anyone has any questions, hit up my inbox.

[momokun-receipts-blog]

“Conclusion” to Charity Projects by Mariah Mallad

(original text by momokuncosplay whose blog unfortunately isn’t viewable anymore)

About 2 months ago Mariah started multiple charity projects for various different causes. The first being a print set where the proceeds would go to hurricane relief. The second being a charity stream for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. Tl;dr: she was very slow and very unprofessional setting all of these charity projects up. Two months has passed since her first stating the prints would go to charity and they’re still on preorder. A month has passed with her not continuing the stream to reach her goal.Because of this people have been upset, and also because she kept giving different dates for when she’d continue the stream.Finally, Mariah tweeted towards the end of October that she would try to stream a few more times and if she didn’t meet her goal of 2500 by the end of the month she’d donate the rest herself.

Despite her saying she’d just donate the rest if she didn’t reach the goal, three days later she tweeted that she won’t be able to stream because she has to finish a cosplay for Blizzcon, with no mention of donating the money.

People tweeted at her demanding she donate the money. It seemed as if Mariah kept changing the time for when she planned on actually going through with it. She changed her tune again, and said she’d donate it on November 2nd since thats apparently when she started the “campaign.”

After days of no news again, someone asked when she’d be donating the money and once again she changed it to when she got back from Blizzcon.

It takes about 5 minutes to donate money to a charity online, so I’m unsure as to why she felt the need to push it back for so long.

Finally after a weekend of loitering outside of Blizzcon, Mariah posted she donated the money.

Notice how the amount she raised has changed. First it was 1800, then 1600, and now its 1500 out of 2500. Also in my honest (totally not biased huehue) opinion, I think she waited so long because she was waiting for her Patreon money to come in at the start of the month. I have no doubt she spent what she raisedd and panicked when she realized she wouldn’t be able to donate the full 2500. This would explain why she waited weeks to actually do the donation.

That at least concludes the charity stream. For the prints however… thats still up in the air. As noted in a cap above the prints don’t actually ship out into mid to late November. Even though she has had the prints for over two months now.

In mid October Mariah tweeted that the reasoning behind the $15 charge of the charity prints is because of the costs it takes to make the prints and ship them out.

So if using the highest numbers she provided that means each print will be a donation of $5. So people have been waiting two months to simply pay for shipping and donate $5 to a fund. Not to mention about a month before, in September, she said she may just her own money to ship the prints out in a Patreon post.

Clearly she has decided it would cost her too much to do that out of pocket, even though that would mean MORE MONEY going to the relief fund.

I have said this in every post about this charity bullshit, but please. DON’T. FUCKING. DONATE. THROUGH. HER. It took her a MONTH to donate the streaming money, and all she had to do was put her card info into a website and pay it and chances are she spent all the money anyway. She’s also overcharging people because she doesn’t want to spend her own money on buying prints and shipping stuff out. If you want to donate $15 then donate $15 directly to the charity! Do not get scammed by her.

[trashyfaery]

Soo... i preordered the 10 inch Maleficent dragon Funko Pop to go with my Maleficent and Hades (who came later) in MAY 2021 with a release date of September 2021. Yay finally i get my little screwed up Descendants family, yes Mal is the dragon. I looked for the official Descendants funkos and they're nowhere aside from a million pounds on Ebay or Amazon.

September came and went and no dragon.

October came and went and no dragon

NOVEMBER; Emailed them "where is my order"

Told "er its out of stock"

Wtf its a PRE ORDER! Emailed back asking wtf. Then told "sorry its been pushed back to January. Sorry lol"

Guess what? ITS NOT BEING RELEASED NOW UNTIL JULY!

Only found this out because i made a complaint after several emails back and forth demanding answers and getting Nowhere!

On the plus side? They're sending me Evil Queen Grimhilde for free.

[sonofdu]

Fall Movie Preview

The fall movie season is a bit of an oddity these days. Ever since the movie studios found out they could make billions off of superheroes and Star Wars, first the spring movie season started filling up with movies that would feel more at home during the summer, then the winter season as well. But the fall season has been relatively untouched with these kinds of movies as that was always the time of year that films were released with higher expectations than making wheelbarrows full of money, these were Oscar hopeful movies. While there are still a lot of movies due out that have Academy Awards on their minds this fall, there’s quite a few as well that feel more like summer blockbusters than award winners.

