Big Update

Thank you for joining me on this journey

Hey everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well and thriving. It’s been a minute since my last update and I want to fill you in on all the things.

As you know I’ve been commissioned to write a fantasy adventure novel set in an upcoming Dungeons & Dragons campaign: The Black Ballad. The publisher’s progress on the game is ramping up and the product looks amazing. I’m proud to have be on the roster of authors they’ve selected to write books set in this new world.

I wrote the first draft and recently had a review session where the game makers and I worked out details on how best to move forward with the next draft. Plans are in place and new deadlines established. I have a hard deadline of March 15 for the first 10k words (or first 3 chapters), and May 6 for the finished 80k word novel.

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Next up is MECHCRAFT: THE TRAGEDY OF SASHA. I’m incredibly excited for this 4th novel in the Mechcraft saga. While not a sequel and not quite a prequel, this stand-alone tale will be a thrilling account of everyone’s favorite villain. A “how a monster is built” cautionary tale. I’ve had to delay the launch of this until after my Black Ballad commitment is fulfilled, so look for this title in June.

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So it turns out I enjoy teaching and speaking. I never would have imagined this plot twist years ago. But after I first published Mechcraft back in 2018, I created a workshop designed to help new authors navigate the process of writing, publishing, and marketing their work. It was a lot of fun and gave me a sense of paying it forward.

Well, I’m at it again. I’m updating and expanding this workshop to become a full online course that will be a series of on-demand videos writers can access anytime. This course will cover two major mediums: novel writing (fiction and non-fiction) and screenwriting. I’ll do a deep dive into the writing process, the publishing arena for novels and spreading the word for screenplays, and the marketing/networking aspects of a writing career. I want this to be as thorough as possible and deliver what customers truly want. So I will be asking questions along the way about what you would want to learn in such a workshop. Stay tuned!

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Full disclosure for those who don’t know: while I have achieved a certain level of success in my writing endeavors, I still have my day job career. My goal is to retire as soon as possible so I can spend much more time writing and creating. I have a retirement plan in place, but if I merely follow along the path as-is, I won’t be able to take advantage of any of it for another 6 or 7 years. I don’t want to wait that long. There’s so much I want to do in writing!

So I’m investigating side hustles and passive income opportunities to help boost my paychecks, but not cut into writing time. For the past few weeks I’ve been on a deep dive on YouTube educating myself on ways to earn money via social media. I’ve watched multiple videos on everything from Affiliate Marketing to Brand Collaboration to YouTube Channel Building to Pinterest Marketing to App Creation. You name it, I’ve watched it. We truly live in amazing times! There is so much technology out there to help with starting and running a business. This really is the Golden Age for entrepreneurship.

You may see me experimenting and trying out various methods, seeing what works and what is a good fit for my brand and tastes. Some of it may fall flat, some of it may soar. I’ll keep you in the loop on how these things play out.

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The scifi movie I co-wrote with Gina Nemo, THE SIMIAN TRIALS, is still in post. She estimates we need another $15k to fully complete the project. Hopefully we can raise this in 2024 and release this film. I’m very proud of the work I did on this, and it holds a special place n my heart as I was invited on set as script supervisor for the filming.

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And lastly, the MECHCRAFT TTRPG should be underway by end of summer. This will be from the same publisher as The Black Ballad. So when the dust settles from that project, we’ll begin discussing the details of my upcoming game. I’m incredibly excited for this as it has been a lifelong dream to create my own role-playing game. I’ll keep you updated as things progress.

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For now, keep following your dreams and never give up! Whatever journey you’re on, never quit. Those who persevere are the ones who achieve their goals.

Thank you for subscribing. I am truly grateful for your support.

Brian
www.brianfitzpatrickwriter.co

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