Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:57:41 -0700WeeblyMon, 31 Aug 2026 14:09:13 GMThttps://www.willwight.com/a-blog-of-dubious-intent/wrapping-up-the-commanderIt's weird working on a book while having another, finished book that hasn't been published yet. Overworld is coming out next year, but I finished it a while ago, so every time it gets brought up I have to leave Fathom behind and make the arduous journey out to the Pioneer worlds again.

Not only is it exhausting, but I have a terrible Fox rating, so I can't even make the portals on my own.

Anyway, I'm putting the finishing touches on The Commander! That doesn't mean it's about to come out, by the way; there's still formatting, audiobook reading, ritual cleansing, dread summonings, and several ice ages to deal with. Plus, I'm not actually done yet, just close.

But it does mean that the release is imminent. Sorry for the Last Horizon fans out there who have been shooting blowdarts at me every time I leave my house. I'm almost done, I promise.

I have enjoyed writing this one, though. Shyrax is a fun character, and I get to play around with the bad guys in this one too.

Plus I wrote myself into the story as a self-insert character who's half angel, half vampire, half alien, and half living sun, but who also saves all the main cast and learns all the magic and gets all the Zenith Devices and drives a really fast car.

It may be controversial, but I think it's for the best. As long as the beta readers don't make me delete it.

-Will
]]>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 14:00:55 GMThttps://www.willwight.com/a-blog-of-dubious-intent/a-sabbatical-for-samSam's off for the next three months, which I'm sure many of you saw in his post yesterday.

We tell people it's because we do that at Hidden Gnome--we make sure each member of our team gets an extended vacation every few years, and my brother Sam is the sixth person to benefit from this policy--but the reality is that I had to banish him to the Vacation Dimension as thanks for his loyalty.

My hands were tied. I had no other choice.

At LitRPG Con this month, more people said "Your family is awesome!" than said I was awesome, which is the appropriate ratio. They're correct to compliment my brother before me because he's cooler than I am.

Then, after LitRPG Con, I went on a cruise with my friends (for fun this time, not work), and my siblings went along to work and help out and make sure the cruise went well. Seriously, they were hustling. We had them wear butler suits and everything.

But after all that, I had only one recourse. I had to call upon the incredible power of the Vacation Dimension to overwhelm Sam with reward.

"What will he do with all that time off?"

Who said that? Where are you asking these questions from? Are you in my walls?

"Lucky him. I wish I could get three months off."

Is that...are you hiding in my vents? How did you get there? Is this like that one X-Files episode where the guy could squeeze through tiny spaces?

"Do you have any job openings at Hidden Gnome?"

I'm going to get the hose. I can't have people crawling around in my vents asking me questions at all hours of the day and night.

Anyway, let's all wish Sam a restful Sabbatical! Even though this means that my social media presence will almost certainly be way worse without Sam around.

Now I'll have to do most of the posting myself, so be prepared for things to get a lot less relevant and a lot more goblin-forward.

-Will
]]>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:39:23 GMThttps://www.willwight.com/a-blog-of-dubious-intent/an-action-packed-juneWe did so much cool stuff this month! And next month we're going to LitRPG Con, so the march of the cool stuff continues!

During this month, the thirteenth anniversary of my writing career, we ran the FINAL Cradle Kickstarter, which blew all our expectations out of the water (thanks, btw), and gave away tons of books.

Also, I continued to edit Overworld for Tor and work on The Commander for you.

There's more! I spent a week of the month working with some up-and-coming authors who are developing their first books. I bet you didn't know this, but authors hatch from spotted eggs. Like Yoshis.

Anyway, busy month. And that's not counting the other week I spent tending a cattle ranch, the other other week where I worked as an airplane wing gremlin, or the other other other week where I did nothing but play Subnautica 2.

How many weeks were in this month again?