The Predator – September, 14

The Predator

What was originally due out this summer before being pushed to the fall, the third film in the Predator franchise, unless you count those awful Aliens vs Predator movies of a few years ago and who wants to do that!? The Predator marks the return of Shane Black (Iron Man 3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) to the sci-fi genera. Black co-starred as Hawkins and did some on-set rewriting on the first film. The Predator looks to move the action from the jungles of Central America in Predator and Los Angeles in Predator 2 to a rain-soaked little town where the only thing standing between the population and total destruction are a rag-tag team of special forces soldiers being carted off to prison.

Venom – October, 5

Venom

There’s some confusion with this one. Starring Tom Hardy, technically Venom takes place in the same film universe as the fan-favorite Spider-Man: Homecoming movie, except if reports are to be believed out of the San Diego Comic-Con your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man won’t be making an appearance in this one. And it almost seems as if Sony is positioning Venom, who’s been the nemesis of Spider-Man in the comics for 30 years now and even appeared in Spider-Man 3, to be more an anti-hero than a villain. Think Punisher rather than Ultron and that sounds more in-line with this new movie version of the character.

Halloween – October, 19

Halloween (2018)

This latest version of Halloween will be the TENTH sequel to the original film and will bring back Jamie Lee Curtis in the Laurie Strode role she originated in the first film and has reprised on and off the last 40 years. This new Halloween reportedly ignores everything after Halloween II (1981) — though how can anyone ignore that ear-worm of a song “ten more days ’til Halloween” from Halloween III: Season of the Witch?

The Girl in the Spider’s Web – November, 9

The 2011 film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was supposed to be the first of a series of movies taken from the novels of Stieg Larsson directed by David Fincher and starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. But for whatever reason it was decided to cast aside that creative team and start anew this time with director Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe) and co-stars Claire Foy and Sverrir Gudnason in the Mara/Daniel roles respectively.

Maybe Fincher’s vision for the Dragon Tattoo sequels was too intense since the movie did decently enough at the box office for something not starring super-heroes?

Alita: Battle Angel trailer

TV

Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks

Recently, I caught a documentary about the TV series Freaks and Geeks and had some memories of my own to share of this gem of a show.

I remember when Freaks and Geeks premiered it was difficult to see new episodes. NBC seemed to either air a lot of repeats or they moved the show around a lot to different timeslots.

I remember that the episode “Kim Kelly is My Friend” was controversial for its time and didn’t run in my area during the series original run.

In fact, I didn’t see all of the episodes of Freaks and Geeks until Fox Family reran the series in 2000 as there were a few episodes including “Kim Kelly is My Friend” that never aired on NBC.

When Fox Family began rerunning Freaks and Geeks and premiering unaired episodes I started recording the show on my EyeTV which was a device that allowed you to record a cable signal to your computer and save shows as MPGs. While I’m pretty sure I recorded the entire run this way, I’m also pretty sure I never watched them other than maybe the one time since the files it produced them were small and SD cable grainy too.

In 2003 or 2004 Shout! Factory promoted a DVD set of the entire series, urging people to preorder the set since this might be their only chance to own this, then, forgotten series on home media. Of course I ponied up something like $120 for the set.

The Reading & Watch List

Atomic Bomb Effects on an Aircraft in Flight

Big tech warns of ‘Japan’s millennium bug’ ahead of Akihito’s abdication

Cool Movie & TV Posters of the Week

Mission Impossible: Fallout

Nightflyers

Direct Beam Comms #138 Fall Movie Preview The fall movie season is a bit of an oddity these days. Ever since the movie studios found out they could make billions off of superheroes and…

[ads-is-shady-blog]

#3) [Otome Games/BTS] Indie devs enrage fans of their crowdfunded games with a censorship controversy, years of broken promises and delays, & legal troubles on a BTS fan game

View the discussion on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/abjkzf/otome_gamesbts_indie_devs_enrage_fans_of_their/

Post (words belong to original poster linked):

Tl;dr at the bottom since this spans several years and numerous layers of drama and is therefore very long.

Some useful info:

Otome games: a niche genre aimed at a female audience, typically visual novels with a female player character and romanceable male characters. Originated in Japan.

