ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Heartfelt thanks to my consultant and sole alpha reader, 丸! They provided very valuable feedback and information about Japanese language, culture, and tradition. They were also responsible for the translation of all Japanese texts in the story. Without them, this story would've been much less accurate and rich language- and culture-wise. Thanks again, 丸!
I also thank you, the reader! Thank you for reading this story and devoting your time for that. I appreciate it deeply, given how laser-fast and info-overloaded is daily life in current times. I hope you found the story entertaining, arousing, and intriguing – perhaps in equal measure.
Have a wonderful day!
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SPREAD THE WORD!
If you liked this story, please consider helping it grow and spread around – offer a comment, write a review, tell others who may be interested about it, and so on. Every little bit helps! Thank you!
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FUTURE PLANS
So, what's next?
Well, I recently got a day job that involves writing as its main focus, so I don't have nearly as much time to write my own stories as I had before. That said, I still plan to write personal stuff, it's just that it'll be slower – at least for now.
Now that MWGHDM's serialization is complete, my next goal is to do the same for my original sci-fi epic The Celestial Way. I wrote TCW four years ago, and then tried (unsuccessfully) to shop it around, but it seems nobody is interested. I tried then self-publishing it, but that garnered exactly zero attention. So, four years later, I've decided to cast this story into the wide open Internet – because at the end of day, I wrote it so people can read it.
The Celestial Way, in short, is a science fiction space opera epic about healing old wounds and finding redemption. It's set in a shattered galaxy, and features transhumanism, dragons, and a blend of magic and far future technology. Yes, you heard right – space opera with dragons! Wizards and cyber-hackers! Power-armored knights and solarpunk societies! Cosmic battles and epic stakes! Huge fluffy aliens!
If any of this tickles your fancy, TCW will begin serialization sometime in autumn 2023.
While TCW is being published, there comes the question of what to write next. So far, I'm divived between three (four) major options:
- Write the sequel to MWGHDM. Duh! This one is a straightforward project – I mostly know where Drago's story would go next and what I want to include in terms of sex scenes and story elements. The book will require more worldbuilding this time around, as it'll take place both in Japan and outside of it, and events from Vol. 1 would've made some significant alterations to the known world.
- Write a series of short stories/novelettes set in The Celestial Way's universe, to better flesh out that world and "prepare the soil" for a sequel. Also, continue writing the setting's bible. This is the most heavy project, and the one that I admit I'm not entirely sure if I want to tackle yet. But I have spent years developing this story/world and want to see it complete. So, there's that.
- Write my first of many planned fan-fictions: The Great Biosphere of Earth. This is a story that will be a direct continuation of The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly. The original book is basically Jurassic Park with dragons. It's an absolutely awesome idea but with an abysmal execution. Hence, why I want to take a flex at this. The fan fiction will take place 24 years after the original story and will be a political/sci-fi technotriller; think Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor with dragons and a cyber-/biopunk setting. And a dash of solarpunk, too.
- Lastly, somewhere down the line I want to write a story called 12 Months. It's a very personal project, one that I've been thinking about for a while, but one that I don't think I'm quite experienced enough to write yet. The story will delve into things like depression, existential issues, philosophy, and magical realism, against the backdrop of a 90s street racing scene in a post-Soviet city, where one young soul (or two) search the night skies for their guiding stars.
(Again, I'm not sure if I want to write this story at this point, but I'm thinking about it quite often lately, so... anything's possible.)
Whichever I choose from options 1-4, it'll take time before any of these projects reaches completion. I like to finish stories before I publish them, so there will be no WIPs posted in public. However, if any of you feel seriously drawn to any of those ideas and want to sneak a peek earlier, feel free to reach out and ask me to join as either alpha or beta readers.
So, yeah, that's about it for now.
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TRIVIA AND STUFF
Well, this was supposed to be a Misc section with some ramblings thoughts, but I decided not to waste words on half-coherent musings.
If you have any questions about anything, or just want to say hi, I'm around! I don't use social networks, so the best way to contact me for now is to shoot me a personal message.
Cheers!
Sagacious Punk
