Welcome to the Kotar-verse!
(Someone in my Patreon community coined this term; it feels a bit silly, but I like it, and it’s sticking.)
2024: Slow Productivity for Less Output, Higher Quality
At the beginning of this calendar year, many of you were very gracious in accepting from me a pledge to do less in 2024, both on Patreon and in my author business. I made this pledge under the influence of Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity.
Newport speaks at the intersection of technology and culture and has a good handle on how we who work in the knowledge industry (storytellers, writers, historians, teachers, and anyone who uses a laptop for their living) do work that is not compatible with the productivity metrics used most widely in post-industrial America. Very often our own expectations for ourselves–and others’ expectations for us–involve a factory, assembly-line mindset, where the more widgets you crank out, the more it means you’re working.
The strange thing, as Cal Newport has demonstrated quite convincingly, is that using this approach for a creative endeavor, especially one that is paid, can actually have the opposite effect of stifling creativity to such a degree that nothing comes out. Human creativity is a strange, subtle, and mystical thing; and it does not work if you push it too hard.
In light of this and the fact that I work from home with my four homeschooled children, I asked you all to be generous with me as I explored Cal Newport’s ideas of:
- Less output
- Focus on quality
- Embrace seasonality
- (Find out more about slow productivity here)
You graciously allowed me to take the year to think through what is necessary for my creative business. Thanks to this extended reflection, I’m beginning to have a clearer vision for the next phase in my author and publisher business.
A New Phase in My Author/Publisher Business
Slow productivity remains a key component of how I will create in the future. In addition, I am exploring what it means, as a creative, to cultivate a deep life. To me, this means living in a such a way that I am constantly engaging with:
- The natural world around me;
- The spiritual world of my faith; and
- The people I encounter, both virtually and in person, whether through speaking engagements, conducting, or teaching opportunities like St. Basil Writers’ Workshop.
These things are fodder for creativity, and so often they are the very things I try to rush through because they aren’t as immediately rewarding as sitting in front of a computer and clicking on things and waiting for analytics to come back in the form of sales, clicks, or other vanity metrics.
Because of the way the internet is structured and how it fractures our attention, this means that I no longer have the focus I had when I began my author career in 2014. The deep reflection of 2024 has given me great clarity on what exactly my focus should be going forward.
My Patreon Mission
My mission for my Patreon community comes from a quotation I read in a recent publication called Pilgrims in the Machine by Peco Gaskovski, a friend of our Patreon community. He asks:
“What story is lifegiving? What story puts me in a right relationship with other human beings and the natural world? What story matters so much that I am willing to risk everything for it? What story am I willing to sacrifice my life for?”
So much of my exploration of fantasy and sci-fi media, both in written and visual form, has been about finding that kernel of beauty, truth, goodness that is the consolation of fantasy. I read widely, but in all I do, I search for an escape (in the Tolkienian sense) that leads to consolation and ultimately the transformation of the inner person.
My Patreon community is the place where I share this journey with you so that you may find a few gems as I go deep into both the classics and modern sci-fi and fantasy. I hope that through this journey, you can get a sense of why storytelling is so key for us as we navigate a world that is getting weirder and more difficult as deep fakes seem to make truth relative (looking at you, NotebookLM!).
How do we navigate this world? By going deeper into those stories that are the most beautiful, true, and good.
This means there will be a new focus inside my Patreon. It means cutting off certain endeavors so that I’m focused on the most important things in the spirit of slow productivity. It means quality becomes the focus over quantity.
What Do You Value Most?
I recently sent a survey to my existing Patreon supporters to discover what you value most. The answer is livestreams and 1:1 interactions through Zoom and hopefully–in the future–in person.
In particular, the most popular content I’ve done over the past few years was a series of conversations with Richard Rohlin about the Rings of Power. We had so much fun eviscerating it! However, it’s perhaps not surprising that this was the last thing I published in Fantasy for Our Time–I stopped at a point where I was not talking about joy and consolation, but finding a bitter kind of enjoyment in ridiculing bad content!
As it turns out, Fantasy for Our Time has continued to gain momentum in Spotify without my having published anything new! This is thanks to Spotify’s internal recommendation systems connecting me with Amon Sul, The Symbolic World, and the Lord of Spirits podcasts.
So I’m bringing back Fantasy for Our Time! You can expect livestreams based on my reading of fantasy and sci fi, but I will also continue to read widely and connect things from different worldviews and disciplines. These livestreams will be exclusive to my Patreon community, where you can engage with me and others in the chat. Later, these will be edited and posted publicly, but the live element is for Patreon members only.
I’m very excited about this!
Other Patreon Offerings
I will also continue these Craftsman’s Workshops livestreams, in which I open the curtain and show you what it means to be a multi-passionate creative making money off of his work.
Author interviews will also continue in the periphery.
How will all of this be unified?
At the beginning of each month, I will suggest a theme for the community that I will share inside our Discord chat (if you’re not already on it, reach out to me!). This monthly theme will include a list of things I’m planning to listen to, read, and watch, and you’re more than welcome to join me in this journey. At the end of each month I’ll host a Zoom (for certain tiers), where we will talk about the theme in a way that allows you all to connect with one another. I’ll chime into these Discord chats, but I’m hoping you all will treat the chat as your home and take the opportunity to talk about the things you love.
