-Insert Hero's Come Back from Naruto Shippuden-
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy everyone, Alexander here, man oh man has it been AGES since I last did one of these blog update post thingies. I mean technically not if you count my lengthy posts on X (RIP Twitter), Blue Sky, Facebook, Discord... yeah anyways.
I won't do the random banter I did in the old version (Frost Storm Blogz) but I will keep it real with you since I don't need to worry about character(s) count.
So I have a fair few things to talk about that will sort of cover the bulk of 2024 up to this point and what I hope for the future. I'll see if I can break it down into sections and address everything 'proper' for everyone.
What's Been Going On? Summary of Things
So for those of you who don't know, there has been a lot going on.
I've been in the midst of a 'REFRESH' of my brand. It's been a whole process that I will get into down below. And with that I will go over what I've got planned, what I have been executing or have already executed, and what more I might do.
I have of course launched the Ravenlight Series, finally, after a lengthy gap between now and the Novel 1 release. Of course yes, it has been halted the last couple weeks due to personal reasons; which I will get into down below as well. I will also mention future plans for that.
I have attempted to launch Soul Fall, which again, I will get into down below. This one is just a mess and I owe an explanation.
And I have been planning to revamp a few other things & restart some stuff, which mostly goes with the Refresh. Feel free to hop around to what interests you, I will try and summarize things with 1 paragraph below each title-piece before going into further details.
The Refresh
The Refresh of my 'Brand' is basically me tightening the ship and throwing all of the junk overboard. This includes a change of platforms, a refresh of platforms that stayed. You might call it Spring Cleaning.
Without going into too much detail, it all began in April more or less. After certain 'incidents' that tied back to my older content, I decided that it was time to move forward and change myself around. Potentially a new identity/pen-name, a renouncing of the past, so forth. Cuz lets be real, I have not been that consistent in the years leading up to 2023, arguably even into 2024.
My Twitter is what really did it, going back through to find something and seeing ALL of the eras that thing had lived through. The followers I picked up along the way, the posts- to give you an idea 2011-2013 was a bunch of irl stuff mixed with online stuff, 2014-2016 was a lot of online stuff with some irl stuff, 2017-2018 was the lengthy death of my old identity and the Pre-Ravenlight series, 2019-2020 was me trying to figure things out and produce Ravenlight, then 2020-2023 was just a mess with various irl circumstances plaguing me... and the entire time there was a mix of politics (some outdated stuff), irl banter, excessive ads for the old project, stuff that honestly was gonna doxx my ass.
At first, I wanted to preserve the followers I picked up along the way and my foothold, so I cleaned out a lot of the old stuff but... day by day I realized that I had more or less stunted my growth with how I operated before. I became too involved with things, made a few too many enemies, and honestly my stuff was half-ass disconnected. I didn't have the footing I thought I did, and I wanted to be more professional before my 2 new projects I was so proud of launched.
So I made the decision- dump my old Twitter entirely and make a new one. And with that mentality, I dumped a few other accounts and sought to make myself more professional in appearance. Unifying my content & socials, getting rid of the little nickname Frosted and instead locking down something related to my pen name, which I had also considered changing but obviously didn't.
And thus I was Alexander Stormsong, @AStormsong, of Frost Storm Productions- across all platforms.
And from that things continued to spiral. I started cleaning up what I posted everywhere and set guidelines, I cleaned up my posting grounds in general (Discord which I got a new server for myself, Penana as I will discuss shortly). I even opted to stop focusing on the dumpster fire that was Twitter (now X in my book) and instead try building a community on Blue Sky and Discord.
Still experimenting with some stuff as I am keeping my new X Account but, between having 80+ bots following me and it being harder than ever to gain traction, I might let that die- I mostly have it to keep tabs on people not on Blue + news.