Visual novel (VN): a game where the story and dialogue is (mostly) conveyed in text, accompanied by relatively simple visuals and audio, and with choices that change the direction of the story. Also originated in Japan. VNs made in English are sometimes distinguished with the moniker OELVN (Original English Language Visual Novel).

Route: a specific path or branch of a visual novel, often one involving a romance with a particular character.

Pay-per-route: a payment model mainly found in mobile otome games where a game's prologue/common route is free and each character's route is bought separately as DLC. There may also be separate epilogues, sequels and other DLC.

BTS: a massively popular 7-member Kpop boy idol group.

ARMY/ARMYs: the official name of BTS's fanbase/fans.

BigHit Entertainment: BTS's agency.

This drama concerns one small indie dev company, Aeon Dream Studios (ADS), formerly known as Star Maiden Games, and three of their games:

Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons (MDSOA): their first game for PC & mobile, an urban fantasy OELVN otome game;

Mystic Destinies: Echoes (Echoes): a promised sequel where the romanceable characters are the male antagonists of the first game;

To the Edge of the Sky (TTEOTS): originally a nonromantic BTS fan game for PC & mobile where the members of BTS are reimagined as operatives in a cyberpunk future. There was no in-game mention of the members' names or of BTS itself, but characters were visibly recognisable as BTS members and the group's name was frequently used in descriptions & promotions by the devs. Though originally free, the game was later monetised.

I'll break things down by year for easier reading. I only became aware of the drama this summer and most of this post is the product of my amateur internet sleuthing in the last month, so I apologise if I have made any mistakes.

2015

Star Maiden Games formed and began developing MDSOA in 2015. Like many indie otome game developers, in September 2015 they turned to Kickstarter for funding with a $2,000 goal. Five days later they'd met the target, and when the campaign closed they had $3,555 pledged in total and several stretch goals met. Looking back now, they were a little overoptimistic in promises for sequels and episodic content which were never added. The $3,500 stretch goal of customisable MC skin colour was also never implemented, though this was supposedly because one backer cancelled their pledge.

2016

MDSOA was soon Greenlit and released on Steam in February 2016 with a free prologue and a single route as paid DLC; four more routes and five corresponding epilogues were to be added as DLC as they were completed. Though the majority of initial reviews were positive (see chart), several Steam users left negative reviews, many criticising the pay-per-route model that had given multiple players the false impression that the entire game was free. One reviewer made a deeply critical playthrough of the prologue on Youtube, branding the game 'Serendipishit', and was soon notified it had been taken down by a copyright strike from the developers. His video about the strike gained significant attention on Reddit and a backlash began to form against the developers' perceived attempt to censor criticism.

A day later, the reviewer posted a follow-up video asking viewers to stop harassing the devs. Having personally spoken with them, he now stated the developers were revoking the strike and everything was good. The exact same thing also happened to another Youtuber at roughly the same time (initial video, video about the strike, update. Judging by a comment on the latter video, the Youtuber believed after speaking to the devs that the copyright strikes were deliberate manual strikes aimed at negative reviews.)

In both cases the follow-ups attracted a fraction of the attention that the videos about the strikes got and the controversy took a while to die down. Outside of Steam the developers made only the vaguest allusions to these events. The devs' most detailed comment on the issue, along with a defence of their payment model, was in response to a Steam review, where they claimed they had not specifically targeted negative reviews, only videos that did not have their direct permission to be posted.

Despite the censorship furore, otome game fans who tried MDSOA were largely pleased with the game and a small but passionate fanbase formed. The developers had a small number of Patreon supporters; bonuses included a short story set before MDSOA, which was also sold for $1+ on Gumroad. The second route came out in May 2016, and that month Star Maiden Games changed their name to Aeon Dream Studios, only citing "varied" reasons for the change.

At some point during the year, the two creative heads of the studio became fans of Korean idol group BTS due to relating to the lyrics of Dope, a motivational anthem about the group's tireless work and commitment to attaining success while refusing to bow to criticism. According to later statements by the CEO/Creative Director of ADS, the devs were enduring significant poverty and exhaustion while working on MDSOA during this time.

