So,  the voting is very close and could still shift in any direction. But, I can't just be sitting here without doing anything while waiting for a clear leader to emerge.

So, here's what I'm doing. I've already set things in motion and am in the process of commissioning a cover art for "A New Hero God." That one has a very clean lead over "The Class of Outworlders," which means that even if it's current lead is overtaken it will still likely be a secondary project at the very least.

I am also in the process of writing up the advanced chapters for "A New Hero God" and have been populating my SubscribeStar with the chapters I have written. (As of writing this announcement, I have posted up to chapter 5 and have up to chapter 8 written. The additional 3 chapters will be posted later after I've had some time to edit them for spelling and quality.)

I am currently operating under the presumption that "A New Hero God" will be the main story, but since I have been making excessively good progress on it with around 2 chapters per day on average I believe I ought to be able to start filling out buffer chapters for "Key to the Void" pretty soon which will allow for an easy pivot to that being the main story should that happen.

The plan at the moment is to have buffer chapters for both series, but only have the advanced chapters up on SubscribeStar for the main story. This could even create an opportunity for having the main story shift at any time.

The ideal long-term solution though would be to set up a website that can just handle having advance chapters for both the main and secondary stories, while possibly even allowing for something to be done with the slow releasing 3rd story. I am currently looking into this option, but as you can probably imagine it's rather difficult when I'm also putting this much effort into writing.

I will likely be releasing "A New Hero God" as the main story as soon as I get the cover art finished in around a week or 2 unless the voting has shifted dramatically before then. Assuming the voting is still the same as it is now, I will be releasing "Key to the Void" as the secondary story as soon as I hit chapter 22 of "A New Hero God" in the advanced chapters. Going at my current rate, that should be in around 1 week from now assuming I am able to keep up the pace. Chances are high I might be releasing "Key to the Void" before "A New Hero God" depending on how long it takes to finish the cover art.

No matter what happens though, with my current writing rate I'm pretty sure I will be able to have a release rate for the secondary story that is higher than the 1 per week I was imagining originally.

Anyway, as potentially inconvenient as it could potentially get, I have decided to leave the voting open and plan to act accordingly to a shift in the polls. (However, if "The Class of Outworlders" somehow manages to shift to 1st, it will likely be treated as a secondary project at this point due to the fact I have not adequately prepared for such a shift and it will take some time to pivot toward it. There's simply no way I can be as agile with that shift as I can with "Key to the Void.")

(Also, yes, half the reason for this announcement is to draw additional eyes and possibly more voters to move the polls in some kind of direction. Either widening the existing arrangement away from 1 vote gaps, or using those 1 vote gaps to switch up the order. I don't care. Well, Ok, I sorta do. Changing the order will make things a little more difficult, but I'm in a fresh state from having just started on these ideas and I plan to use that while it lasts. I just would prefer the shift be early and fast if it is going to happen, not slow and eventually happening when I'm more committed to the model I've laid out above.)