I've officially started work on The Commander!

Of course, "started" is a bit of a fuzzy concept. I'd done some initial work on The Commander last year, along with The Pilot, but now I'm full-on writing the book.

What did I write in between? I'll share more details on that when I'm allowed to. Currently, your security access isn't high enough.

If my new, secret manuscript were in Resident Evil 9, it would be hidden behind two doors, one of which is opened by a horse-shaped crystal and the other by a crystal-shaped horse. Top security, that's what I'm saying.

But for now, it's back to the open ocean for me, where I will return to The Last Horizon while on the deck of a ship. A regular water ship, not a spaceship, unfortunately. I've only written while on a spaceship once.

​In preparation for The Commander, I re-read the existing four books, which was pretty fun. It's always hard to read your own stuff, but I don't get to read enough about wizards flying spaceships. So it's a welcome break from what I normally read: arcane tomes written in languages that only exist in dreams.

If I were a Resident Evil 9 character, I would end this by saying something like "I sure am glad to not be getting eaten by zombies right n--"

-Will

P.S. You get no points for guessing what game I'm playing.

This month has been one of the most eventful months in the history of Hidden Gnome! But I’m not allowed to talk about any of that, so I’m going to talk about Terraria.

Instead of letting you know about how we [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] for [REDACTED] number of penguins, I’ll instead tell you what I’ve been enjoying this week: the new Terraria update.

​Terraria is one of my all-time favorite games, so whenever they release a new content patch, I do another playthrough with my friends.

This time, I’m running summoner, because they added a bunch of whips to the game. And whips, as we all know, are the summoner’s secret weapon.

Currently I’m roller-blading around the world, dressed as a butler for [REDACTED] reasons, with six summoned spiders crawling around to defend me. My whip is made of fire and makes enemies explode when my minions attack, and I have a pet treasure chest mimic with teeth that I can keep items in.

Truly this is the world we’ve always dreamed of.

-Will

P. S. When you hear our big news in the next few months, you can think back to this moment and know what I was talking about.

P. P. S. Also I’ve continued stitching Elder Empire together! That’s been fun.

P. P. P. S. Back to work on The Commander soon…very soon…assuming my jury duty next week doesn’t get out of hand.

P. P. P. P. S. Oh no, the jury duty is for a series of dragon rider murders. I might have to stick this one out.

Boy, it's been a full year!

We started off with Threshold, continued with The Pilot, and ended with the Unsouled + Soulsmith animatic. We also went to more conventions than we normally do, adding MegaCon, Dragonsteel Nexus, and the animatic premiere onto our normal DragonCon event.

On top of that, there were a lot of things we worked on this year that I can't talk about publicly yet, but I'm continuing work on my new book, the fusion of Elder Empire, and I'll be resuming work on The Commander in just a few weeks.

All that might not sound like a lot to you, but it's been one of my busier years ever. I've spent a lot of time away from home this year, and it feels like the intensity just keeps ramping up.

Which is awesome! It's so cool to look back over the year and think of all the fans I got to meet. Honestly, the animatic premiere was a big highlight for me. And it gave me great pleasure to spy on all your reactions to the animatic online.

Safe to say that, anytime you watched it, I was in the corner watching you watching it. And some of you noticed me, so you were watching me watching you watching the animatic. Watchception.

I published my first book in June 2013, so 2025 was my 12th year of being an author!

Thanks for twelve years, and I hope you enjoy what we've got for you in 2026!

-Will

After Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday (but before Cyber Monday), we come to the most famous of all this week's American holidays: Sepia Saturday. Where we watch old movies and tell each other stories about our pasts.

As The Body Snatcher (1945) plays in the background, I will tell you of my recent past. We're only going back to this month.

First, we had the Cradle Animatic Premiere in California! It was amazing, thanks to you fans; I can't believe how many of you showed up and how you lined up without any instructions. It was super exciting to see you all reacting to the animatic in real time!

While you were watching the screen, I was watching you. And Sam was watching me. But who was watching Sam? Rebecca.

After that, we released the animatic to our Kickstarter backers, and your response to that has been incredible. It's so much fun when I get to read about your reactions to specific scenes, or voices, or bloopers. Brings a black-and-white tear to my black-and-white eye.

But meanwhile, unbeknownst to most of you, I was not in America! I was actually in another country entirely!

I flew from the Animatic Premiere in Los Angeles, California, United States to Tokyo, Japan. Where I went on a vacation with my friends.

I don't normally do vacation trips with my friends, and certainly not all the way on the other side of the world. But I'll tell you what, that was one of the best vacations I've ever had. Especially because I judge how good a trip is based on how good the food was. And the food was great.

We went to a lot of great, highly rated Japanese restaurants while we were over there, and most of them were amazing. Even the worst one was still good. But you know what I ate the most of?

Convenience store chicken cutlet. Famichiki, Nanachiki, doesn't matter; they're piping-hot fried, seasoned bird thighs for about a buck fifty. Every time I passed a convenience store, which was about every hundred feet, I'd pop in for a Famichiki.

Maybe we were on our way to dinner, or coming straight from lunch. Doesn't matter. It was a pact with myself. If I passed a Family Mart, I had to buy a Famichiki.

We did many other things in Japan--we visited a bunch of temples and saw a five-story Buddha statue and waded through a wet museum and were chased around by some very aggressive bowing deer--but the thing my friends made fun of me for most was my obsession with convenience store fried chicken. It haunts my dreams.

So those are my stories from my recent past. How does your family celebrate Sepia Saturday? Have you watched the animatic yet?

Tell me about it, but do it in sepia tones.

-Will

It's Halloween 2025, and you know what that means! That's right, it's almost time for the CRADLE ANIMATIC PREMIERE!

Tomorrow we get to premiere the Cradle Animatic, the two-hour black-and-white sketched version of a Cradle movie! It covers Unsouled and Soulsmith, with an original score and a STACKED voice cast...all thanks to the backers on our Kickstarter almost two years ago!

I watched through the movie at the final audio mixing just a couple of days ago, and it's crazy to see this product after so long working to make it happen. Truly humbling. Not to mention a bizarre, out-of-body experience for me to see characters and moments I made up years ago coming to life thanks to the work of so many talented Hollywood professionals.

And the part I've been looking forward to the most is the Premiere tomorrow, where the highest-level backers (who could make it out to LA) are going to join us for the first-ever showing!

I'm starting to itch because I haven't made a joke in three paragraphs, but I'm genuinely just grateful and flabbergasted to be here. Let's hope this leads to a fully animated project soon!

As for the vast majority of you who can't make it to the event out in LA, don't worry! The animatic will be sent to you in its entirety as soon as we can get it re-edited for digital distribution, as opposed to the theatrical form it's in now. That should be by the end of November. Or so I'm told.

Video editing is like magic to me, so I'm just trusting the word of the wizards who understand such arcane systems.

Thanks for your support, everybody! You've been awesome, and I can't wait to see what else is on the way!

-Will