That September the third route released and ADS launched another Kickstarter campaign to help fund the final 2 routes and a deluxe edition DLC, all of which were slated to be out by December. Fans spread the word and within 4 days they reached the funding goal of $7,500. The devs then rebranded much of the page to reflect their stretch goal, a sequel called Mystic Destinies: Echoes, initially promised for March 2017. Though the stretch goal was not reached, the funding surplus (roughly $5,500) was put towards Echoes with another Kickstarter planned later to finish funding. The fourth MDSOA route was briefly delayed but came out at the end of November. The fifth route and the DLC did not end up arriving in December as promised, but as some delays are par for the course with Kickstarter, nobody was too perturbed. However, whispers of unrest began as ADS started making references to a BTS fan project.

2017

The developers finished funding Echoes through their third Kickstarter in January 2017. This slightly surpassed its $7,200 goal with a closing total in February of $8,033, and they also opened preorders for the game on itch.io (since closed). They now aimed to first finish MDSOA and its Kickstarter reward fulfilment and then release Echoes in "late Spring 2017", or at least no later than Summer 2017. The studio at the time consisted of only 3 employees, with some work contracted out to others.

Obviously, things didn't quite pan out.

Despite the amount of work still to be done on the Mystic Destinies games, in March 2017 they also released a demo for their BTS fan game, TTEOTS, and in May were soliciting funds through Gofundme for further development. (This closed in September 2017 at $1000 raised.) They dreamed of receiving an official endorsement from BigHit and not only emailed and tweeted at BigHit (with no response) but encouraged fans to do so as well, mobilising under the Twitter hashtag #ARMYWantsBTSGames. Though they never received any response, they decided to go ahead with the game anyway. Meanwhile, due to the pushbacks, lack of updates, and emergence of the BTS project, Mystic Destinies fans began to criticise the studio more openly (sample comments: one, two, three).

One focus of criticism was the devs' poor communication. Statements and news were scattered across multiple platforms or buried in Kickstarter comments, leading to confusion and rumours flying among the discontented community. When pressed for answers about whether the delays were TTEOTS-related, the developers insisted they were only working on one game at a time. Meanwhile, the final route of MDSOA hit further delays and due to the devs' communication issues many fans only found out it had been split into two parts when the first book finally released in June. The second followed in July, while the deluxe edition DLC was now slated for "Summer 2017". Continuous delays followed, but the developers posted semi-regular updates, blaming delays on problems like Hurricane Irma and their main artist leaving. In October the DLC was still not out and the devs stated Echoes would be out in November - but at the same time they were running more crowdfunding campaigns for TTEOTS.

As a BTS fan game, the developers tapped into a large and dedicated worldwide fanbase, so it wasn't a surprise that the two TTEOTS funding campaigns launched in October across Kickstarter and Fundrazr netted over $36,000 in total. From here on Fundrazr was the devs' crowdfunding platform of choice, using its "Keep it all" option where backers' money is sent immediately and campaigns can run forever. By November 2017 TTEOTS's first part had been launched to the public and they created a petition for BigHit to officially recognise the game (9000 signatures and 2k+ comments as of this post), but there were no updates on Echoes or MDSOA's deluxe edition DLC until the end of the month, when both were again delayed until December. Still, as the releases had only been delayed by a month or two each time, it seemed like both games must be near to completion.

Just two weeks later, ADS pushed back Echoes' release date indefinitely, offering a vague promise of 2018, and stated Echoes would now have less content than originally promised - 10 hours' gameplay instead of 15-25. They claimed they would offer refunds to anyone who wanted one but backers were understandably confused and upset, leaving comments expressing their frustration. As 2017 ended, fans were growing deeply concerned.

January - July 2018

After announcing another delay for the MDSOA DLC and receiving a few exasperated responses, the devs posted a backer-exclusive update threatening to forcibly issue refunds to backers whose behaviour they found dissatisfactory and blaming negative comments as the reason for their silences. I was not a backer so don't have a screenshot, but here's part of the text:

We would like to issue a reminder to everyone interacting with us in the community that comments should remain respectful and polite. [...] we ask that the community please keep a positive, welcoming environment instead of the toxic one it's veering into for us - which also makes us reluctant to speak openly about our progress and engage with the community more often. If you feel you cannot do this, or are engaging in abusive language, we do reserve the right to refuse service - this can result processing a refund for your backer number. [...] Part of supporting a project is more than just the financial aspect, but being an encouraging, welcoming presence for the team to come back to and feel comfortable with discussing the development with you in our regular updates. (emphasis added)

