LordAstrea

We have officially reached the end of Volume 2 for “Beastkin of GRIM.” Warning! This author's note may contain slight spoilers from previous volumes. Warning! This author tends to ramble and may have consumed copious amounts of coffee before writing this. LordAstrea desperately wants some of Kureha's tea.

So…...wow, this volume ended up being longer than I originally planned and took quite a bit more research. So many bookmarks. So many new playlists on Youtube.

I am going to leave this area open for any questions that readers may have about the story's future. Maybe there are inquiries about what readers might expect in later volumes, my writing process, what we want more of (I'll see what I can do), and whether LordAstrea really is totally delusional about the existence of catgirls.

Note: I will be avoiding spoilers with certain questions.

Thank you all so much for helping me to hit trending over the past two weeks. The support has been absolutely incredible. I'll probably be saying 'thank you' frequently, but words are not enough to express my gratitude. The catgirls are ever so grateful as well.

A not-so-brief discussion of what has happened so far and all that stuff:

My original outline for this volume was to have many POVs to establish a number of characters placed in various roles while still mostly focusing on GRIM. Overall, I stuck mostly to my plans for this volume. I wanted to make a story where the main character didn't take care of everything himself. I wanted him to be surrounded by many characters with different roles and personalities that contributed to their successes and failures. The character backgrounds – accompanied with a pretty unforgiving world – shaped how many things would come together.

I am satisfied with this overall. There is room for more improvement and growth with my writing, and I plan to go back through previous volumes to give them some polish. There will be no need for readers to return to those chapters in terms of content; it is more so I can add small details and work on flow/editing.

Okay, time to shift gears so I don't just start rambling (might do that anyway). First off, thank you all so much for the support. As I mentioned, we hit trending towards the end of Volume 2 and saw a huge increase in our community. It was wonderful to see the story garner such interest, but the valid reads analyzed by the site boosted my enthusiasm immensely. Thank you – thank you – thank you! A lot of work goes into each chapter: planning, editing, research, letting thoughts stew, agonizing constantly (haha). So thank you x1,000 for all the support. This has been one heck of a project. It has been stressful at times, but I also thoroughly enjoy it.

This isn't really an organized author's note, but I wanted to provide some information concerning the story's future and such. Many readers may have noticed that my upload schedule is absolutely atrocious. It is all over the place, but I try to at least keep an average of two chapters a week. Sometimes there might not be a chapter for a bit, and I try to make up for it with more chapters later, but it hasn't always been possible thanks to my job, family obligations, working on other chapters to keep my sanity and also letting chapters stew since I am my own worst critic. I also have other hobbies for winding down after a long day of labor.

There are a lot of details added to the story that I think contribute to the quality as a whole, but they are sometimes not entirely noticed, so that can take a while as well. Regardless, I believe that they have an important contribution, whether they are actively noticed or not (I'm glad some people appreciated the information about virga clouds. Lol). The spear techniques used by Liam were also pretty fun to research. And things like why Ash may have decided to add freesias to her garden. Stuff like that. I noticed that many readers in certain chapters read between the lines a bit and came up with their own theories for certain actions/decisions. I enjoyed reading those very much.

Support stuff (this author's note is totally organized):

When this author's message is posted the first chapter of volume 3 will be completed. I have a few patrons over at my Patreon that I want to do right by, and I appreciate the support over there immensely. The artwork of Kirie for the story's cover wouldn't have been possible without my current supporters. Every little bit extra helps towards artwork, my lifestyle and anything else that contributes to the story and getting chapters out at a faster rate. Please consider supporting my coffee addiction and giving me more time to search for catgirls- er, I mean, giving me more time to write.

The support so far has been amazing, so thank you all so much for that.

Since we have come this far with the story, I will be amending the tiers over at Patreon so that readers at tier 2 and above will receive chapters anywhere from at least 1-2 weeks in advance of public release. Tier 1 is still for those who want to take that extra step to support my work. As time goes on I really want to provide more, but I don't want to make important promises I can't keep due to the time constraints and erratic life schedule. I would also like to provide another project I've been working on, but we will get to that in the next segment of this note. But if there are any other suggestions, please let me know. If we reach certain goals, or if I get some suggestions, I will be able to add some things.

Other Stuff I Work On...and Stuff

I am also working on another story on the side as a change of pace from this one. It is a story that isn't nearly as complicated, and I have only worked on it a bit. But I have been enjoying the process of writing from the perspective of a strong female lead who is a unique form of beastkin. It is a bit darker, more violent and is written in a slightly different writing style that received influence from writers such as Joe Abercrombie (if anyone is familiar with his style). The story takes place in a city ruled mostly by corrupt nobility and underground organizations. I am considering posting this story on Scribblehub and then creating a backlog after a few chapters to provide early. I am debating whether to keep the story in the same universe as “Beastkin of GRIM,” and the story so far is flexible in that regard. It would be interesting if this character ran into Alphonse and company at some point (wink wink). It won't go through the same meticulous editing process as “Beastkin of GRIM,” because editing for me takes a considerable amount of time, but it will be receiving plenty of grammar checks, sentence structure tweaking and help from my best friend: the thesaurus.

