Happy New Year 2022!

Hello there! 

Hope you had a wonderful, peaceful Christmas, and a joyous new year!

I like the look of "22". 

Nice and balanced, cleanly even. Very pleasant to start with.

The previous year was—do I even need to say it—troubled in many ways throughout the world. Fear and restrictions dominated the headlines. Uncertainty. When I started putting my writings online (I've already forgotten how many) years ago, my primary goal was to give the people of the world something else to think about beside bad news, at least for a little while.

I feel this mission has never been more important than it is now.

That in mind, I continued to do what I've been doing before, trying to create stories so captivating, so immersive, that no matter how troubled a day you've had before, you'll forget about it for the duration of the story. And, ideally, through seeing these fictional heroes overcome many tragic and dire situations, you'll gain additional courage to face the challenges of your personal life as well.

That was and remains the purpose of why I write.

Well, of course, I also write because I love it.  Because it's the most fun, interesting, challenging activity I know. Whenever I do something else, all I can think about is, "I wish I was writing now."

And thanks to being able to keep at it through another 12-month cycle, I'm personally very satisfied with the past year, and thankful, despite everything. I managed to do everything I intended to do, and could come up with some interesting things, even though it wasn't easy and at times made me doubt myself. 

I had some trouble with my hands, fatigued by years of nonstop labor, and there were some family issues, and whatnot. I had to take it easy and slow when I wanted to go faster. I couldn't draw as many pictures as I would've liked, and the writing projects took more time than planned too. But even these little difficulties were made into fuel for the stories, and I believe they made the works you've seen that much richer and real.

The seventh part of A Hero Past the 25th is currently on-going, and will reach its conclusion next week. One adventure ends, but our journey goes on. My imagination tank has thankfully not yet run dry, and there are a LOT of cool things planned for the coming year too. 

I'll tell you more about them when the time comes.

This Patreon page has grown nicely too since last year. We briefly reached as many as 19 patrons, although life circumstances compelled some of them to since depart. We live troubled times, as said. I feel frequent guilt for not having more extravagant monthly rewards to offer for your selfless contribution, as you deserve. Your pledge supports the overall progress of all my works, which I seek to deliver as quickly as possible, in as high a quality as possible. And sadly, there aren't enough hours in a day for much else.

I hope you've enjoyed the content posted this year and the stories on RR. As always, if there's something more you wish to see, any special requests, then feel free to let me know. I'll do what I can.

My overall goal for this page is to reach the total pledge sum of $400. That should be enough to pay the bills and keep creating full time. Becoming a millionaire isn't the plan, just continuing as we have. We're still a little short of the target, but no longer embarrassingly so! Let's see how 2022 develops and where our new adventures take us.

One of the things that makes every new year so thrilling.

Standing on the edge of the cliff. Everything ahead is shrouded in fog, you can't see clearly where you're going. Is it clear water or rocks at the bottom?

You just have to take the plunge and find out.

Happy new year!

Stay safe and see you soon!