Many read this as a threat to stop airing any criticism whatsoever. In the Steam forums, backers dissected the devs' statements and wondered about the legality of TTEOTS, with one user predicting legal trouble was inevitable. (sample comments: one, two, three)

In February, ADS launched another Twitter campaign to promote TTEOTS using the hashtag #BTSxTTEOTS and the account @Trend_TTEOTS. They also hired a new writer, a BTS and TTEOTS fan who had helped promote the game by handing out promo cards at BTS concerts before she was hired. She was set to work on Echoes along with another employee while the most experienced employees, including the CEO, continued work on TTEOTS.

February also brought the release of the deluxe edition DLC for MDSOA, which meant the game was at last considered complete over a year later than promised. Some backers were incredibly frustrated by this point as those who had paid for the full deluxe edition of the game on Kickstarter did not receive any part of the game until the deluxe edition DLC was finished. As the promised release date had been December 2016 at the time of the Kickstarter, backers had certainly not expected such a long and uncertain wait to receive the full game. Some backers had been so dedicated to the game that they had bought the DLC as it came out on Steam on top of backing one or more of the Kickstarters.

As for Echoes, there was little mention of it throughout the first half of 2018, but the devs continued to post regularly about TTEOTS, released the first volume of a TTEOTS graphic novel on ComiXology, and launched additional crowdfunding campaigns on Fundrazr, including:

a project to send gifts to BTS in hopes of receiving official recognition for TTEOTS ($645);

a full length TTEOTS novel (which is still open and currently stands at over $3.5k);

a second campaign to fund TTEOTS development ($4,123);

a campaign to revamp TTEOTS's art ($4,516).

As 2018 rolled on, Echoes backers became angrier at the continued lack of updates and perceived favouritism towards TTEOTS. Those following the devs' social media in hopes of receiving Echoes news were infuriated by the constant stream of TTEOTS-related posts; even the Echoes Kickstarter received an update which featured several lines about TTEOTS and only a cursory mention of Echoes at the end. Despite their claims that half the studio was working on Echoes, their silence about the progress of the game continued and was not well received.

Comments in the Steam forums and elsewhere had by now become much more accusatory. Some backers speculated that the money they'd paid for Echoes had been funneled into TTEOTS instead; some suggested the devs were just opportunists cashing in on BTS's popularity by milking eager fans for money. Since January, numerous Echoes backers had reported difficulty getting the promised refunds (example), often due to unanswered emails and messages, or failed to get any response when asking about backer rewards they were still owed (example).

TTEOTS Premium also launched in late May, swiftly climbing to the #10 Paid Casual app on the Google Play store. Premium included extra content, including exclusive art and the beginnings of romantic content with the characters. For $9.99 Premium players were promised an all-access season pass to all future content up to the game's completion date in December 2018.

With a large fanbase and multiple revenue streams, TTEOTS seemed to be thriving despite the escalating discontent from Mystic Destinies fans.

August - December 2018

Then, in early August, the devs dropped a bombshell: they had been served a cease & desist by BTS's agency, BigHit Entertainment, along with a demand for financial records regarding TTEOTS.

Though TTEOTS was originally a free fan game, BTS's agency may have finally felt a legal line was crossed with the addition of its premium version - presumably they had been aware of the game for some time due to the volume of ADS and ARMY's attempts at contact. Irate Echoes backers experienced a certain schadenfreude at this announcement, with some perceiving it to be the studio's comeuppance. Many had given up on ever getting Echoes and some actively hoped ADS would be sued into bankruptcy.

After the C&D the devs hired legal advice and launched Operation Phoenix, an effort to edit the game's art so characters could not be recognised as BTS, as well as redact all mention of BTS elsewhere to avoid legal repercussions. Some art was updated, but other characters' faces were hidden with masks while new art was being worked on. As many TTEOTS players were ARMYs, some complained about the change or stopped playing entirely, but if anything much of the game's fanbase was bolstered by the crisis. ARMYs sometimes have a contentious relationship with BTS's agency and some felt that BigHit's approach to TTEOTS was not only unfair but set a worrying precedent for other BTS fan works. (At least one fan took to calling the agency 'BigShit'.)

