As always, thanks for a great year, everybody!

We've gained a lot of Cradle fans this year, and thanks to you, I've had another fun year. Now I'm working on both a final book and a first book, both of which have their own challenges, but it's pretty cool knowing that I can write out my ideas and people will read them.

I did wish we could release something more this year, but at least them taking so long means we've saved a bunch of good stuff for next year.

My New Year's resolution is to win all my duels to the death. Last year, I lost about half of them. Got to get that record up.

As for you, I hope each and every one of you encounter mythical creatures this year. I have some drafts due here soon, so I suspect you'll be hearing from me again before too long.

Until then, Happy New Year!

​-Will

...not really, I've just been busy.

With what, you ask?

1.) I finished my first draft of Waybound.

2.) While waiting on edits for that, I continued work on my upcoming space fantasy series. In fact, that's what I'm writing today.

Now, I do want you to understand where we are, so you don't start thinking Waybound is coming out tomorrow. It's only an alpha draft right now. Not even all the beta readers have gotten to read it yet, and there are still scenes to add.

But we're making solid progress. In fact, even without being scene-complete, Waybound is currently second in length only to Wintersteel.

I just like working on books beginning with W, I guess. Probably has to do with my natural affinity for the power of W.

I have to say, it's really blowing my mind that I've been writing full-time for almost ten years. Now I'm wrapping up the ending to my most popular series and beginning a brand-new series that has to follow Cradle. No pressure.

That makes me very nervous. My tiny heart trembles.

Seriously, it's nerve-wracking to be writing the end to a best-selling series and the beginning of a totally new, untested concept. I'm anxious about both, though for different reasons.

What if you don't enjoy the ending to Cradle? What if the text of the new series accidentally forms an incantation that conjures an elder being whose true form mortal minds cannot perceive?

Lots to worry about.

-Will

P.S. Pokémon Violet is really good, dangit. Everyone's talking about the bugs, but hey, I love Skyrim too.

Meanwhile, I'm having tons of fun running around catching Pokémon in an open world. Sure, I sometimes inexplicably turn invisible while throwing a Pokéball. That's part of the charm.

Are you hoping that my books are not coming out soon? Well, have I got a blog post for you!

First off, the bad news: we won't be releasing any new books in 2022.

I wanted to get another release out before the end of the year, but we're juggling a lot right now. ​I know some bright-eyed optimists among you were hoping for Waybound by Christmas, but Santa's sack of toys holds only coal for you this year.

The reason is pretty simple. We're working on three things right now: our first Kickstarter, the first book in a new series, and the last book in the Cradle series.

The Kickstarter concerns the rest of the team more than it does me, but the other two things are enough. I really want both of these books to work, so I'm spending longer on them than I normally would.

I have an unofficial motto that I've shared before: "I want to write the best six-month book I can." I still believe in that schedule, and I think an average of two books a year is the right pace, but in this case I just needed more time.

It's tricky to both launch a series and conclude another, especially one as big as Cradle. And I don't want to give either of those the short end of the stick, so I'm going to continue working on them instead of trying to rush a release before the end of 2022.

Plus, if I release three books next year, that will still be an average of two books per year!

(I'm not saying I WILL release three books next year. In fact, I have no idea what next year will look like. Telling the future is for Jedi and for the one-eyed old lady up the street who keeps telling me to be careful around ladders.)

Anyway, I'm disappointed I couldn't get you guys another book out before the end of the year. I like releasing books almost as much as I like jumping up and down on ladders.

-Will

Also, there's a hurricane headed straight for my house. It's over me already. I can hear the rain of baby alligators hitting the roof, and the wind has blown at least three umbrella-carrying British nannies past me already.

I'm trying to get this blog out before I inevitably lose electricity and have to power my house by jogging in my giant hamster wheel.

So anyway, I just finished (yesterday) signing the pages for all the Kickstarter books! That took a while, because--believe it or not--there are a lot of you who backed the Kickstarter.

23,600 books signed!

I'd like to say my signature improved significantly with all that practice, but the truth is that some look really nice, while others look like my name is V11. If you got a messed-up-looking signature, treat it as an extra-special wrist-fatigue edition.

Also, I added a thank-you note to the very last page I signed! If you get that one, let us know, because I have absolutely no control over who gets it. Like Willy Wonka's golden ticket.

It's going to be hilarious if I end up getting it in one of the special editions I ordered. I'll have to take myself on a whimsical tour of my own magical writing factory.

Now, it's back to writing! Once this storm passes, anyway. Although I could keep writing even during the hurricane. I'll just do things the old-fashioned way and unpack my parchment and quill.

-V11

It feels like it's been forever.

I'm here for my irregular check-in, folks! After Dreadgod's release, I did a livestream (two livestreams?), spent three weeks writing a bunch of words on another book, and then suspended myself in my Regeneration Tank to recover.

Now I emerge, blinking in the light, to discover a world greatly changed.

Not really, but it is weird for me that Dreadgod was only last month. It's been a long month.

In other news, here's a headline that sounds like I made it up: Brandon Sanderson partners with Subnautica devs for tabletop tactics video game.

A friend of mine sent me that link, and I had a moment trying to remember if I'd come up with it as a joke for a blog post. But no, it's real. A fusion between Brandon Sanderson and Subnautica is the kind of thing I thought I'd have to find all seven Dragon Balls for.

Anyway, I'm back now! As DragonCon looms on the horizon, drawing ever closer. I hear its furious wing-beats on the wind.

I have a lot of books to catch up on in the meantime.

​-Will

Dreadgod (available now!) is the fourth book in a row that has made it to #1 on the whole Kindle Store. Starting with Wintersteel, every Cradle book has hit the top.