Part of the Refresh is also consistency. Example all the dead stuff on Penana (this blog thing or my graveyard projects). I need to stop letting stuff wilt away and die because I don't feel like it. Similar breath to not getting into flame wars or politics on X I suppose. Atop that, I also want to 'socialize' more, get involved with the writing community, share my stuff and share the stuff of others. Even looking to get back into streaming, something I have struggled with (blame the guy I live with being special).
This Refresh has gone good and it is continuing to go well; but it hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows. July for example has been a month of loss irl, a few times. It has been tough af pushing forward. As some will note, Soul Fall also got shelved because of production issues, which I will address more in the appropriate section. My online presence is still shaky and I need to work on solidifying it more, otherwise I risk repeating my past mistakes.
I am confident though in my approach.
I will focus on socializing more, posting more about my content in depth vs spamming ads, staying out of trouble overall, and atop all else- I will focus on being more consistent.
My goals are:
1- Interact with the community more, build my own and focus it.
2- Keep my content going. Get Soul Fall flowing finally, start streaming.
3- Share what I'm working on and details rather than basic promoting.
4- Figure out what and where I am posting.
5- Try and update the World Anvils for these projects more.
And the list goes on but I'll save that for below.
Ravenlight
Ravenlight the Series has launched!!
359Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMD0OLcmCCR
Past
Ravenlight has more or less been in development since 2010-2011, or actually 2009 if you want to get technical. To briefly cover that...
2008-2010- I joined PS Home with some friends and we began to more or less LARP & DND on the platform, and it was here that I developed the early drafts for...
2011-2018- The original concept and series that later evolved into Ravenlight. This was easily lower quality, I was just writing novels that weren't too long, and I followed the Western form of writing with a focus on plot rather than the characterization (which I now hate). It was around 2016 I finished writing that series, and in 2018 while 'attempting to publish it again' (yes I had it published back in 2012 or something, till some trolls wrecked that and I pulled out), I realized that it was garbage... I realized I had grown a lot in the 7 or so years I had been writing the predecessor, I realized that I hated Western Writing... SO IT WAS TIME TO REBOOT IT!!!
2018-2020- Writing Novel 1, Embers of the Past. It was a process, changing up the old lore and establishing new plans, figuring out the direction. As my goal was still to go pro with pitching it to agents, I still kept to Western style but... by the end of the line I realized that no, I am NOT sacrificing my work by living to the standards of a bloody establishment that was more or less a pain in the arse. I wanted to make it my way, I wanted to tell people MY story (or really the story of my characters). So, that's when things changed.
2020-2023 was A LOT of pre-planning and figuring out what I wanted to do, a lot of experimentation.
PRESENT DAY
Obviously I have found my direction. Posting weekly chapters, chapters with artwork by artists, a whole ass wiki (or World Anvil), FILLER even. It took years to get ready to launch this bad boy but we are finally here. I have been working with tremendous artists and set the jump for June 4th.
The launch of the series has been a success for the most part, people across the various platforms do appear to be enjoying it, numbers are up. No comments or likes or anything just yet (well, a few but very very few). And as time goes on I am anticipating continued growth like this.
Obviously the losses of July have sorta put a halt to everything because, I didn't want to keep posting content if it was going to get inconsistent. My stockpile is nowhere near far enough out with chapter art or my chapters in general. Plus this Summer has had its share of events for my art staff so... it felt like the better decision to put a hold on everything for a couple of weeks to bounce back.
Tbh, I hate that I had to do that. 4 Years to get a sequel to Novel 1 out and we have to pump the breaks like I did on projects that are dead, not good (still better than the Soul Fall delays).
FUTURE
Things WILL get back to normal. While navigating the losses of the month, I have been working to find time to write. I haven't commissioned anything for the chapters I have written just yet but I do intend to. Tbh this whole chapter art thing has been a shot in the dark, one that I am still trying to figure out- but hey, anything to make Ravenlight stand out right?