The developers posted two passive aggressive tweets bidding goodbye to those who had abandoned the game due to the C&D and Operation Phoenix and thanking those who stayed.

Not long after, they suddenly began posting developer interviews to promote Echoes' "imminent release" in September 2018, and appeared in the MDSOA Steam forums to lock a discussion thread with over 200 posts which backers had been using for more than a year to discuss and speculate on the Kickstarter problems and, later, the legal situation with TTEOTS. The devs posted a warning against libel and slander and instructed anyone with concerns to email them directly and wait 72 hours for a response instead of posting on the forums. Some commenters felt this was simply an attempt to threaten them into shutting up and hide criticism from the public eye, prompting dozens of outraged comments in response. Several people pointed out they had tried emailing questions or refund requests in the past and never received a reply.

After that, things eventually quieted down for a time. A number of official statements followed on ADS's website between August and October. Echoes was again delayed past September, but many backers had given up caring anyway. The CEO/Creative Director lamented the negativity of Echoes backers, admitted they had made mistakes and stated they would have been homeless if they hadn't started working on TTEOTS. These statements again riled up the posters in the Steam forums for both MDSOA and Echoes, and there were several critical responses to these statements on Kickstarter, but also several supportive responses too. In October they stated Echoes is 80% finished and offered a vague release date of "before the end of the year [2018]".

Come December this began to look increasingly unlikely, and on top of that TTEOTS fans began to grow concerned about the schedule slip and silence regarding Chapter 4 of TTEOTS which was originally scheduled for September, then November, and is still unreleased as of this post (tweet compilations: one, two). While December 2018 had originally been slated as the completion date for TTEOTS, the devs had since announced they planned to continue the game indefinitely in seasons. Echoes backers clearly felt that history was repeating itself for a different group of fans. However, TTEOTS fans appear to mostly still believe in the developers, and some have tweeted defending the devs and urging people not to pressure them for updates.

After a long silence, the CEO of ADS posted a personal blog in mid-December stating that she had struggled to focus on her work ever since a BTS member sustained a minor injury in October that affected his mental state (for reference, "MAMA 2018" refers to Mnet Asian Music Awards, which mainly features Kpop artists, and where BTS won several major awards this year). The post expounded on her many worries about the mental and physical health of BTS members and the effect they had had on her life.

Finally, there was a year-end update on the 24th, pushing back Echoes once again to 2019 and placing blame for the delays on the staff she selected to work on it. Echoes backers were incredulous. Most expressed sympathy for these employees, their consensus being that the CEO had essentially dumped her mess on people with less experience, not given them sufficient help and supervision, and thrown them under the bus to avoid taking responsibility herself. No date was given for future TTEOTS content and she described wanting to "focus less on ADS and more on other solo projects" in 2019.

It is currently unknown if any further legal action will be taken by BigHit, but the development of the amended version of TTEOTS will supposedly continue and the devs' website still contains a link in the navbar to their petition for BTS to officially recognise the game.

Further reading:

Threads on /r/otomegames from backers: one, two

ADS's CEO's thoughts on the creator-fan relationship

Tl;dr (even the tl;dr is long, sorry)

Mystic Destinies

Indie dev studio releases niche game in installments using 3 Kickstarters to fund the 5 routes, a DLC and a sequel. Total funding for all: $24k+, plus preorders, Patreon, & Paypal donations

Developers use copyright strikes to take down two negative Youtube videos about the game, generating a censorship backlash, but revoke the strikes soon after

Continual delays & increasingly long silences about progress. The final DLC was over a year late, the sequel is not out yet (approaching 2 years late) & will be shorter than promised

Backers report extreme difficulty getting refunds, ignored emails & not receiving certain Kickstarter rewards. Irate backers feel valid criticism is being stifled by devs and devs are playing victim

To The Edge of the Sky

During the Mystic Destinies delays, devs began pouring efforts into a free BTS fan game and running numerous social media and crowdfunding campaigns. Funding: $40k+ for the game, $3.5k+ for a novel, $600+ for a gift project, plus Patreon & Paypal donations, revenues from a graphic novel and...