That's pretty insane, I won't lie.

Currently, we are still only #2 on Audible. We're behind the audiobook version of a book that has a movie coming out in a week. Curse you, Crawdads!

Thanks so much to everyone who's already read (or is currently reading) the book! Without you, I would still be working in the salt mines, dying of the dreaded Salt Lung.

-Will

P.S. Please don't spoil people in the comments! I've put a curse on the comment section that will throw a pinch of salt into the eyes of anyone who leaves spoilers. Cross the curse at your peril.

Let's hope Weebly doesn't eat my post this time.

As the Holmesian super-detectives among you may have deduced, I have a new book coming out on Tuesday, July 5th! Dreadgod, Book 11 of the Cradle series, is coming soon.

Very soon.

It lurks behind you.

The Cradle series has been going on for six years now, and I've only been a published writer for nine. So for 2/3 of my career up to this point, I've been working on Cradle.

It's pretty surreal. Dreadgod is my twentieth book. Twenty books. Yikes.

That's a lot of books, but it really doesn't feel like that many. In a lot of ways, it feels like I'm just getting started. This is only the beginning of a career that will span centuries, until I'm nothing but a cybernetically sustained brain in a jar suspended in fluid.

Since the book starts rolling out on July 5th wherever you are in the world, that means the earliest time zones will start getting it tomorrow, July 4th. Which here in America is Independence Freedom Bald Eagle Barbecue Day.

By the power of those two facts combined, we're doing our launch stream a little early this year: tonight, at 7 PM on my YouTube channel (not Twitch, because YouTube is easier to use and keeps the video automatically).

I don't plan on playing any games this year. That was really a device to give me something to do and you something to look at while we wait for the book to drop, and since the book won't have come out yet, there's no point in stalling for time.

Oh, and today is also the last day for the free giveaway on the first five ebooks of Cradle! If you haven't grabbed them yet, grab them now. Grab, I say!

I don't have a whole lot of planned topics for tonight. Just talkin'. Probably about the book (no spoilers), my writing process, any questions you have.

A lot of the talk will be about how I feel prior to the launch, I imagine, because it usually is. That's a hard topic, because the answer is always "nervous."

Maybe the twentieth time isn't the charm.

​-Will

I'm going to be completely straight with you here: I had a whole long blog post typed out that I've been struggling with for about an hour, trying to deliver the following information in an organic and personal way.

​Then the site crashed and I lost it all, even the backup draft.

So now you get a list of information. Let it be known that I did not throw my laptop out through the window and into the Florida swamp to be devoured by giant pythons, despite my first instinct.

--Reminder: Dreadgod is coming in one week! July 5th. Pre-orders are still up for  both ebook and audiobook.

--I'll be doing my pre-release livestream two days before launch instead of one, on July 3rd at 7 PM Eastern, and on YouTube instead of Twitch.

We're doing it two days in advance because July 4th is Independence Day here in the US and because Honorary Australians will have already read the book by the evening of July 4th, so we're staying ahead of things.

We're doing YouTube instead of Twitch because it's easier for us.

Here's the YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/willwightauthor

--On that same channel, there's a 15-minute audio preview of Dreadgod read by Travis Baldree. Check it out if you haven't! 

--We're giving away the first five ebooks of Cradle from Friday, July 1st through Sunday, July 3rd for the holiday weekend and the launch of Dreadgod. Get 'em while they're free.

--10% off merch sale from Friday, July 1st through Friday, July 8th in case you have a craving for mugs.

That's the list. At least, I hope it is. It's hard to see around the hole I punched in my monitor.

​-Will​

Dreadgod is up for pre-order, and we're already #4 on Audible's Best-Seller list! Congratulations to the incredible numbers of you who were so Johnny-on-the-spot about audiobook pre-orders. Your enthusiasm overwhelms me.

For the rest of us, pre-orders are up both for ebook and for audiobook! 

The book will go up for sale on July 5th in all formats, which means ALL formats. Ebook, Kindle Unlimited, audiobook, paperback, interactive dreamscape, aerosol inhalant, telepathic transmission, dimensional illusion crystal, genetic infusion, chemical cocktail, quantum space fragment, and designer tea.

What time on July 5th will Dreadgod go live?

TL;DR - We don't know, and there's nothing we can do about it, please don't hit me.

It's supposed to be up at midnight in each time zone, i.e. "It's 12:01 AM and now I have the book!" It rarely, if ever, actually works like that.

There are always issues on Amazon's part, which I can neither control nor influence. Let's all be frustrated at them together.

Whispersync (the service that lets you jump between Kindle and Audible versions) always takes a couple of days to work correctly. Don't know why. I blame gremlins.

Why isn't there a paperback pre-order?

We can't offer paperbacks for pre-order. We would if we could. In order to help ensure that you get the book as quickly as possible, we upload the paperback about a day early, so you should be able to order it on July 3rd or 4th (we'll let you know) for delivery on the 5th.

Again, we don't have precise control over how long it takes them to put it up for sale or how long shipping will take. Can we guarantee you'll get it on the 5th? We cannot, but we're trying our best. If you want to read the story ASAP, don't order paperback.

Also, Dreadgod merch is live now in the Will Wight Store!

We will be doing a launch livestream as usual, but we're doing it on YouTube Live instead of Twitch.

(I'll let you know the date and time later, because we're trying to figure out how to time it appropriately. We have to consider both FREEDOM Day here in the USA and the number of Honorary Australians reading the book a day early.)

Aaaaand there you go! As is traditional for Launch Time, you'll be hearing from me again soon!

Hope you enjoy the book!

​-Will