So, I wanted to post something, but I didn't want to burn through my backlog to quickly. Therefore, I figure I'll do a journal. My goal in this is to mark this point in my journey having a regular income through commissions and also share some plans I have.

First and foremost, I am moving! There was a month delay due to shipping complications. Then, my landlord-to-be caught Covid, and the water main burst during his recovery. Thus, my move was delayed further. To my surprise though, the delay was only about half-way through February, so I move this weekend. My excitement is only tempered by the actual process of moving. Having to completely disassemble a set-up I've maintained for well over a year is tiresome thing while I am also working my normal schedule. Thankfully, I have reduced hours in anticipation of this move, so it works out.

While this occurs, I find myself tired of working on The Greater North, my "flagship setting" as I like to pretentiously call it. It started with a desire to write a story of my world's first dragon rider, but the more and more I develop the setting, the further I find myself from actually writing. A recent change of plans has rectified this. While I realized only tonight that I packed my stationary and other tools for drawing my map, I have the aim of drawing a second map which focuses on a much smaller region. This will help target place names, relevant history, and flesh-out my contrived-language for the area. I'll build a cast after that, and the rough draft follows. I look toward being at that stage within a month.

Beyond focusing my original story behind the setting, I've enjoyed working with other online users for some immersive RPs. Related to the story I'm writing, both role-plays revolve around dragons interacting with humans. It would be premature to label them dragon riders, but these stories are the forbearers to dragon riders. One involves a prototype of the story I mentioned above. An exiled prince enters the deep wilderness of untamed forests, and this leads to the experience of bonding with a dragon after some otherwise hostile and tense exchanges. It has helped provide some of the meat for the story ahead, and I'm excited to use the experienced gained. The other is helping to flush out the magic system as it involves two scholars, one a human and the other a dragon, delving into the secrets of the arcane together.

After I've made the progress above and burn through my back-log, I look forward to introducing some new projects. These latter ones will focus on undeveloped settings and give me something to post. They are two separate stories titled The Dance of Amber Stars and Balancing the Scales respectively. The former is a tale of intrigue and revenge, and the latter is more of a massive RP project. For Balancing the Scales, I plan to make a blanket invitation for anyone with a scaly, anthro fursona. The criterion is merely for the character to be lore-friendly, whether they are that way intrinsically or adapted for such, I'd leave that up to the owner of the particular fursona.

From my digital pen,
~M. Quilldragon~