...a premium version of the game is launched in May 2018 with a $9.99 season pass or smaller microtransactions

In August 2018 devs announce they received a cease and desist from BTS's agency and have to hire lawyers, remove all reference to BTS and send financial records to the agency. Angry ex-fans are delighted, some BTS fans abandon the game, others staunchly support the devs.

As of December 2018, development on the formerly BTS-based game has hit delays and long silences but TTEOTS fans remain mostly supportive, the long-delayed MD sequel is delayed again to 2019 with delays blamed on inexperienced employees, Mystic Destinies backers look on with exhaustion and hopelessness.

[ryadel]

My new Angular book is not out yet, but is already a scam

Writing a programming book is a task that almost always proves to be much more difficult than expected, especially when dealing with mutable and unpredictable frameworks such as ASP.NET Core and Angular. Once again we had to wait for the release of the latest "final" version of Angular, just as already happened in 2017 with my previous book: Angular 5.0.0 version, initially scheduled for September 18th, was postponed for over a month ( October 23th) and then released on November 2 after no less than nine release candidates. After that experience we all thought we couldn't experience anything worse, but we were wrong: the latest major release of Angular experienced a delay of over two months (from December to February) and was further delayed by fourteen release candidates, thus arguably being a world record of some sort. Luckily enough, the wait is finally over: on the night between 6th and 7th February 2020, just over 24 hours ago, Angular version 9.0.0 was released on GitHub, thus allowing me to finishi the book in due time and the publisher - Packt Publishing - to honor the expected release date, which had been set to February 11th.

Now that the expected schedule has been successfully met, I would like to spend a couple words - well, maybe a bit more than that - to tell you about a rather odd experience I had this afternoon while surfing the web. Truth to be told, there's a high chance that you've heard similar stories already: however, I personally think that such kind of fun facts never gets old enough; other than being hilarious, they can also greatly help to understand how the web that we're browsing nowadays actually works. So, while issuing some search queries on Google to calculate the SERP indexing level reached by the sites that had the book available for preorder, I came across this strange twitter post:

There was no mistake there: the post was clearly mentioning my book, with matching ISIN, name, author and description; and it was also telling me to download it for free (in e-book format) my clicking on an unidentified link. Such truly incredible opportunity could be seized since February 4th, judging by the tweet's time stamp: 7 days before the book's planned release date, and - most importantly - 2 days before I've actually finished writing it (!) The twitter profile was just like you might expect from a fake account: owned by Christine H. McAndrews, a cute girl with zero followers, registered in January 2020, and only tweeting about forthcoming books and how to download them. Needless to say, each and every link was pointing to the same website.

Given such intriguing scenario, I couldn't avoid taking a look to the website itself. Eventually, I landed on a blatant scam page who looked just like a bulletin board system, where some (fake) users were enthusiastically talking about my book:

The page worked in a rather fun way that deserves a couple words: it was programmed to "dynamically" fill a series of placeholders with the book info (name, author, and so on) brought by the URL GET parameters: those placeholders were scattered within the page, thus trying to emulate a plausible "thread" of enthusiasts who were talking about the book. Such neat mechanic allows "Christine", who's obviously an automatic tweet-bot, to spam the same URL in her posts, filling the GET parameters with the metadata taken from the upcoming books she wants to "promote"; a great bait for any unwary twitter (or google) user looking to download them to no cost. (side note: the GET parameters also included the image URL for the book cover hosted on Amazon; unfortunately,  the fake page doesn't seem to have properly implemented it, since it's not showing anywhere). The fake thread developed by the page portrays a rather predictable scene, typical of online scams. The opening message is written by a user which is desperately looking for the book because he/she can't find it anywhere; a (fake) user responds to the request, suggesting a link to a "free e-book download" service (the actual scam website):

The scam attempt continues by staging the typical gimmick of the doubt dispelled by the denial, a trivial social engineering trick to win the trust of the potential victim and push her to perform a potentially risky call-to-action: the (fake) opening poster replies objecting that that site asks for a credit card ...

... but is immediately reassured by another (fake) user who confirms the authenticity and reliability of the service: "don't worry, it's all trusted: just put the card in and proceed with the download!"

The trust level is further raised by the original (fake) user , who confirms that everything went really well; the credit card was just a way to check it was a real user, just like a CAPTCHA: now everything makes sense!

