Hello, everyone!
I apologize for not updating you sooner. The medical issues faced by Kathryn's family member have proved more challenging than anticipated and it has been a very trying month for her. My thoughts are with her, because she is going through a lot.

I am happy to report, however, that she still brought her "A Game" to the project. Yesterday I received the completed draft of the 64-page interior lettering from her. The book is absolutely gorgeous and the lettering makes the dialog and action pop with true dynamism.

Here are a few of my favorite pages of lettering. Lettering comic books is a true art that requires a keen eye for the placement of the balloons - it has to match the narrative "flow" of the dialog, scan properly to the reader's eye, and fit on the page without obscuring key art while remaining large enough to be legible.

Since I received the 64-page draft, I've been carefully reviewing each page and taking notes. This afternoon I sent Kathryn those notes for her to finalize the draft into the PDF. I expect it will take her about 5 business days to accomplish those changes. Most of them are minor but there are four pages that require some substantial layout work.

The fault is entirely my own; my script simply didn't convey what was going on well enough and it wasn't until I saw the final page with lettering and sound effects that the extent of my own cinematic failure became apparent. Fortunately, we can (as they say) "fix it in post."

This project has obviously taken much longer than I had hoped to complete. I apologize for that. While we have had our share of bad luck, the fault is ultimately mine. I can only ask that you forgive me for the failure in estimating the time required. While I have written millions of words and published 16 different tabletop RPG books, this is only the second graphic novel I've ever published. The challenges involved are different, in ways I didn't fully comprehend until things went wrong. The time required to publish an RPG is 75% frontloaded and errors made early on in the process are relatively easy to fix later. With graphic novels, the work flow (script => layout => pencils => inks => colors => letters) is much closer to a software development waterfall, and each error compounded.

Barring unforeseen calamity, I expect to have your PDFs to you well before the end of this month. At that point it will be time to manufacture the books, activate the pledge manager, collect shipping, and get them sent. Thank you again for your patient support of Ascendant: Star-Spangled Squadron II.