Status: 24 Feb 2023

Every Saturday, I post a new fantasy, science fiction, or horror story to Patreon. These are usually in ARC form—early iterations of the stories that will eventually find their way into the Eclectic Projects magazine series—although the changes between the Patreon version and the published version are minimal outside a few notable exceptions.

I’ve just prepared this week’s story and set it up to go live at 10 AM tomorrow, Queensland Time. It won’t appear in the monthly magazine until October. You can join the Patreon and get the weekly stories for as little as a buck a month (my concession to the fact that everything is awful, and money is tight right now).

I figure the first year of doing this is really just a test to see if I can do it. I don’t think of myself as a fast writer and I’d fallen into the bad habit of leaving things unfinished over the last decade, so I wanted to push myself and create a project where I had to put new writing into the world. I honestly figured I’d make it about three months and fold, but we’re now 36 story posts into the project and even on the worst weeks (like this one) I’ve got an original story done and ready for consumption.

But thirty-six stories means it’s also time to consider the future of the project. I committed myself to a year of stories—and twelve issues of the magazine—in the spirit of truly testing myself, but whether I’ll do another year largely depends on the state of the Patreon subscriptions and sales of the magazines. If you’re inclined to check them out, consider hitting up Patreon or grabbing one of issues below.

ON THE DOCKET

Progressed a bunch of design projects yesterday, then re-thought my approach to projects and time blocking to account for the way my life has changed. I also started my annual re-read of Dan Charnas’ Work Clean, which is very soothing when things get busy.

This morning was all about tomorrow’s Patreon story and prep for today’s mentorship meeting, but this afternoon will be devoted to chores and Brain Jar Work. There’s a contract to be written, page proofs to finish, and two or three books that we’re almost ready to announce if I can just keep them moving forward. Also a print proof to sign off on, and some new print runs to be ordered.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 45

BRAIN JAR INBOX: 16

BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 15