Book finished! But needs readers! -_-

     This one is going to be very short since I am nearing the finishing moments of the book. Only problem is looking for readers feels like everywhere has deemed it inappropriate to ask for even a mild amount of help. I understand there are places to ask for stuff like that, but starving artist shouldn't bring to mind a budget for a proofreader, an editor, a publicist, and who knows what else is necessary to make sure I don't sell a book where I somehow misspelled the main character's name. Even within AMTGARD, a group that not only likes foam combat that I liken to the middle of SCA and full blown LARP (like that means anything to anyone who isn't already interested, I write in jest or whatever), it's hard not to feel like what I call a "creative beggar." Like I already annoy my girlfriend enough by constantly bringing out how I can make our own this or that if I had bees, for example. I couldn't imagine having to be my own bulldog when I'm too stubborn to just admit that good writing isn't enough to sell good books anymore. 

     This blog is honestly my compromise that it's insane to think a book just sent into the void is going to do anything of worth, but I will ask for people to give my book a read only on my platforms for people who follow. I don't want to ever have to do a patreon, I would rather just keep writing and interacting with an audience that doesn't mind telling me what kind of story they want me to write next. I'm already going to have to do that anyway eventually, why not start now? I keep telling friends that I love the idea of this world because all of the new questions are a world full of different cultures who now have access to this unlimited resource that makes most of your thoughts a reality, and how they would interact with such a thing! How often does the Apocalypse almost happen because someone got fancy broke-up-with in Ancient Greece? Some real “if she doesn’t love me, I’ll plague the peasants!” type-stuff. That story isn't bland, but it can apply to more than one place and time. That could've happened even closer in Ancient Egypt, or in the far future where magic no longer has any inherent religious ties anymore because we have Gundam taken over space. Should aliens exist in this kind of world? Considering we don't even truly know where the elves and dwarves come from except from what people authorized even 40k years ago, are these aliens? Are they just lost people who learned to survive? All this is so much more than just one book, and I can't wait to write them! I am so excited to write these books, but terrified of having to actually sell them. 

     I ran into the same problem when making garb so that I can look like a medieval commoner while I basically go have fun participating in actual peasant fights, until the one dude that brought armor shows up and now we have to start using the nerd-spells (highest class healer, I won't let myself off the hook ever). The garb is easy and feels flowy to wear, to the point that if I could bring back wearing just a regular hood in different colors and fabrics I really would that things is awesome for keeping the sun off you, and even doesn't do that bad of a job in the woods to keep the nature off you. People ask me to make them the same stuff I made for me, but why? What is considered good enough to be sold and what should prices be and and and and and...? But all it does is deepen this craving also to go to this local kung-fu dojo, since the type of martial arts I want to get into would directly benefit from traditional weapons training AND the additional lessons in their more "modern" classes. However, trying to write, do martial arts, be a beekeeper, farm, and substitute leaves me hoping I can reach a place eventually where writing facilitates all the other things I want to enjoy, while allowing me the chance to also give back in a more direct way. I think we should try to perfect ourselves as much as possible, and in the Marines one of the lessons is "know yourself and seek self improvement." It's one of my favorites, and that makes sense since if writing allows me too there is so much more I want to do for my community that write nice books. 

     If you made it all the way down here, just comment anything letting me know! I know these can get a little crazy, but I like this more direct type of writing to show what most of my writing starts out as and why even though the book is basically done (yay!) I'd feel like it would be cheating to say that I successfully published a book ready to be published in a month. Thank you so much, whoever it is reading this, and I can't wait for this Friday where I hope to drop one of my earlier short-stories that I remember a professor liking, and even if the story around it is more interesting than the story itself, I feel like this blog is a good little personal place to unload all the stories that are going to go through 50 thousand changes before I decide I can publish what is, in reality, a completely different story and I should've shared both! I promise these string of consciousness writings will be more coherent when I can start affording not to live off of caffeine to keep the writer's block at bay. Sorry, I would've been stumped for the last 3 days figuring out what should be the ending of this book, but instead my heart is beating 300x what it should be, and that means my brain is hard crashing every once in a while but words are being put on pages darnit! 0.o

     Please comment and follow the socials, and let me know what genre you want to see magic in! :D