This very evening--in about an hour, actually--I'll be doing my usual pre-release YouTube livestream for the release of The Last Horizon, Book 2: The Engineer.

Check it out right here, at 6 PM Eastern tonight, December 3rd! That's about an hour from now!

Tonight, I plan to discuss the writing process for this series, The Captain, my plans for The Last Horizon series, your questions, the true meaning of Christmas, and the location of the antidote to the potion that crawls through your veins even now, transforming your every cell.

When The Captain came out a few months ago, I couldn't say too much about my writing process for it because you hadn't read the book. I would have sounded like a raving lunatic. Now that you have read the book (or don't mind spoilers and want to check in to see if this series is for you), I can rave like a lunatic about the story and you might understand me!

While there's some back-and-forth with the comments, so I can't guarantee exactly what we'll cover, I plan to talk about my general development deciding to write The Last Horizon, developing the series, and then writing The Captain and The Engineer.

Especially because, as many of you know, I started writing The Captain before Dreadgod but finished it just before Waybound. That was an interesting experience, and I'd like to share.

If that sounds interesting, pop on in before the potion reaches full strength! You'll need that antidote before the transformation is complete.

​-Will

I was informed by my brother Sam that today is National Author's Day, which I didn't know and may not actually be real. But if it is real, it's a good chance for me to thank some of the authors who have helped and supported me over the last ten years since I started writing!

This list is by no means exhaustive. There are a lot of great authors who have supported me since I began authoring, but these were the ones who came to mind first or who bribed me the most.

Andrew Rowe
The first one was a no-brainer. Andrew has supported me and my books since the Traveler's Gate Trilogy, and in that time has written many books of his own. I'm sure you already know who he is, but he's also the one who coined the term "progression fantasy" after we tried to come up with a subgenre term to describe our books.

Dakota Krout
Another easy one, because Dakota has been supporting me and my writing for years. I first met him at DragonCon while he was working on his first book, and it's amazing to see all the writing he's done since. Not to mention the publishing.

Evan Winter
Here's another guy whose books you've probably already read. Evan wrote The Rage of Dragons and The Fires of Vengeance, and you might not know that he's been a big proponent of Cradle. I've never met him, but he was always one of the first to congratulate me on a new Cradle release, and from everything I've seen of him online, he seems like a swell fellow. The bee's knees. The cat's pajamas.

Bryce O'Connor
Oh no, how embarrassing, I seem to have failed to link Bryce's author page. I think I accidentally linked you to Bryce's latest book, which came out yesterday and is the sequel to Iron Prince, which I publicly read and loved years ago when it released. Well, too late to fix my embarrassing mistake now, better just press on.

Delilah Waan
And now for a twist! I don't know Delilah (and her YouTube bio suggests that's a pen name), but I was made aware of her YouTube channel last year when she participated in my stream about writing and self-publishing. She asked some of the best questions, and then--to my surprise--edited my stream together and posted this awesome video summarizing and providing commentary on what I said.

That's a unique kind of support compared to the others on this list, but I both appreciated the work and respected the result. It's way better to watch that video than to watch my whole stream, so if you're at all interested in my writing and publishing process, check it out!

Thanks to all the authors on this list and the many authors who have supported me but aren't on the list! I didn't forget you, I just only had time for so many.

Maybe next Author's Day. If it's real.

-Will

Happy Halloween, everybody! I don't have a treat for you this year, but I do have a trick: I'll show up at your house tonight asking for candy. I may be disguised as another person. If you don't figure out which visitor is me, I'll steal all your houseplants.

Also, The Engineer is now available for pre-order! And on Audible too! Releases December 5th in all formats!

(We're still not allowed to do pre-orders for paperbacks, but they'll be available on the fifth of December!)

It's almost exactly the same length as The Captain, but I can't promise anything else about its interior. Maybe it's not even a novel at all, maybe it's just my diary behind a super-sweet cover, you don't know.

I didn't exactly plan to release this on Halloween, but I do love Halloween. The aesthetic is just so cool. Maybe one day, I'll release a Halloween-themed fantasy novel. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking it could be about a skeletal king of Halloween traveling to the North Pole to try to take over Santa's duties.

Truly, inspiration is a mystery. Just like what I'm going to do with all your houseplants.

-Will

Within the first day of the current Kickstarter campaign, you exceeded the amount pledged to the first Kickstarter. At least, officially.

There were a lot of people who backed after the campaign was over, or added extras on later, or who shipped us chests full of doubloons after the original Kickstarter closed. The point is, the actual amount we raised in the last Kickstarter was higher than the official total on the page.

And now we've passed that too. In about three days.

We're now one of the highest-funded literary Kickstarters of all time. I think the only fantasy authors ahead of us are Sherrilyn Kenyon and Brandon Sanderson. Never thought I'd say anything like that.

Right now I'm on a boat, writing The Last Horizon and seeking forbidden treasure, but I thought I'd swing by land long enough to say another thank you! The support you've shown me for Cradle has vastly exceeded my wildest hopes, to the point that it blows my mind all the time.

You're great. All of you, whether you backed the Kickstarter or not.

Thanks for reading!

-Will

The second Kickstarter for Cradle special editions is available now!

As I'm sure you expected, this one covers special faux-leather editions for Skysworn through Underlord. We posted it about five minutes ago, and it's hard for me to tell you how many people have donated so far because the site is updating so fast.

You all are incredible. Thanks, as always!

Now, onward I go to frantically refresh the page! 

-Will

EDIT: We funded at $100k in eight minutes. That's so fast.