Ravenlight WILL rebound here before long. I intend to post more about the characters and plots (new series on Penana that introduces the characters). I intend to work on the World Anvil 'wiki' more and introduce more information. I intend to keep the chapters and art flowing. I intend to start promoting by streaming and saying "Oh hey if you like my commentary and this and that or want to support me, go check this out" or what not.
And I might also be looking into making OSTs again or commissioning someone to build some tracks for the series. Chapters will resume soon, potentially as early as this coming Tuesday. The art, I can't speak for just yet because I don't have control of that.
Really there isn't much more to say other than Ravenlight will continue to rise. I have no intentions of letting something more or less over a decade in development simply die out. I will continue until my last breath to breathe light into this story!!
Link to all things Ravenlight: https://linktr.ee/ravenlightseries
Soul Fall
Project Home Bound, or rather Soul Fall... oh man.
So for those not familiar, this is a continuation of that 2008 DnD RP thing I mentioned up above from PS Home. That project ran from 2008 all the way to 2018 more or less with some failed start ups after the fact.
The first era of 2008-2015 was the golden stuff, with hundreds of members, no rules, all contributing to this great big community of story and fun and support. 2015-2018 was the shaky post-home era that still was strong but definitely not gold.
What began Project Home Bound was my desire to continue the story and the characters that I had spent over a decade building... but part of me knew that the charm of the old ways that I wanted to share couldn't JUST be my writing, I needed others. But gotta be real, I'm the only 'author' of the old days so... writing a group novel or series, would be beyond difficult to pull off.
So then it's like... multi-author on a Discord Server, which mirrors the old days. Everyone does their own writing style, people can join, people can watch, and we can share clips of content or new scenes on our socials or platforms.
Brilliant!!
Problem though, the problem which has delayed this thing for months... actually sitting down with others and getting it started lol.
It has proven so difficult to actually get this show going, granted there are only a handful of us and we aren't really syncing up. PLUS I have had to contend with a bunch of stuff and haven't had time to properly focus on Soul Fall's issues... BUT that will be changing.
Come August or September, I can assure you that this project is going to breathe with life. I just need a little more time to get it actually going and... that's really all there is to it tbh. Sitting down and pushing it forward, maybe finding a few more writing hands for this sort of thing.
I will hopefully have more to share in time.
Other Fun Things
Ravenlight and Soul Fall aren't the only things in the works, nor just their sub-projects. No, I intend to do more!!
As I mentioned somewhere up top, I intend to get back into streaming once I can figure out a schedule for that (living with an old schmuck is a pain). I've been working on my Vtuber Model, I've been working on my settings and my PC... I think I might try streaming to Youtube before long.
I had intentions of doing so just this week but... both days I intended to do that were a pain in the ass, as is today. Thanks old schmuck!!
Streams might include game play, working on some OSTs for the 2 main projects, writing on stream... who knows really. Also yeah just... posting to my Youtube more if I can help it, would be nice~
I am also setting up my new Discord Server so... thas fun. As I said in the Refresh though there are many things going on, and for updates on those I guess you can stick around my link tree below or keep an eye on my Blue Sky or Facebook or X (while I still have the latter/try figuring out what I am doing with it).
My Socials: https://linktr.ee/Astormsong
FROST GUY IS ALSO MAKING A COMEBACK!!
It's been slow (July and all) but he has his own account on X and even Blue Sky. Follow him to read a bunch of crazy chaotic things that I don't really say anymore because that's his job.
@FrostguySays
Also,
Join the Origami Kingdom (Discord Server): https://discord.gg/Syw5xNAB9k
Outro
That should about wrap up this lengthy post. Again, I don't feel like posting these crazy long updates to X in threads or a wall on Facebook or even exclusive posting to my Discord. It'll help me be more active on Penana, and it'll be something I can share for and draw people to my Penana.
As time goes on I will continue to evolve my content and my presence, it's very much a learning period right now.
And with all of that... thanks for reading. Looking forward to sharing more in the future!!
Have an awesome day~
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