​-Will
]]>Sat, 30 May 2026 21:13:24 GMThttps://www.willwight.com/a-blog-of-dubious-intent/thirteen-years-of-writingMonday is the thirteenth anniversary of House of Blades (which now has a hardcover edition in bookstores, by the way), and therefore I have now been a professional writer for thirteen years!

With that milestone, I will achieve untold power. As part of my ascension ritual, we have arranged the following ARCANE and DISTURBING rites (number twelve will shock you!):

1.) Hardcover edition of House of Blades! I mentioned this before, but it's out now! A precursor of things to come. The Crimson Vault and City of Light will be available later this year, once the mystical energies are attuned to their frequency.

2.) A new, special, Tenth Anniversary Edition of Cradle is coming to bookstores! It's got a new, fancy cover and everything. And in this case, by "bookstores" I mean "just Barnes & Noble." Get it from Barnes & Noble.

Unless you're in Canada, and then it's available from Indigo Books!

I didn't have any idea how big of a deal Indigo was, since I live in the Southlands and not Canada, but they're awesome. They will be honored when I complete my ritual and emerge from my runic cocoon.

3.) Two signings this week, both in Orlando! My neck of the woods!

The first will be at Barnes & Noble on June 5th, and I'll be signing alongside someone who definitely shops at Indigo Books: Michael Chatfield, author of the Ten Realms series.

However, the second will be at indie bookstore Writer's Block on June 8th, and this time I will instead be joining the author of Restarting the Apocalypse, Sir Michael Chatfield. 

3a.) Did you notice I didn't include specifics about when or where these things will occur? That's because it's a riddle for you to solve on your own. This trial will test you intellectually and spiritually. Maybe even physically, but let's not get crazy.

​Wow, you passed those tests so great. Here's a Linktree. It has all the information you could possibly want to know about my upcoming activities. All of them. Every upcoming activity. Everything I will ever do is contained in this one link.

12.) Eating pineapple on pizza.* Are you shocked?

Thanks for thirteen years, everybody! Honestly, as much as this blog is an attempt to spread the word of all the stuff we've got coming up (and really I only got to half of it; we've got a lot of stuff coming up), I am grateful for the opportunity to continue writing and have people actually read it.

It's been a great thirteen years, and I couldn't do it without you! Gratitude!

-Will

*For legal purposes, I am required to disclose that I do not actually like pineapple on pizza. I do not have a hot take in this regard. Pineapple on pizza sucks. Anchovies are great, though.]]>Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:43:47 GMThttps://www.willwight.com/a-blog-of-dubious-intent/one-year-until-overworldAs you've no doubt already heard, we have about a year left before the release of my new book, Overworld, in April 2027.

But, of course, you knew that. You saw my elementally appropriate Pokémon shirts. 

Not only have I been writing this book for a while already, but we're in the middle of the editing process now. Since this is my first project with Tor, or any traditional publisher, I've gotten to learn a new editing process. A much cooler one.

Most people don't know this, but Tor edits by printing off the manuscript and having each author hike it up to the top of an active volcano. If you recite the chant correctly while tossing it into lava page by page, Tor alchemists can reconstitute the ash into a version of the book with no errors.

If you do mess up the chant, sometimes you'll end up with the wrong "their." Or an extra "ring like a bell."

My usual editing process involves sailing out into the deep sea and using a printed copy of my manuscript as bait to hook a fish, then grilling and eating that fish so I can taste the typos. But I'll try it their way this time.

So, does that mean you'll have to wait another year for my next book? No!

Not unless something goes horribly wrong, anyway. Like the volcano rejecting my gift.

The Commander is still slated for release this year. In fact, as many of you have already noted by looking slightly to the right, I finished a draft of it a few weeks ago.

But then it was back to editing Overworld! And now it will be back to writing another draft of The Commander. Then editing The Commander. Then writing The Sword. Then maybe editing The Commander one more time, depending on what the volcano says. Then releasing The Commander. Then editing The Sword. 

And so on and so forth. They call that The Circle of (My) Life.

​-Will
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