Hello backers! 

This is the final update of 2024, and headline: everything’s going roughly to plan. 

Last month I said there was potential for the project timelines to slip. There still is, but at the moment estimates are holding up: we should start shipping books out in Q3 of next year. Now, I think it will be later in Q3 than I would have ideally liked, but still Q3. Watch this space. 

We’re still not 100% finished but the outstanding bits are: 

I hope you’ll agree that isn’t much, in the greater scheme of things. 

Our own Maz Hamilton is going to start the first editing pass in the next week or two. This is both exciting and terrifying. Maz is one of the best editors I’ve ever worked with, and what they do to the manuscript will make it several times better (and it’s already bloody good), but it’s also going to ask some difficult questions and force Grant and Chris to answer them, because that’s what a good edit does. We’re fine, though. I mean, I’m smoking a lot, but that’s OK, right?

We have eight complete Hollows, and the author is working on the ninth one in our virtual office co-working space as I type. This collection's looking good, folks. And the art! Oh my goodness, the art! This month, I’ll send you off with these absolutely revolting works by Morgan Robles, for Sasha Sienna and Helen Gould’s Hollow. This was formerly called The Lord of the Dockyard and is currently Break! Break! Break! – the story of a mutineer who Hollowed when his uprising failed and he proved powerless against the navy that crushed his spirit. 

Bleak, right? And Morgan’s art brings it to life perfectly. 

That’s it for this month, for 2024, and damn nearly for the writing stage of this game. 

I hope your year ends peacefully and the new one starts strong. 

Chant out.