Hi everyone, another update for you! Edits are now here for the fake TV guide and the portrait art for Max is also here. That was one of the stretch goals I was most excited about. But with these now ready to go, we can start locking down orders.

Once that's done, those digital rewards can finally fly free and I'll start getting print rewards together for those who opted for physical versions. There are still time to get these as an add on, but not for long.

In other news, I'm also editing the third draft of The Chosen One Con and having a blast doing so! My goal is to get these edits done by the end of Feb for beta readers in March and then further edits in April. It's a tight schedule, but with a little magic, we'll make it work.

(This means no video games for me, boo)

However, now for the exciting part... the portrait!

I love showing off art, and I thought it would be fun to go through the process of the portrait as I did with the city map. This portrait was designed by the wonderful Aowna, who also did the art for the character cards. I loved the way Aowna portrays these characters, and of Max, so I couldn't resist a chance to work with them again.

My idea for the portrait was an image of Max hunched over a potion bottle while being haunted by TV screens. It's what I wanted the initial book cover to look like, but I was talked out of it lol but! I got to recreate it as a portrait that will appear as a black and white version in the physical book.

Naturally, it all began with a terrible MS Paint version:

Aowna then set me a couple of sketches of what the layout and pose could look like, and I settled on this one:

I already fell in love with the initial sketches! The colour and lighting were perfect!

Then Aowna sent some more updates slowly filling in the detail:

And if we skip ahead, this is the final version:

I absolutely love the details of this piece! It shows a haunted Max hunched over his potion bottle, which has a tiny bluebell motif on it that's relevant to the book. The screens that surround him also feature the same face repeated in various different emotions, and this represents a certain character you'll also meet in the book...

If you love this portrait as much as I do, then it's available as a printed addon. I'm hoping book two can feature a similar piece of Lyle, our second MC!

And If you love Aowna's work, please do check out their available commissions on Vgen!

Hi everyone! It's been just over a week since the surveys went out, and over 90% of you have responded, which is excellent. This is a reminder to you stragglers to get your surveys in soon as we'll begin locking those orders down this week in order to send out your digital rewards!

The Max portrait is almost done (and looking very fine!) and I've also finished the design and layout for the fake TV guide, I'm just waiting on edits for the text. While we wait, here are some screenshots of the (unedited) PDF version of the TV guide so you know what silliness to expect:

The TV guide is 60 pages long and introduces the world and story at just after the beginning of The Chosen One Con. There are no major spoilers to worry about - just subtle hints and teasers here and there! The PDF version comes with stock art, and is the prettier version, whereas the ePub will be a much plainer version for those who just want the text and less images.

If you're having any issues with your surveys, get in touch! I'll be back hopefully soon with these digital rewards.

Surveys are finally being sent to everyone, hurrah! Please check your inbox and spam to make sure that you receive yours. If you have any issues filling it out, or have questions about the process, drop me a comment or get in touch!

As you're filling out your surveys, I'm putting together the digital rewards for those eligible tiers. I'm just waiting on two more items; the Max portrait and the fake TV guide. Once they're ready, all digital rewards can be sent out together while I order in the prints for the physical print rewards! Bear in mind that these print rewards (the art cards, fake ad, map and portrait prints) will be sent ahead of the physical book because I'm still working on the book 😂

When these are ready to go, I'll update and let you guys know.

Thank you for your patience, and don't forget to fill out your survey to secure your rewards!

Hi everyone! We're almost at the end of January so it's about time I give an update... and it's an exciting one!

First of all, the backer surveys are currently in review with Backerkit to make sure I haven't missed anything while setting them up, so they should hopefully be with you soon. I've been working on the digital TV Guide reward this month, and the draft is now with an editor for a little extra polish. It came out at just under 15k words, and I'm planning on making two versions - a ePub for you to read off your device of choice, and a fancier PDF version. Both will be available to eligible tiers, but if you missed out, then don't fear! the TV Guide will be made available for all at a much later date.

Hopefully all these digital rewards will be ready to send out soon!

Now for the exciting part... the Aefenhold city map is here!

The city map was one of the stretch goals we met, and a personal goal of mine, because every fantasy book needs a cool map, right? I'd previously worked with cartographer Soraya Cocoran for two separate fantasy maps before, including the incredible domain crossing map for my Cruel Gods series. I came begging at her door again to design a city map this time, as the main setting for The Chosen One Con is the city of Aefenhold.

So let me take you through the process of this map!

First, I sent a terrible MS Paint mock up for poor Soraya to decipher, along with a document detailing the various locations:

She then sent her first rough sketch to show she had the right idea:

From there, she sent an example of how the general design would go:

I was already loving the shape, but then she added details into the world and I was really starting to fall in love with this map!

There were a few minor name changes and tweaks here as we went along, but let's skip ahead and reveal the final version of the map:

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous???? I love this map so much, and it's full of little hidden details that will become apparent as you read the book! With many thanks to Soraya Cocoran for creating an incredible map once more!

Eligible tiers will receive a digital and/or printed copy of this map. But if you also want your own print of this absolutely stunning map, it'll be available as an add-on once the backer surveys are done.

I'll be back next with the surveys, hopefully, and then we have the Max portrait to reveal... And I'm VERY excited about that!

Okay, we're over a week into the new year now and I'm getting back to work!

I hope you've all had a relaxing break and that 2026 has been kind to you so far. I managed to catch whatever illness was going around over the holidays, so I wasn't as productive as I'd like, but art briefs have been sent to the portrait artist and map artist. I'm looking forward to sharing updates on those in the coming weeks. Massively excited, honestly, they make great art!

I'm working on the fake TV guide for the digital reward tiers. If you don't know me well enough yet, I tend to go overboard with these things, so it's not just a list of TV shows in the world, but a full magazine with articles and interviews as though it came from the real city of Aefenhold. My aim is to introduce you to this world, its characters, and the magic you'll find via the medium of a gossip magazine. Yes, it's a little extra 😂

Here's a sneak peak at the cover WIP:

Next week, I also aim to send out the first surveys for people awaiting their digital rewards. I'm new to Backerkit and crowdfunding in general, so I want to make sure I get this right, especially as the book itself will be released separately. Thank you for your patience while I navigate this!

In the meantime, I'm being harassed by my kitten - literally as I type - so enjoy some kitty pics to tide you over:

I'll be back with more updates soon!