First off, it’s not what the title may suggest. I’m fine, my family is fine, and I’m not even close to giving up on anything.

No, the unfortunate news is that printing costs are increasing once again. Honestly, I’ve been sort of expecting this, given broader economic trends since…well, about 1913, but that’s beside the point. The issue is that I’m anticipating rising printing costs.

Before I continue, I want to explain the situation as it exists. The compensation which I receive as a writer, on a per-book-sold basis, varies somewhat based on the retailer and format. Note, especially, the variance based on the retailer. This is where the trouble comes in, well, at least somewhat. Keep in mind that The Aos Si’s Gift has a significant page count. None of the printings are less than about 550 pages, so my printing costs are pretty significant. And, as much as I would like to sell my work for what some might call a more “reasonable” price, I have certain costly hobbies which I engage in such as continuing to write, keeping my home at a sufficient temperature to avoid freezing to death, and eating a modest enough calorie intake to avoid starvation or malnutrition. Consequently, I’ve set my prices such that I receive a consistent compensation between formats when sold through a retailer.

There is one exception to the above, however, and that is the source of the unfortunate news.

One thing to notice when checking out The Aos Si’s Gift on retailers such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble is that there are two paperback editions available: a trade paperback (8.25″ x 5.5″) priced at $24.99, and a mass-market paperback (4.25″ x 7″) priced at $19.99. If you’ve done anything with self-publishing, you’ll understand the problem here. The mass-market paperback’s printing costs are actually not that much lower, if at all, than the trade paperback’s printing costs, largely due to the higher page count demanded by the smaller height/width of the mass-market format.

In the interest of some disclosure her, my per-copy compensation for the mass-market paperback currently sits at a little under $0.50. Beginning February 1st, the increase in printing cost will pull that down to less than $0.20. Frankly, this has already been unsustainably low compared to my compensation for other formats (trade paperback and hard cover).

The mass-market paperback, specifically, has put me in a position where I can do one of two things:

• I can raise the price, specifically for the mass-market paperback; or,
• I can eliminate the mass-market paperback entirely.

I don’t really want to get rid of the mass-market paperback size as a purchase option. However, to keep my compensation relatively consistent, I will be needing to raise the price of the mass-market paperback.

As such, effective 30 January 2026, the price for the mass-market paperback edition of The Aos Si’s Gift will increase from $19.99 to $21.99. This will bring compensation more in line with other formats, and sets a price point which, I hope, will remain steady for a few more years before I need to change it again.

Well, that’s it. That’s the unfortunate news. Printing is getting more expensive, so I have to increase my prices. Hopefully, this will be the only time for a long time that I will need to do this, but it’s here.

With that out of the way, it’s on to other news. I’ve finally been able to make some progress around a lot of other things I’ve needed to do. The following is a quick summary of what’s been going on…

1. Long Live the Queen (working title) is still going. While reviewing the opening chapters, I noted some dialog that would point to an alternative story pathway which would impact the first 5-10 chapters of the book. So, I decided to take a break from the main second-draft pathway and explore that option. It…didn’t really work out but could maybe be made to work out in one way or another. Either way, I put together about 10k words there before tabling it. I’ve resumed the main-line second draft, which is currently sitting at about 160k words. It’s looking like Long Live the Queen may be slightly shorter, both in page and word counts, than The Aos Si’s Gift, but not by much. We’ll see.
2. I’ve finally had the time to actually sit down and take my time drawing, so I’ve been able to complete 2 of the 3 planned illustrations for The Princess in the Cell. The third is about half complete. (Then, I’ll have to scan it in and see how much cleanup is needed, but such is life.) I’m hoping to have that process done by the end of the week because the story itself is completed to my satisfaction and ready to be (re)posted. Because I am still working on cleaning up the website, that story will go first to my substack page, Screaming Into the Void.
3. I’ve decided to go back and do some similar pencil-sketch illustrations for The Pale Man, so that’s the next on the list while I finish the written portions. The writing for Chapter 6 is completed, so I hypothetically only have a couple chapters left. Hopefully, this will be tapped out in 8 chapters and, perhaps, an epilogue. In the meantime, I have two illustrations for The Pale Man, and quite a bit of catching up to do. Having the illustrations will also give me some thumbnails to play with so that I have something to use in sharing the links, etc.

That’s kind of the quick summary of what I’ve got going on related to writing, this website, etc. So, that’s it. That’s the update.