What’s Going on with My Patreon Tiers?
Recently, my Patreon tiers went up in price. Is this a cash grab by a greedy author? No, indeed!
I had some coaching calls with author-publishers who are far ahead of me in their careers and have a lot of experience setting up communities for readers and writers. They looked at my Patreon and said, “What you are offering is great. But you are insane for offering the amount of things you’re offering at these price points.” I was surprised by this until I realized I had set my pricing in 2018, pre-COVID, which was a very different time for online subscriptions. Since then, the value of my offerings has changed across the market.
You see, Patreon used to be a place where people pledged money to support artists. But now it is trying to become a do-it-yourself, full-service subscription platform to allow artists to make enough money to support themselves full time. That is not patronage. That is offering a service.
The Most Exciting Thing in My Author Career, Now on Patreon
My Patreon used to offer a mish-mash of several scattered endeavors.
Now, I have clarified my mission:
Patreon is my platform for honing a very specific kind of creative work focused on my fantasy and sci-fi storytelling.
This includes my Craftsman’s Workshop livestreams, as well as a relaunch of my Fantasy for Our Time podcast, but the really great and exciting addition is…
*drum-roll, please*
Recently, I applied for and was accepted into a short-form fiction mentorship with Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who is a long-time mentor of mine. She and her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, were the go-to ghostwriters for all novelisations of popular media fiction, like Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. in the 90’s. Their own work, though less-well known than the George R.R. Martins of the world, is considered to be top-of-the-line in the industry.
Kris is a world fantasy award winner and is considered to be one of the top fantasy and sci-fi editors in the business. In fact, she edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for a long time. She’s offering a six-month mentorship for a small group of writers who are going to write two short stories a month. I have not kept up on writing short fiction for my Patreon community, but now, through this mentorship, this is going to change!
I am going to offer my patrons access to those short stories after my mentor vets them. No one else will see these stories until they are sold and bought in magazines. If you want to see my engagement with one of the best sci-fi and fantasy editors out there and how that inspires my creativity, come join us on Patreon!
This is the most exciting thing that has happened in my writer career in a very, very long time. I cannot wait to get started!
This starts next month!
What You Can Expect from My Patreon
Here’s the official breakdown of my tiers:
- $5 Tier
- Live streams
- Discord community
- Occasional gifts
- $10 Tier
- Monthly live Zoom chats with me
- Live streams
- Discord community
- Occasional gifts
- $20 Tier
- Short fiction through my mentorship with Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- Monthly live Zoom chats with me
- Live streams
- Discord community
- Occasional gifts
- $30 Tier
- Signed paperback or hardcover book of every new book I publish
- Short fiction through my mentorship with Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- Monthly live Zoom chats with me
- Live streams
- Discord community
- Occasional gifts
Important! All author-related activity in my Patreon community will be taken down because we’re moving to the much more robust Story Hearth author community. Authors, I highly encourage you to check this out! Several talented people have already found their home here, and we’re about to kickstart a very special accountability group with daily live writing sessions throughout the month of November.
Upcoming Projects
Physical Merch
With time, I hope to be able to offer merch that is ancillary to my books (things like hand-crafted mugs and the throw blanket for The Son of the Deathless).
Raven Son Special Editions Designed by Ewan Craig
I am about to finalize the hardcover versions of my Raven Son series, editions which will include short fiction I have shared within my Patreon community, as well as never-before-published material. These covers will be designed by Ewan Craig, who created the hardcovers for my In a Certain Land Kickstarter. Here’s a sneak peek:
In a Certain Land Podcast Is Back!
I am partnering with an impressive podcast producer/distributor to bring this podcast back! I will announce the name as soon as the agreement is official.
New Substack
It’s time for me to get back into the world of Russian fairy tales and folklore, something that’s very close to my heart but that I haven’t had time for. My personal Substack will include both new and old blogs, audio, and translations. This will go live in early 2025.
This Substack will also host my reader newsletter, tentatively called Firebirds in Cow Country.
New Fiction
Finally, I want to recommit to writing. It is the heart of what I do, and it has been sadly lacking in the past three years. This is not something that is just a concept in my mind; actually, I have been writing regularly for the last five months. You all just haven’t seen this because it’s a script/novelisation of a brand new video game that will come out in a few years but is currently under an NDA.
Let me tell you, it is the most beautiful thing in the world to get back into writing and know it’s flowing. It brings me so much joy, and I daresay it will be very instrumental in helping me produce new fiction through the mentorship with Kris Rusch.
We also have Cantos of Arcadia due to be published in early 2025, and I’ve promised my eldest son that I will go back into The Son of the Deathless world and write a new, late Vasilia fantasy series more geared toward young adults but written in the style of the old masters like Lloyd Alexander.
Finally, on a personal note, my writing in 2025 is dedicated to my father, who just turned seventy-seven and who has been massively influential in my author career.
I cannot wait to share my new fiction with you all, and I hope you join me on Patreon as we search for those stories that are worth sacrificing everything for, perhaps even dying for. It is such an honor for me to be able to create for you all on the journey to find the beautiful, the true, and the good.