The scene ends with another couple of users who confirm the authenticity of the site and praise the characteristics of the service: the scam is served.

In the unlikely case you want to take a look at the "scam forum thread" page, you can access it by copying the following URLand pasting it in your browser's address bar: https://toositego.ml/az.php?q=ASP.NET+Core+3+and+Angular+9+-+Third+Edition+-+Valerio+De+Sanctis&i=https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61kIIUNGgLL._AC_UY327_FMwebp_QL65_.jpg Needless to say, you should only do that if you know what you're doing: although the page currently doesn't host malicious scripts, nothing prevents the administrators (aka the scammers) from change such behavior in the near future; however, the real threat is inside the suggested "download link" that appears within the thread: be sure to not visit it, let alone enter your credit card or any other data anywhere.

Conclusion

I must honestly say that this scam really surprised me: I was aware of similar tricks, but seeing my name (and book) inside that fake thread was rather awkward. If you want to take a look at the ASP.NET Core 3 and Angular 9 book without scam pages, remember that you can do it for free by taking advantage of the PDF previews available on Amazon and on the publisher's websites at the following URLs: ASP.NET Core 3 and Angular 9 su Amazon.it ASP.NET Core 3 and Angular 9 su Amazon.com ASP.NET Core 3 and Angular 9 sul sito Packt Publishing I hope you'll enjoy the book at least as much as this story!   Read the full article

[wionews]

iPhone X pre-orders sell out in minutes; Twitter rehashes jokes about selling arm and a leg, & kidney

Pre-orders for the iPhone X, Apple's most expensive smartphone, sold out within minutes after they opened yesterday.

In the UK -- where the phone has a starting price of £999 (a little over Rs 85,000 for the 64 GB) -- the Guardian reported the pre-orders sold out within 10 minutes. 

"We can see from the initial response, customer demand is off the charts," Reuters reported an Apple spokeswoman as saying.

ayyyyy snagged an iPhone X i’m so hype rn http://pic.twitter.com/u48ZJbjInR

— Corbyn • WHY DONT WE (@corbynbesson) October 27, 2017

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"We're working hard to get this revolutionary new product into the hands of every customer who wants one, as quickly as possible," she added. 

Reuters reported the company's website as showing delivery times for the phone pushed out to five to six weeks, compared to an initial plan of Nov. 3. 

The phone will go on sale in India on November 3. 

The X (pronounced "ten") will have a starting price here of Rs 89,000. While the 256 GB version will cost Rs 1,02,000. 

Introducing the X in September, Apple CEO Tim Cook had called it "the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone."

The X uses facial recognition to unlock, can be charged wirelessly, and has no home button. 

Twitter meanwhile went into overdrive -- with one half saying, yippee, they'd got hold of an X, and the other half rehashing the old jokes about selling an arm and a leg, and a kidney. 

Have a look: 

Ordered the #iPhoneX, cost more than the down payment on my first house. http://pic.twitter.com/Pj1FvChBFi

— Catherine Burr 🍂 (@catherineburr) October 28, 2017

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Thinking of buying an iPhone X in South Africa cash? Why not add a free weekend trip to New York City while you pick up one. http://pic.twitter.com/98mnUtPtpG

— Brent Lindeque (@BrentLindeque) October 28, 2017

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Dubai and Maldives or iPhone X?🤔😐

— Aira (@ayatott24) October 28, 2017

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Me trying to convince myself not to buy #iPhoneX http://pic.twitter.com/8r4rXAVtBF

— Salman 👶🏻 (@sssaq) October 28, 2017

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Dad is calling Vodafone and ordering an iPhone X, what a madlad

— Ghost of Chernobyl (@Vodskaya) October 28, 2017

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£117 a month contract? Apple just brought robbing phones back into fashion with the iPhone X.

— Keith Dube (@MrExposed) October 28, 2017

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I love this one 🤣 "That friend that owes you money just pre-ordered the #iPhoneX" http://pic.twitter.com/l9GML94ej3

— Gregory Bufithis (@GregBufithis) October 28, 2017

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While also saying that Apple was laughing all the way to the bank: 

Apple: “The Apple Store app will be the fastest way to preorder the iPhone X without any issues.” Also Apple: http://pic.twitter.com/JCy85458WD

— Reid Chandler (@thereidfeed) October 27, 2017

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