A second outline I have going for another story is something I've never really done before...it's sort of like (*heavy sigh*)...slice of life............YEAH! I've written a couple chapters in the past, but who knows? It has some of the reincarnated-as-a-spirit qualities with sprinkles of ecchi, more hints at romance, the main character (begrudgingly) helping people out with life troubles, mystery, fox shrine maidens and doses of action. It's different! Lol. Sometimes, you need a bit of guilty pleasure.

Maybe I'll put it up to a vote. A poll?

If you would like to take an extra step towards supporting the story (and possibly getting these others out), then please consider my Patreon. I also threw together a Ko-fi account and a Paypal. You can also join us at the Discord server for updates and discussions outside the story. We also have a promotion area to support other stories. Speaking of...I reaaallly need to work on my own self-promotion rather than relying on the recent updates page on Scribblehub. If any readers know anyone that might be interested in the story, then please send it their way. Spread the love of catgirls too. Why not?

The future and stuff (...stuff):

Now, what can we expect from “Beastkin of GRIM” Volume 3?

One thing that I intended from the very beginning was to have a magic system that had laws but also a bit of leeway. So it is somewhere between a soft and hard magic system. I wanted to focus on plot and character development rather than extended chapters of magic/active skill explanations. We did receive quite a bit in Volume 2 at one point to tide things over, but some more explanation is required about: magic tethering, bonds, delayed spells, shapes used for protection spells (just to name a few). I also needed to think carefully about the progression system since this is a massive project, which is why I utilized the traditional decrease of stat gain as more points are obtained. As we know, stats are not the only means of growth in this world, but they do help and have plot relevance. I wanted characters to develop by more natural means rather than too many skills, but we will be seeing the results of some stat gains in this upcoming volume.

In volume 3, I plan to focus more on GRIM in the city of La'abrine. We will also be following Ashliv Diavelia and Jin Hanlon as they work in a precarious partnership in Forgedalk. Ruslin Vasiliev and Sue will be entering the Lamfell dungeon with their guild. And we mustn't forget the Many-robed One and his followers. And what about Daichi Coremaul and Rinka Foirena at the Submerged Oasis?

I am also juggling with the idea of having short quotes at the beginning of chapters that have bits of Hovestile's history and rules of magic/active skills. There is still a lot about the world to explore. We will be looking into magic through Asa's perspective and more details about perception with Alphonse under the guidance of the mysterious demihuman, Mina. I will provide a sort of volume 3 synopsis before the next book officially starts to give further details. That's what stories usually do anyway when a new book comes out in a series, I guess.

Ah, another side note: I will be updating the glossary with a ton of information during the week after this author's note is posted.

I will be going through Volume 1 for some editing passes and adding a bit of these details with magic, since I don't think I delved into it enough. Please note that there is no reason for readers who have read Volume 1 to return to it after the edits -- unless it is for your own interest. We will be getting more in-depth with Volume 3. So we are totally covered!

After much deliberation, I also plan to leave Royal Road and focus more on Scribblehub as well as another site called Tapas. It is difficult to upload on three sites, and this is the decision I reached. Royal Road has a nice interface and garnered a bit of interest, but I have found the site to be very stressful compared to Scribblehub.

This story is currently a hobby, but it is a hobby that I am taking seriously. Who knows? Maybe after more writing/editing it could turn into something more. I have written a number of stories in the past, but this is the first one where I've known that I'd continue it no matter what. No matter what obstacles popped up in life, I was determined to complete this work. Even if my progress was impeded by unexpected circumstances, I would still find time to work on the story. So there is that.

I have grown to love these characters, and the story has progressed in ways that even I didn't expect when I first started out. I even have plans that changed as far as Volume 5, and it is interesting to see how the characters transform the world and vice versa. I don't know how long it will take, but this story is my baby. Thank you all for joining me on this journey.

End of rambling:

Discord link will be provided below. I will also put the Patreon link there as well...and yeah, there is this thing called topwebfiction that I didn't hear about until a couple months ago. Yay! You can support the story by placing votes on it there.

*chugs more coffee*

Alright, I think that's about it. Thank you all again for the support, and thank you for reading the ramblings of this silly writer. If there are any questions, suggestions (for Patreon as well), etc. then feel free to post a comment, hit me up on Discord or send a message.

See you all in Volume 3! :D

Discord: https://discord.gg/Z6BGvZS

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lordastrea

TopWebFiction: https://topwebfiction.com/listings/beastkin-of-grim/